Poly-Urathane VS' Rubber

[Esteban]

If the lower control bushes are the single-piece pressed-in type (ie xA2x celica) then they aren't really diy-re-greasable on the rubber to LCA surface, without a hydraulic-press.

In my experience this is where the majority of the noise comes from too

[roadsailing]

i met a guy who read a book (shaky connection established)

the guy in the book said you should only use poly bushes if tou can't afford shperical bearings,

i think i will just replace mine with new rubber ones, or spherical bearings

[o_man_ra23]

esteban,
The front press in bushes still have removable pins(my nolathanes do anyway). The outer of the bush is bonded to the inner of the metal sleeve that presses in, so this needs no re-greasing as it does not move. So for the control arm bushes, the pin and the sides of the bushes are where they need greasing/servicing. If the pin does not come out, then it is bonded too, and just the sides where they rub the mounts need grease.

Cheers, Owen

[Callifo]

I had toyota price me up for the Sprinter and it was approx $300 for most of the front and about 1/2 of the rear end. Poly bushes for the entire car (every single replacable one) work out to about the same.

[Smokey228]

for all the front and rear on my 23, cost me 233$ and i didnt even shop round or nuffin. jus grabbed some Noltec Softride... the only bushes that wernt included was the rear sway bar, only cause they dont have a specific one for the 23. u gotta have them matched up wif some universal bushes they have... but they are still only 20-30$...

reason i was quick to grab em but was cause my car was making the most irratating squeak noise and i couldnt take it no more.. didnt end up fixing it, but rulled bushes out of the equation ahaha

[JetspeedCamry]

Sentiments shared... I had an '84 GL Scorpion as my last ride, and it used to creak and groan like a bitch all the time. I didn't know what caused it, but the only thing I hadn't replaced was the bushes in the suspension. Swapped out the standard rubber for a polyurethane kit and it was bye-bye creaks and groans.

Yes, these cars are very tail-happy in the gravel, and even moreso in the wet. I do miss my old Scorpion, it was a fun car. Go the Weber's...
It was lowered on Jumboz Springs by about 45mm and that also attributed to a very tough ride.

Regarding the polyurethane on the RAV, I've got it mounted in the rear swaybar (4 points) and I don't hear a thing from it. I tried getting the stock 25mm front swaybar rubber bushes replaced for poly's, but I don't know anyone that makes them.. it's either 24mm or 27mm.

^ Use a 24mm for the 25mm sway bar and stretch it over. Works perfectly. I had the same problem with mine, they (being Macaky Bushes) didn't make 25's, so thats what i did.

[takai]

I had toyota price me up for the Sprinter and it was approx $300 for most of the front and about 1/2 of the rear end. Poly bushes for the entire car (every single replacable one) work out to about the same.

Its actually a bit cheaper for the polys. Cost me $85 per pack of 4 trailing arm bushes (i.e. 2 packs needed), and then $50 for the castor rod and lower control arm bushes.

When you say most of the front i take it you mean the swaybar bushes as well. I didnt have to include these in the cost due to the upgraded swaybars anyway.

With the debate about rubber vs poly, there doesnt really seem to be any give either way. But the maintainance schedule for poly isnt that bad in the long run, takes about 3hrs to do, and you can easily do it with a beer in the other hand (not that im advocating working on the car while drunk). Some of the racing guys i know regularly do it in the xmas holidays.
Either that or plan to do upgrades to suspension/diff parts every year. That way youll have to pull them out anyway.

[o_man_ra23]

Takai... do you actually mean that there are people out there who work on their own car without a beer in hand?? wow Smokey, AFAIK the RA23 never came out in aus with rear swaybar. I think what you probably have is an aftermarket replacement, or somebody's home conversion. Either way, should be a great improvement over standard.

Cheers, Owen

[Big rob]

man you celica and sprinter guys are lucky. I was looking on noltec for bushes for my soarer, but the only sell MA.. stuff switch AFAIK is the same shit. Anyway its like $290 for the front end lower wishbones and $90 for the upper. I'm guess they also are the same bushes for the rear, so that comes to a grand total of $760. All that for some plastic lol.

[cri_ag]

i posted this on the old forums but ill post it again on these ones.
when i brought some poly-urathane bushes i was told by the sales guy that one of the reasons some poly bushes fail quickly is that people grease, install and tighten while all components are at full droop (wheels in the air on jack stands). so when the car is lowered to the ground some bushes end up under stress when they should be in their natural position.
consequently when the car travels over a few bigger bumps etc. the bushes are stressed even further and fail prematurely.
to remedy this the dude sugested installing everything in the air but doing the final tighten up on the ground. that make scence to anyone?

[Callifo]

Yup, thats exactly what the manual says too.

[tricky]

Hmmmm... I'd like to see someone try to do up bushes on my 23 while it's on the ground... Sounds like a justification for digging a big hole and calling it a service pit . I wonderwhat the owner of my house would think?

[roadsailing]

thats why you use a 4 post hoist, or lower your car on to wheel stands from a 2 post hoist,

or drive up wheel ramps, which is just endless fun in itself, especially when your front bar hits the ramps before your tyres do.

[o_man_ra23]

definitely a pain in the arse way to do it on a lowered vehicle. Wheel ramps should work fine on the rear of an RA23. Lowering the car onto wheel ramps from higher up wont work unfortunately as the suspension settles differently when lowered down as to when it is rolled forward and back. Driving or pushing onto wheel ramps will be fine as far as suspension settling is concerned.

Cheers, Owen

[Garth AE86]

be wary of cheap rose joints
they can destroy themselves in less than 3 months of simple road driving

get the teflon coated jobbies (cusco uses them in all their parts)
they will last for years without requiring replacement