Trailing arms

[80Sprint]

When you fit new bushes to the arm, poly in this instance, how much movement should there be at the body mount end. Axle out of the car and when I connect the arm it rocks a lot side to side with the bolt tightened. Or is this right ?

[Carledo]

Quite normal! It will all tighten up once everything is together, but you need a certain amount of flex, even at the so-called "fixed points" to allow for changing angles between the body and axle, or we'd be snapping trailing arms on a weekly basis. Most of us performance oriented types are already leery of using poly at both ends of the trailing arms for just this reason!

Steve

[TrustNo1]

wot he sed........ don't poly both ends, even us non performance types shouldn't be doing that, most poly bushes are too stiff which means its the trailing arms that will flex not the bush.

[Carledo]

A secondary reason I can vouch for is that poly has NO noise suppression value! If you value your sanity, keep at least one bush in every link rubber! I poly'd both ends of my rear upper arms with red Superflex, the hardest one, in a (mostly sucessful) attempt to reduce axle tramp when using my brake line lock. But the price is that the light whine I had in the diff is now the tortured howl of a wounded wolf and the squeaking (guess who didn't use the special grease?) reminds me of Jerry finally caught by Tom! One day it will get me so mad i'll actually DO something about it! I actually now run mostly with a back seat fitted, not for the benefit of possible passengers as none can get in there, but because it helps reduce the noise levels! I must be getting old!

Steve

[80Sprint]

Thanks Guys.

I had already fitted poly to both ends so it will stay like that for a while. It has had poly everywhere for years so I don't think I should see much difference but we will see. I actually think the old ones that came off were the cheaper poly orange type and were harder than the proflex I have fitted.

[Galileo]

I thought that Superflex standard was the same shore as the rubber, is this not true then? (Before I fit the ones I have!)

[Toledo Man]

Raf, I believe that SuperFlex is not much harder than rubber so you get the best of everything. They're worth every penny and I think Chris Witor still offers discounts to TDC members on the SuperFlex bushes. The orange ones are made by Polybush which would be my 2nd choice. I had them on my Dolomite 1300 and I had no issues with them in normal road use.

[sprint95m]

I thought that Superflex standard was the same shore as the rubber, is this not true then? (Before I fit the ones I have!)

Yes,
although Superflex do offer alternatives for some applications, but this is always stated.


The Superflex discount from Chris Witor is built in to his online ordering.




Ian.

[Galileo]

This is all very good to hear, thank you, because in a moment of madness and temporary wealth I had ordered the full front and rear car kit from Chris, and have gradually been whittling my way through fitting them!

[cleverusername]

Do bushes on the rear wear that much? When I switched to a Sprint axle, I did change the old bushes but to be honest I couldn't see anything wrong with them and as far as I know they were the originals.

[Carledo]

Do bushes on the rear wear that much? When I switched to a Sprint axle, I did change the old bushes but to be honest I couldn't see anything wrong with them and as far as I know they were the originals.

When I built the Carledo, ALL the rear bushes were the original rubber ones. even after I swapped in the Sprint axle they remained in place, but because of the massive axle tramp my abuse on the drag strip was incurring, I changed out the upper tiebar bushes for Superflex red at both ends and the lower rear trailing arm bushes with the near standard shore Superflex blue. The front trailing arm bushes however are STILL the 1973 rubber originals and are still performing well. I have to say that all the bushes I took out still LOOKED adequate but the upper tie bar bushes at both axle and body ends were decidedly soft, the trailing arm bushes seemed near perfect. They just don't make rubber like they used to!

Steve

[James R]

Picking up on a old thread again.....

I am in the midst of changing the rear shocks etc, and have also removed the trailing arm (doing one side at a time... O/S) to facilitate the shock/spring removal. The trailing arm is fine bush wise, as it has had new standard bushes at both ends, but I have a question on the upper tie bars... The one where another thread highlights bolt removal issues...

I just wanted to ask about said upper tie bars.. how easy is it to tell if the existing rubbers need changing? There appears to be no play when a bar is used to apply pressure, but is that good enough to reasonably conclude that there is life left in them and that they don't need replacing? The front facing rubber that I can see has some cracking around the edge but nothing more it seems.

And if they do need replacing is standard rubber better than poly on these arms? Car is a standard road use car.

Views appreciated...

Thanks!