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After running a couple of track days and classic car tours with our 1967 Shelby GT350, we detected some clunking and decided that we’d better get the car up on a lift. Surprise, after just a …
A good thing about rubber bushes - they are a press fit into the A arm socket and once in there the motion of the A arm as the suspension goes up and down is absorbed by the flex in the rubber bush (best bushes are often metelatsic with rubber bonded to a metal inner).
A bad thing about the various plastic bushes you can use is that they all turn inside the A arm big end that encompasses them as well as on the pivot that holds the A arm in the car. Inevitable result is wear and plastic bush ovality.
So yes, plastic will make the car feel like new - but only for awhile, because they actually wear faster than a captive rubber or metelastic composite bush.
wspohn
I have been using Polyurethane bushings on project cars for over 30 years and have not had wear and harshness issues. The key is to choose a name brand and not some inferior off brand products. I just took this Shelby on our 800 mile Orange Blossom Tour and it drove great.
I had an Alfa Milano 3.0 that ran poly bushings for over 30K of its 170K miles. The car rusted danged-near in half, while the only rotten bushings were the rubber engine and transmission mounts.
But...
The roll bar and upper control arm bushings did squeak pretty badly with their rotation. I was bad about greasing (OK, and other maintenance too, apparently), but still...they do tend to squeak.
Tim:
Hopefully you chose the stealthy black ones.
Got a question re; the poly bushings. We have a 2003 Mustang, V6. When purchased about 4 years ago in Arizona, It ran well but handled like a drift car! Not a secure feeling. I took it to a local Ford dealer who said that among other things (of course) it need rear control arm busings. They suggetsed poly after markets which when done, helped immensly. After returing to NJ with the car (flat towed behind our motor home) I had the front struts done. BTW, the rear shocks were also done in AZ.
I find that even adjusting my tire pressures at the settings reccommended by my SCCA racing but to 32 rear and 28 front it did handle better, but not great. Loose in turns and squirelly.
The question...should the front sway bar bushes be replaced with poly as well as the struts busings?
And would adding a rear GT sway bar help?
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