Shredding eye-bolt bushes

[PhilipW1039]

I fitted new rubber bushes, from ESM, only 1000 miles ago and the eye bolt ones are already destroyed. Planning to fit poly bushes instead but just wondering - am I missing something? Could I have done something wrong when fitting them? I did have to hit the rear wishbone quite hard to get it back into place and to get enough of the bolt thread through at the front, so that I could fit the front wishbone and nut back on. Just wondering if I'm missing something....

[philipkearney]

I'm sure others will have an opinion on this but I'd suggest the quality of rubber bushes these days is very poor. I've heard other people also say that they have a relatively short lifespan. Poly bushes will have a far greater lifespan.

[kevin s]

Yep the ones on ours were cracked and split after sitting in the garage for 3 years and zero miles, the rubber just doesen't seem up to much in pattern parts.

It's not just classics the bush on the pattern A arm of my daughters ka lasted 8000 miles before it completely failed, at least you can still get oem ones for that though.

[philthehill]

Fit poly bushes and forget especially if you fit grease nipples to the eye bolt.
Make sure that the eye of the eye bolt is not worn out of round.
In my experience the rubber bushes are not worth the effort of fitting them.
You should not have to hit the thick suspension arm so hard as to get the pin sufficiently through the thin arm to fit the washer and nut. Once the eye bolt pin is through the bushes of the eye bolt then fit the front thin suspension arm.
Check the fit of the cup washer on the rear of the eye pin in the recess at the front of the thick suspension arm. The cup should be a hard hand press fit in the recess but not excessively tight.
Make sure that the thick arm is free on the splines of the torsion bar. Push the thick arm back on the spines but do not disengage the thick arm from the splines. Clean the splines and smear with the likes of copper grease then slide the thick arm forward.

Eye bolt poly bush.JPG (101.41 KiB) Viewed 673 times

[PhilipW1039]

Awesome, thanks gents. My arms do not slide easily on the splines so I'll grease those up more next time. I've now done it once both sides so it shouldn't be too tricky. And yes, I made the mistake of knocking the arm off of the splines, found I'd set the height wrong only when reassembled and back on the ground, then had to take it all apart again! Didn't make that mistake the second time, funnily enough

Everything might just need a good wire brush and clean, so I'll bear all of your advice in mind, thank you.