Guest tony78_280z Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 This rather reputable source of Z Knowledge urged me not to put Polyurethane bushings into my Z. His reasoning is that the harder bushings tend to add more stress and quicken the destruction of old 25+ year old metal parts. He says that I should stick with replacement rubber. Does this sound logical to you? And where would one find a complete rubber (non Polyurethane) bushing set? Or would I need to buy it all in seperate packages. Try paging through VB and making a part list of all rubber bushings. Arrgh! It is far more convenient to get it all in one kit! When I think about it for my goal of a realy fun street car: suspension is nice, but I don't think I need more than stock. My bushings are mostly shot, and so are my shocks. I think the upgrade from cracked and busted (or completely decayed ) bushings to bran new rubber would be a vast improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2126 Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 If you want a performance, as in cornering and braking, go urethane. If you can live with the softre rubber, get OEM rubber. Either takes about the same amount of time to install. Its all personnal preference anyway.....isn't it? I prefer the urethane bushings because they provide you with better responce in the steering, better straight line control under braking hard, and not likely to ever wear out! One of the only locations on early Zs that has been an issue for some, is the TC rod attachment to the chassis. I currently have over five years of driving on my urethane bushings and have had no issues anywhere.....but hey, I'm just one guy with an opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 If you want a performance, as in cornering and braking, go urethane. If you can live with the softre rubber, get OEM rubber. Either takes about the same amount of time to install. Its all personnal preference anyway.....isn't it? I prefer the urethane bushings because they provide you with better responce in the steering, better straight line control under braking hard, and not likely to ever wear out! One of the only locations on early Zs that has been an issue for some, is the TC rod attachment to the chassis. I currently have over five years of driving on my urethane bushings and have had no issues anywhere.....but hey, I'm just one guy with an opinion. That's good advice, and with the TC rod, just put one of your old worn out rubber bushings in the back and that will significantly reduce the stress on the TC rods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 I personally do not agree with the comment that polyurethan bushings add enough stress to cause failure of any part other than possibly the T/C rod. Other than the T/C rod, there is no significantly weak area in the bushing retainers or arms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom'sZ Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 maybe they were talking about the unibody itself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 I don't know. I've only experienced one single location of any cracking or tearing, and that was the front frame rails adjacent to the front sway bar mount (I was using a 1.125" bar on a 280). I always felt it was the overly large diameter of the bar, plus the heavier Z. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2126 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Personally, I've never seen any failures from using urethane bushings in the TC attach location but have read about a few who have. However, you never know what condition the attach area was before the urethane bushings were installed! Odds are that the old rust monster may have had something to do with it!? What i did when installing mine, and I was aware of the issue, is.......Instead of running the TC rod nuts all the way down as you would do with the rubber units, I ran the nuts down until I believed I had enough squish (very little) on the bushings to keep things in their proper place but not so much that there was little to no compliance. A good test is to install the TC rod and urethane bushings to the chassis attach point, without the other end of the TC rod attached to the LCA, and physically move the TC rod up and down to check how much compliance is present at what ever distance the nut is tightened to. This trial and error method worked for me and I have had no ill effect from following this procedure. Just a thought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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