Alright, I seached and found out almosteverything i need to know about these poly control arm bushings. I have a set of poly 4th gen bushings. I want to know what the easiest way to cut the pair of half circle shaped ones is. And also how snugly should they fit once cut? I don't want to cut off too much or too little. .... Greeny I know you used the cut 4th gen bushings...... Thanks guys

This thread has good diagrams for the poly bush arm replacing. What is a good way to cut the poly bushings? A knife?

http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...ntrol-arm.html

 

Best way i found was to sit the oem rear bushing on top of the 4th gen bushing, clamp them together using a c-clamp, then use it's(the oem bushing) form as a template to cut the 4th gen bushing to size..I used a hacksaw with a nice new sharp blade to cut mine..

 

awesome thanks, then i'm guessing the round bushings are the PITA to remove, i was planning on using a dirll to remove the old bushings instead of torching

 

I used the same method to remove most of the rubber out from the bushing, then used a small socket/ larger socket on the other side/ put it in a vise, then pushed the metal bushing out of the center..Then you need to cut through the metal outer sleeve, then push or hammer it out..then you are ready for the poly bushing to go in, be very generous with the lube when putting the bushings together..

 

you know there's a thing called a press.
works great.

personally if i went w/ poly bushings on the control arms i would drill and screw in some grease fittings on them.

 

There's also a thing called money, not everyone can run out and buy a $100 press just to put some poly bushings on a car..It's not needed anyway, the whole procedure of drilling/pushing the old bushings out and cutting the sleeve doesn't take 15 minutes per control arm..for me anyway..

hmmm.. not a bad idea.. i might do that on mine..

 

Hey.. my pictures are still up!

 

Kudos! unlike mrgone, you used a nice dedicated server for your pictures throughout the years here..

 

yeah ok i guess you're right....BUT...
i've done bearing, other bushings, etc with it so it actually saved me time and $.

i know on the 68 camaro i used delrin control arm bushings and got the grease fittings in there. they shouldn't make noise since it's delrin..but the grease will cut down on friction.

 

delrin is a plastic though...

 

correct...it's closer to teflon (solid) than a rubber.

 

I think the torching method of removing the old bushings worked pretty well for me.

On the cutting topic, I cut the angle in the side but didn't trim the curve much. I just clamped them down with the bolts when I installed the FSB. Do you think I will have problems from having the bushings squeezed too much?

 

It's a VERY tight fit with that, but you'll be okay with the rear bushings like that.. That's the way I did it 5 years ago, and they're th eonly bushings on the car still in 1 piece.


FYI... what's the interest in a set of Delrin bushings? I might drop a set of the OE bushings off at the machine shop and get some Delrin ones made...

 

Cutting the 4 then control arm bushing to the 3-gen size.. Measure and then use a table saw. Very easy.

To get the oems out. FIRE FIRE! then a carful cut with a hack saw to loosen the race up. Easy

 

how long-lasting would they be? and how much are you thinking the cost for a front bushing set would be?

Also, if you do the front stuff, any chance you might be able to do the rear parallel link and radius rod ones for us too, since most of us don't have blehmco rear links/arms.... And would the delrin work for swaybar bushings too (hell if you're asking about interest, minus whale see just what else we can prod you into considering )?

 

a combo of the hack saw, and drilling folowed by FIRE to remove left over gunk worked well. i didn't bother bevelling both corners of the U shaped bushing since it only needed to be done on one side.... either way i'm realy surprised at how much of a difference such a small part can make. definitely recommended for a cheap/easy/quick upgrade.

 

I was thinking the same thing.
the issue IMO is that delrin transmits almost all the vibration versus poly which absorbs some of it.

 

Look for a thread by someone named Michael if you have an extra $70. There are some that he and I both ordered awhile back, but they're kind of pricey (rear, control arm bushings, obviously).

 

I've got poly front and heim join rear, and have no problems with vibrations. some extra noise, yes. vibrations, no. So I just turn up the stereo.

 

delrin is much harder than poly, that is why it will transmit the vibrations too.

 

Delrin is HARD, but it does well in a high vibration environment. one thing to look into to increase the life is to see if lub channels can be drilled in. i had a set of nylon bushing made for a dirt track car with lub channels drilled in, it helped A LOT!

 

is delrin harder than the metal in the heim joints too?

 

learn a bit more about heim joints

 

(i didn't actually know the answer to the question even tho the smiley made it look like I did)

 

I'm in that situation right now, my max squeaks like a Ford Exploter with bad balljoints and it sounds like its gonna fall apart but I havent had time to grease up the actual LCA bushings.

Would a grease fitting actually work in a scenario like this one? I'm just wondering because of how tightly packed the bushing is into the LCA

 

meh, not too well. you need a way for the grease to get around the bushing