Have you checked your polyuro swaybar bushings lately?

You may have seen this thread on Sy/Ty.net, I thought I'd share it here for fellow PTS10 members . . .


I decided to make this thread, after I underestimated the bad qualities of worn polyurethane suspension bushings. In reality, I realize, even driving my car like 3/7 days of the week, after 6 years I badly need new sway bushings.

My car had a tendency to not want to 'settle' with going straight, and I now realize this was due to massive ovaling on my 5 or 6 year old bushings (about 15-20k miles on them, and 3 or 4 auto-xs). I was trying to chase down why it didn't want to track straight for years, and never realized these were the problem. Polyuro feels so much better than rubber, and I had never been able to find a replacement for the top bushing in the rear swaybar endlink frame mount, until a few days ago when a S10forum buddy mentioned a kit. So that bushings had 75K on it, but everything else was polyurethane and had been used as mentioned(10-15kmi).

pics:


the reds are the replacements obviously.

Anyways in short, anyways who's having a hard time keeping their  S10 chassis going straight, and is experiencing side-side wobble effects on bumps, should take a peek at their sway bushings and conside ra  kit.

I got a Prothane Motion Control Kit(It's for the rear of a 4WD, energy suspension does not make the bushings that replaces the one at the top of the rear endlinks)
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PTP-7-1139/
I beleive I have a 28mm sway, as the at-axle bushings didn't completely wrap around (had about a 1/2" gap, it's a 23"mm kit), compared to the previous bushings that fit it completely, howev:tup:er they still worked quite well and squeezed into place once bolted down.

You do need some sort of press in order to get the old stock rubber bushings out, and after I got the bushing out, I had to soak the endlinks in gas in order to help get the rest of the old rubber out, it may take a bit of scraping to get everything out and make sure the new bushing sit right. I've heard of people using torches to heat the rubber in order to get it out easier.

I had to expand my swaybar endlink brackets at the frame, it was easy, I just used a bolt and 2 nuts and pressed it out a little. After I did that just a bit, the endlinks fit in snugly and everything feels really tight and in proper alignment in the rear. The polyuro endlinks stick our just a hair farther than the stock rubber ones, so it's pretty damn diffcult to get them in without expanding it, and I think it will bind even if you do manage the get them in. One the pass side I got it into place but decided to expand it more because it was binding.


Also, an added bonus to those who bought coilovers- you can use the endlinks from the torsion bar's crossmember, as replacements for the stock rear sway bar endlinks.
For me this is was good because my old rear sway endlinks were slightly bent-probably from hitting something rigid on the ground.

Once I get a front replacement bushing kit in, it should be handling great again, like back in 2007 when an TT 300WHP FD Rx-7 had a hard time keeping up with me in the twisties:tup: It accelerates, brakes, turns, and takes bumps far better than it used to.



Does Anyone know how effect the unused rear inner swaybar mounts on the axle are? I noticed or our rear axles, there is another swaybar bracket (at least on my model), inside of the one a the stock placement, where the u-bolt/bracket setup might be able to mount, but I don't know if the geometry would work, and I can't think if that would be more or less beneficial to handling

I think that my old ones may have been made of 'thermoplastic', like these end links  . . .
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MOG-K6600/

That's what I get for buying cheap polyuro knockoff from a parts store brand

where the hell did you find thermo plastic from? I literally have never seen that in suspensions.

On Summit, look up replacement endlinks for blazers by moog.
I think it's basically the cheap version of polyurethane, I have no idea why anyone would use it if they knew how quickly it wears out.

Poly sucks. End of story. My Energy Suspension shit did the same thing in less then 10,000 miles. UCA, LCA and sway bar bushings.

Poly has cold flow properties which means it will change shape weather hot or cold. Poly bushings are right there with TB spacers and the "Tornado".....

