Aftermarket Rubber Bushing LCA's
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Last I looked at the GW LCA's w/ Rubber bushings, the bushings themselves appeared to be something in the manner of off-the-shelve bushings, similar if not exactly like the 1LE/Moog bushings.
Nevertheless, they're some overbuilt and significantly heavy LCA's (something I believe is extremely overbuilt and in general, unecessary).
Nevertheless, they're some overbuilt and significantly heavy LCA's (something I believe is extremely overbuilt and in general, unecessary).
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With his concerns to "real-world" performance, he saw no benefit from having them on vs. the stock arms w/ 1LE/Moog solid bushings. As hard as it's to believe, those ugly and simple solid rubber bushings are really hard to beat.
Even though the J&M poly-ball ends are certainly better than the standard poly ones, they still suffer from stiction, even when there is plenty of grease present. The Johnny Joints are a little better since the inner ball is actually metallic, but the outer cups are still poly, so there's still significant stiction present.
It's really a YMMV deal.
Last edited by Foxxtron; 06-04-2009 at 05:33 PM.
#11
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It would be nice if somebody would come up with a rubber bushing that would replace the poly ones in aftermarket LCA's, a lot of us already have aftermarket LCA's and it would very cost effective. Actually it's probably available somewhere but I haven't seen it.
That's exactly what is happening to mine. They were great at first but they wear out and I'd rather go with a more permanent solution instead of swapping out bushings every 10K miles. Another thing that bothers me about them is the position of the grease zerk, it's right up against the center "ball" bushing making the zerk almost useless.
LOL I've already spent my car allowance this month and my wife would kill me. I will definitely be giving you guys a call in about a month. What design are the LCA's? boxed or tubular?
The J&M bushings are a neat idea, however my long time friend tried the J&M arm on my old Camaro that I sold to him. Whilst their bushings are definitely much better than standard "solid" poly bushings, they require greasing like solid poly bushings. With the weather conditions combined with his driving style, he actually wore out the "soft outer poly cups" quite quickly even though he kept them lubricated quite often with a proper non-pertroleum based synthetic grease. Also, when the outer cups did get worn from excessive creeping, the was an excessive amount of noise that began to arise. Nevertheless, he did get them replaced and they're like "new" again.
LOL I've already spent my car allowance this month and my wife would kill me. I will definitely be giving you guys a call in about a month. What design are the LCA's? boxed or tubular?
Last edited by 4150; 06-04-2009 at 09:56 PM.
#13
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Are your rubber bushed LCAs double adjustable? A couple of years ago, I fabbed up a set of tubular LCAs that would accept the stock rubber bushings, because I had the time, and access to a Bridgeport and lathe at work. That's the good news....
The bad news is that after owning the car for 14 years, it recently went on a "new style" Hunter HawkEye alignment rack, and I found the rear end to be a bit skewed to the right. I've been told it's within "acceptable" limits, but now that I know it's off, it kind of bothers me.
I'd like to have the ability to adjust the thrust angle that the "double adjustable" LCA provides, however the roads here are too rough for a rod/rod LCA, and I don't care for the binding action of the poly/poly LCA. A double adjustable with rubber bushings would be ideal. (even after I spent the $$ to fab a slick set of LCAs)
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The J&M bushings are a neat idea, however my long time friend tried the J&M arm on my old Camaro that I sold to him. Whilst their bushings are definitely much better than standard "solid" poly bushings, they require greasing like solid poly bushings. With the weather conditions combined with his driving style, he actually wore out the "soft outer poly cups" quite quickly even though he kept them lubricated quite often with a proper non-pertroleum based synthetic grease. Also, when the outer cups did get worn from excessive creeping, the was an excessive amount of noise that began to arise. Nevertheless, he did get them replaced and they're like "new" again.
With his concerns to "real-world" performance, he saw no benefit from having them on vs. the stock arms w/ 1LE/Moog solid bushings. As hard as it's to believe, those ugly and simple solid rubber bushings are really hard to beat.
Even though the J&M poly-ball ends are certainly better than the standard poly ones, they still suffer from stiction, even when there is plenty of grease present. The Johnny Joints are a little better since the inner ball is actually metallic, but the outer cups are still poly, so there's still significant stiction present.
It's really a YMMV deal.
With his concerns to "real-world" performance, he saw no benefit from having them on vs. the stock arms w/ 1LE/Moog solid bushings. As hard as it's to believe, those ugly and simple solid rubber bushings are really hard to beat.
Even though the J&M poly-ball ends are certainly better than the standard poly ones, they still suffer from stiction, even when there is plenty of grease present. The Johnny Joints are a little better since the inner ball is actually metallic, but the outer cups are still poly, so there's still significant stiction present.
It's really a YMMV deal.