Outer Limits 4x4 Board

After fitting power steering, naturally I would blame that for any problems that arose. After fussing and thinking about what I may have done wrong, or what parts may be faulty, I came to the decision that maybe it still needed the steering damper fitted. It was steering left slightly under decelerating and right a bit more on acceleration. Anyway, while looking into that, I noticed today that the spring bushes weren't sitting very well, quite out of centre with the bolt, so they must be stuffed, and I'm betting that will fix the steering issues, and needs doing anyway. Probably need another steering alignment and wheelbearing adjust, too. I'm guessing the problem has been there a while, but I was blaming long shackles, huge tyre/wheel offset etc etc.
Now to decide between rubber and urethane bushes. My OME ones have lasted a very very long time, but rubber is cheaper and more compliant....more money to spend

christover

theres 2 types of poly bushes you can get... some are like rocks, others are soft as...

most poly ones have grooves to hold grease in too...

i'd go to a suspension shop and have a squeeze of a few bushes... if you can squoosh it in ur hand then its a good poly bush.

alien wrote:theres 2 types of poly bushes you can get... some are like rocks, others are soft as...

most poly ones have grooves to hold grease in too...

i'd go to a suspension shop and have a squeeze of a few bushes... if you can squoosh it in ur hand then its a good poly bush.

cool thanks dooood, that's worth knowing

christover

I bought a set of Tough Dog bushes last week and they are bloody rock hard..... harder than the hardest Ive ever used! Im thinking of returning them but don't know if they do a softer version. I assumed they manufactured to a zook 'industry standard' with a softer compound urethane. Well maybe not.

If you had plenty of cash you could get Noltecs, they have a very good reputation & can also customise... But, for the hefty price of $240 a set, I can't justify that for a set of bushes.

Suzuki Surf Chik wrote:I bought a set of Tough Dog bushes last week and they are bloody rock hard.....

I must say that my o.m.e bushes, that came with the suspension, were very, very hard when fitted, but softened up in about 3-4 months and then lasted many years....maybe thats the go with tuff dogs, need breaking in?
$240 is way out of my league, would take 4 pensions, 8 weeks to pay for, but you probably get what ya pay for, 9 years from my ome's was quite good. Will probably go for something middle priced.

thanks for the input
christover

christover1 wrote: o.m.e bushes

Do the o.m.e bushes happen to be yellow? If they are, it could be they're all from the same manufacturer, as I've also had yellow bushes before, ( can't remember what brand they were) and yeah, I can press these older ones easier with my fingers (softer) than the tough dogs are at the moment. I'll give the Tuffy's a go anyway... Thanks for the info! Oh, and they cost me $65 for the complete set. Much better on the hip pocket!

Mine are quite stiff indeed. They are yellow. I thought they'd tear up under hard use, but I put the springs in in january and they are still going alright. I wouldn't be suprised if they had 'softened up' under usage, too.

I went to coventrys and two different suspension joints and all three said they couldn't get stock suzuki rubbers in anymore - I thought that was a bit suss and still don't believe they aren't out there anymore. I think ended up paying $50 for all the bushes for the springs and shocks in the end, brand new.

Suzuki Surf Chik wrote: Do the o.m.e bushes happen to be yellow? !

Yes mate, all the OME bits I've seen are yellow, but manufactures copy each others colors and the like to con us, but we're zookers, we don't con easily...well not often anyway )
The urethane in mine is still reasonably good, but the holes are stretched out badly...
One site I looked at today had a photo of bushes under the heading suzuki sierra, but the packet in the photo had hilux on it.
But I think they just saving on camera work, I doubt they are the same, as hilux springs are wider.
But if its on the internet it must be true )

christover

OldGold wrote: I think ended up paying $50 for all the bushes for the springs and shocks in the end, brand new.

Strewth, that's cheap, compared to prices I've discovered so far, so I'd better keep hunting

christover

I believe there are a few bush kits coming up on E-bay now and again for around $60 mate.

guys i just got new hilux bushes 2 weeks ago... for all bushed and a full hilux greasable pin kit to suit 4x packs of springs i paid $150.... the pin kit alone is $120 for 4 greasable pins (special hilux ones have a retainer plate bit)... so $30 to do bushes on both ends if the springs, the mounts and the shackles. cheap as chips... and theyre soft as poly ones too.

got them from Arnie at Autoride Suspensions in Balcatta (perth).

opposite lock wanted $360 for that lot too.. so i payed less than half of what they were asking =)

Chris, I might have a set here you can have if you want.
Peter.

droopypete wrote:Chris, I might have a set here you can have if you want.
Peter.

thanx pete, will contact ya soon
christover

OldGold wrote:

I went to coventrys and two different suspension joints and all three said they couldn't get stock suzuki rubbers in anymore - I thought that was a bit suss and still don't believe they aren't out there anymore.

crap... any suzuki shop will have them...

i keep about 80 of each bush in stock... as do the other suzuki shops...

