Miles Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I just purchased the Energy Suspension rear control arm bushing kit. The ID for the metal sleeves for the outer control arm bushings is way too big allowing consideral lateral slop between the sleeve and the spindle pin. I called Energy Suspension and the technician I talked to said that they know that there is an engineering problem with the metal sleeves and that they are taking steps to correct it. If you run into this problem just call Energy Suspension and they will send you new metal sleeves. Cheers Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Thank you. I thought I was the only one with sleeves that were too large (.010" to be exact). Which is why I chose to leave the OEM rubber in. Got a number or name real quick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78zlt1 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I also noticed that many of the metal sleeves were sloppy , I was just going to cut out the original sleeves and use them or machine new ones, But I 'll call Energy Suspensions , for $160 kit you expect the stuff to fit. Thanks for the heads up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 The original OEM sleeves are too large an OD to fit into the polyurethane bushings (I've already tried that). The polyurethane bushing is .750" ID, but the OEM sleeve is .785" OD, and the polyurethane bushing did not want to stretch at all (not even .035"). Forcing it made the polyurethane bushing's OD too large to fit into the arms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78zlt1 Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Hey thats still good news sorta... Can chuck em in the lathe and cut em down to .750" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 Es sent me two sets of sleeves, but they still wiggle around on the spindle pin. Seems like they should just slide onto the spindle pin and not have any slop or lateral movement for a proper fit. I found a machine shop that can make a set of sleeves. Do the sleeves need to be heat treated? Thanks Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 I had to sand my pins down a bit to fit the sleeve over them as they were a bit pitted when they came out. I got my ES bushings about a year ago from http://www.suspensions.com, FWIW. But I also don't know that this is a particularly big problem. When you lock then nut down on the end of the spindle pin it captures that sleeve, then the bushing rotates over the sleeve. Once it's all in there and tightened down, the sleeve shouldn't move anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 The clearence betwen the sleeves ES sent me and the spindle pin ranges from 0.005 in. to 0.001 in. for the sleeves ES sent me. This is not a problem then? Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 I don't think it is a problem at all with .005 slack in there. If it were .030 or .060 then maybe, because you'd be changing the toe setting pretty significantly then. But that sleeve gets locked in place. Assemble the pin withouth putting on the control arm or the bushings and you'll see what I mean. The pin goes through the strut, the lock pin in the middle holds the spindle pin fore/aft. Then the sleeves slide on the ends, washers, and the nuts. When you tighten the nuts down it clamps the sleeves in place. It would take LOTS of pressure to move the sleeve once the nut is tightened down, so yeah, I think it's simply a non-issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted March 6, 2006 Author Share Posted March 6, 2006 Ok. I'll install the bushings in about two weeks and let you know how it goes. Thanks Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 I purchased another set of rear bushings last month (after I asked the seller for the inside dimension of the outer sleeves to verify they were correct) and to my delight, the sleeves are a tight fit over the pins. Now I can finish installing these bushings. On a side note, ES never returned my email about the slop in the first set though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted March 7, 2006 Author Share Posted March 7, 2006 Terry What was the ID of the metal sleeves? I measured a new spidle pin at 0.627 in. Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 I've not measured it, but my pins are indeed .627, and the seller said the sleeves were .630, but the sleeve is a TIGHT fit onto the pins, which is exactly what I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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