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No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:37 am
by bj on roids
Hi all,

Has anybody looked into, or made already?

I am after some bushes for the front radius arms that are super stiff (no movement)

Maybe just the tiniest bit of rubber to take out some vibes.

I want no flex at all in the front.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:24 am
by sidewayz
can i ask why?

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:51 am
by BadMav
To pop wheelies around roundabouts of course

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:56 am
by tehekho
bj on roids wrote:Hi all,

Has anybody looked into, or made already?

I am after some bushes for the front radius arms that are super stiff (no movement)

Maybe just the tiniest bit of rubber to take out some vibes.

I want no flex at all in the front.
Nylon.

Any woman in the car will complain about the noise til she reaches orgasm from the vibes, though...

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:51 am
by 351ciofgrunt
Use the plastic nolathane ones from Autobarn

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 2:24 pm
by oldmate
Machine up some fully metal bushes, or weld the shocks up/replace them with some tube.

Or you could jam some screw drivers between the raius arms and brackets to prevent movement. Works like a quick disconnect then :cool:

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:19 pm
by bj on roids
I was thinking of making some custom rubber bushes to limit flex.

I do not like the Nolathane.

I am not trying to acheive flex. It is for road driving largely, and I want to look at maybe doing some drift circuit stuff.

Welding the shocks up and making solid bushes from steel are both ridiculous.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:22 pm
by bj on roids
The suspension geometry is pretty poor when lifted. I have seen some lowered patrols around on decent rims, but nothing that is making good power and going fast.

Had sort of hoped someone had "been there done it" (so to speak) and could recommend me some decent options to make this thing handle like its on rails.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:32 pm
by BadMav
You really do need some form of flexibility in those bushes, not only for dampening driveline vibrations, but a rigid set up is going to increase the shear force on the radius arm bolts on the diff. Have you looked at perhaps a custom heavy duty sway bar for the front and rear?

And to add, I had no dramas with the nolathane bushes in mine, it didn't wander and it cornered alot better than it does now with the rubber ones back in.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:18 am
by coxy321
I'd go for full nolathane bushes and some up-rated sway bars. Possibly also some compatible "street/strip" shocks from Pedders or someone (might have to source them from another make/model car.

There was an 80 series 4.5L cruiser doing some pretty cool street work/rally stuff 2-3 years ago - might pay to see what they did with that to make it competitive.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 7:39 am
by tehekho
The original question was something along the lines of "How can I make the front not Flex"

I told you how. $30 should cover the Nylon Rod/Bar/Billet/whateverthehellyouwanttocallit. But, since we are throwing advice into the mix now too - I'm also a goer for nolathane. There are various grades of it. If you bury some in a pile of dry ice in an esky for a while, you can machine it on a lathe (in case off the shelf items aren't firm enough for your wants).

Nylon will be just as firm as aluminium bushes.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:03 am
by bj on roids
coxy321 wrote:I'd go for full nolathane bushes and some up-rated sway bars. Possibly also some compatible "street/strip" shocks from Pedders or someone (might have to source them from another make/model car.

There was an 80 series 4.5L cruiser doing some pretty cool street work/rally stuff 2-3 years ago - might pay to see what they did with that to make it competitive.
Any links or futher info on this?? Sounds like an awesome machine!

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:33 am
by 351ciofgrunt
You are going about this the wrong way, it's not front arm flex that you should be trying to limit.

It's body roll that you should be trying to limit, and to limit body roll you need to run short stiff coil springs, hard shockies, big swaybars. Or fabricate mounts to run double swaybars.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:04 am
by coxy321
bj on roids wrote:
coxy321 wrote:I'd go for full nolathane bushes and some up-rated sway bars. Possibly also some compatible "street/strip" shocks from Pedders or someone (might have to source them from another make/model car.

There was an 80 series 4.5L cruiser doing some pretty cool street work/rally stuff 2-3 years ago - might pay to see what they did with that to make it competitive.
Any links or futher info on this?? Sounds like an awesome machine!
Can't find anything from a quick Google search - i recall not finding info last time i looked too. It was owned by a father and son team, and was either white or silver, manual 4.5L petrol (can't recall if it had a supercharger or not). It was on Channel Ten or SBS on a coverage of Targa or Rally Australia.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 6:01 pm
by PacMan
Stiff the rear up - should help a lot.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 6:42 pm
by SuperiorEngineering
BJ you should now the answer to this, get proper shocks to suit the application such as our SRC's, or Kings in remote res, valved for road racing eg drifting.
Set up stiff coils on all for corners and ditch the factory rear swaybar for a swaybar designed with a 100 series torsion bar, gaurantee you will have a fat well handling road 4wd and of coarse keep it standard height or slightly lower.
Their is no reason why this setup wont handle well .

Trying to limit travel in the front end is not going to make a difference especially if the rear is set up correctly and it does not sqaut into the corners making the front corner pick up.

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:40 pm
by vanbox
SuperiorEngineering wrote:BJ you should now the answer to this, get proper shocks to suit the application such as our SRC's, or Kings in remote res, valved for road racing eg drifting.
Set up stiff coils on all for corners and ditch the factory rear swaybar for a swaybar designed with a 100 series torsion bar, gaurantee you will have a fat well handling road 4wd and of coarse keep it standard height or slightly lower.
Their is no reason why this setup wont handle well .

Trying to limit travel in the front end is not going to make a difference especially if the rear is set up correctly and it does not sqaut into the corners making the front corner pick up.

Are these "torsion bar" swaybars legal in Qld?

Re: No flex bushes for front arms?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:08 pm
by SuperiorEngineering
Without going through the proper engineering process from a QLD approved DOT engineer i would say no.