It may be some time, but once my machine shop is back up and running, I'll be able to cut just about anything out of delrin you guys might want. It's all by hand, I have no CNC machinery at all, but I like it that way. I'm going to try and at least get the mill/drillpress set up as soon as get into a house, the lathe and end mill may have to wait a while past that, but hopefully I'll be able to get started again around the first of the year. Things like this would be a GREAT way to get warmed back up before doing anything too diffucult. I'll throw a new thread up on here about it when the time comes around, just seemed like a good place to give everyone a heads up, if you can wait 3-4 months from now, I'll have small batches of parts like this and control arm bushings starting to pop up.

If you can mill want to shorten my CV stubs?

If you can mill want to shorten my CV stubs?

sounds like a turning process would be easier.
what's it look like? i can do things too, but im pretty pressed on time so depends on how easy it is.
if it's a complicated part i can probably do it but time..... is tight

Can you cut them there, and make them still balanced?

reduced unsprung weight ftw

Do you have a picture of the iside of that area? Like with the boot off and the shaft out. If it's relatively hollow, turning it on a lathe would be much easier and more likely to keep it balanced, if it's really beefy(1/4" or thicker) then cutting it by hand further out and using the end-mill to shave it down to that point would be ideal. I'd be a little worried about marring those splines in just about any chuck I have to be honest.

I'm sure it's better than whatever I did the end of the stubs to get my corvette center caps on haha

It's a pretty beefy piece of metal,  cutting it off with a mean cutting tool and then milling/a lathe would probably be the easiest.

The thing is, right now they have bearings on the inside that don't always sit straight.

You could probably wrap the splines in some plastic or something fairly soft but sturdy.

Actually how close can I cut it, does anyone know? I am not sure if the step to the left of the redline is necessary, or if it's just the part for the bearing, and the 2nd step down, the surface next to the spline, is the only part necessary to hold the wheel bearings in.

im not too familiar with the 4x4 stuff, but can we clamp on that small surface before the boot?
hopefully that's long enough to get a decent grip on.

and what's the diameter of that? sorry, not getting a good sense of size.

assuming that's the size i think, once we figure out how to grip it it'll be a quick cutoff pass and then face it real quick and itll be very easy.
I can probably do that over thanksgiving break

It's about 3" across, 8" long, and weights probably 10lbs.

I essentially just need one of these:


I would be really stoked if someone would be able to do this for me. I would definitely send $$$ and maybe one of my cold air intake scoop setups.

Dave,

Have you check the bolt pattern for the 2WD Blazer hubs?  Perhaps you can get away with those instead of using modded half-shafts.

Later, Doug

I have always wondered but havent had the spare money to bother, I want to swap a 2WD spindle one day, but I don't know what will fit with out balljoint setups.

Well, I'm still working on exactly where it will put you with ride height and track width, but I can tell you that with a stock or RPM 4wd lower you can use a qa1 tall lower ball joint with the four bolt mount and the 2wd ball joint stud to mount a 2wd drop spindle and use a SPC race upper arm #92056 with a stock 2wd upper ball joint.

As of right now, I can tell you that with the lower arm at roughly .25" of droop at ride height your engine/differential crossmember should sit at just less than 7" from the ground with a 2" drop spindle and a stock lower ball joint. A tall lower ball joint will drop you down another .5" and if you level the control arm you should be able to get another .25". That's all just based on what I've been able to derive from the gm upfitter blueprints.

As for track width, my best guess right now says that track width will increase at the hub 1.27" per side over a stock 2wd chassis and right about an inch from stock 4wd, but I don't know that I completely believe that measurement for the moment.

If I could get better X,Y,Z measurements for the stock mounts as well as the exact real life demensions on a 2wd spindle and 4wd lower control arm, I can't say for sure.

On the bright side, with the SPC uppers, QA1 lower ball joints, PP stock size upper bj's, and DJM drop spindles, the whole set-up should run right about $600.

I have yet to actually try any of this on an acctual vehicle, but the numbers are there.