Chris, if Pete doesn't have any let me know and I'll see what price my brother can do for me

the left right thing is due to the angle of the dranklink, chassis lifts up it increases the angle and pulls the wheels right, chassis drops decreases the angle and pushes the wheels left, is the new pitam arm flatter? if so the increase in angle may have made it more noticable and the power steer means the steering wont move form the box end so it feels worse.

bushes want help any, drop pitman arm will but I dont know that you can get one for your setup.

as for the bushes, post up about it on a certain QLD clubs forum and you can get them as soft as you want for a lot less than the shops

zooki wrote:the left right thing is due to the angle of the dranklink, chassis lifts up it increases the angle and pulls the wheels right, chassis drops decreases the angle and pushes the wheels left, is the new pitam arm flatter? if so the increase in angle may have made it more noticable and the power steer means the steering wont move form the box end so it feels worse.

bushes want help any, drop pitman arm will but I dont know that you can get one for your setup.

as for the bushes, post up about it on a certain QLD clubs forum and you can get them as soft as you want for a lot less than the shops

I totally agree, that was my first thought, but with the extreme wear in the bushes, it can more easily move up and down and back and forward under load/unload, so its probably amplifying the problem. Yes the draglink is a little flatter, (shorter too) and I do have lift, silly offset rims etc, all making that much worse. But either way bushes need doing. I have got used to it, but just wanna make sure everything was ok. I thought I'd done something wrong.
The old setup was way past its best, just got used to it, too.

christover

I decided on OME spring bushes, because I got over 10 good hard years out of the ones that came with the suspension kit originally.
With Suzuki 4WD Club discount from ARB head office in Kilsyth, it was only $27 a corner, which included the metal sleeve for the eye bushes. $54 total for front end. This was not much more than the cheapest rubber bushes I found, and actually less than some on offer. Some didnt include the sleeve. Some other urethanes on offer frightened my wallet to death.
Some places even had wrong parts listed..rear can wait till funds allow, but boy the front ones were stuffed. Will pop up pictures when finished fitting new ones.
I happy with the deal from OME.

christover

I was doing the last bolt up, when a demonicaly possessed spanner slipped off and smacked me right in the cheek bone
I look a little less pretty, but I'll live

I've popped up a couple a pix of my old bushes, a little embarrassing, really, must have been stuffed a bit longer than I thought. The pix don't really show how bad they were.

It now drives like a luxury limo, wish I'd dunnit a while back, and I am very much more inspired to do the back ones soon.

christover

Any harsher with the new bushes?

Im in dire need of some new bushes and i am considering the OMEs as they are listed as $120 for the full kit in the ARB Price List.

OUCH!!!! that's a nasty bump to the cheek.. lucky it didn't go IN your eye..... But your eye pics getting more looks than your shagged bushes , hehe

Mudzuki wrote:Any harsher with the new bushes?

Im in dire need of some new bushes and i am considering the OMEs as they are listed as $120 for the full kit in the ARB Price List.

It's a tiny bit harsher, but it was when I got new ones 10 years ago. They take a few weeks to soften nicely. More off road you do, the quicker they bed in
At $27 a cnr with club discount, I wouldn't bother with any other urethanes I have seen.
All sorts of bad handling issues have gone away, now, thank goodness.
christover

Suzuki Surf Chik wrote:OUCH!!!! that's a nasty bump to the cheek.. lucky it didn't go IN your eye..... But your eye pics getting more looks than your shagged bushes , hehe

It actually looks worse now its getting better.
Bruising spread.
Next day went to docs as bleeding wouldn't stop.
She used what I reckon was superglue to stick it up with, but she swore it wasn't, but we know better guess I'm lucky she didnt just weld it up.
Yes I do feel very lucky, nearly lost me eyesight with an exploding radiator last year, now this......and I knew more OL types would check out the face carnage, rather than the dead bushes

christover

christover1 wrote:

Suzuki Surf Chik wrote:OUCH!!!! that's a nasty bump to the cheek.. lucky it didn't go IN your eye..... But your eye pics getting more looks than your shagged bushes , hehe

It actually looks worse now its getting better.
Bruising spread.
Next day went to docs as bleeding wouldn't stop.
She used what I reckon was superglue to stick it up with, but she swore it wasn't, but we know better guess I'm lucky she didnt just weld it up.
Yes I do feel very lucky, nearly lost me eyesight with an exploding radiator last year, now this......and I knew more OL types would check out the face carnage, rather than the dead bushes

christover

i thought it was super glue to when the doctor was glueing my friends head back up but aparrently its a medical glue and has been around for a while

i still dunno if he's calling himself a tool or abusing the tool that hit him? =)

alien wrote:i still dunno if he's calling himself a tool or abusing the tool that hit him? =)

both definately, tho I thought someone would have commented sooner

just took me mate down to Bunnings, he's opening up his arches for 32 ET's, and the handling has improved so much, that he looked a lot less terrified than usual.

christover

an old salty zook driver told me once never to put eurethane bushes into a zook as they will not flex and give like a rubber one and all being that the zooks are so light and all i think allan duncan kermit told me that

bennybigballs wrote:an old salty zook driver told me once never to put eurethane bushes into a zook as they will not flex and give like a rubber one and all being that the zooks are so light and all i think allan duncan kermit told me that

I've often heard that, too. It does make sense on paper.
But the shape of the OME bushes allows slots to hold the grease in place, so they slide quite easily, and don't bind up.
I figure the loss of softness is made up for by the long use I have got out of them. If they give too much, then handling goes off. There is never one right decision to suit all needs. I am not anti rubber, just urethane is best for me, cause I won't have to get attacked by my spanners so often

christover

I have been trying a few bushes in differnt duros of urethane and rubber

rubber is good for sideways movement but restricts the rotation of the shackle cause the rubber swells and grips everything.

soft urethane (50 duro) allows the springs and shackles to pivot freely but are toast after 2 months

70 duro still seems to work as well and last longer, it appears as though they arent binding enough to limit travel as at full flex there is still twist in the bushes.

most normal urethane and done in 90 duro and it appears the quality of polymer is more important than hardness as the better stuff can stretch more (450%) than the cheap stuff

I finally got around to replacing the rear spring bushes, the day before our Saturday Toolangi night drive, along with the rear disc pads.
The bushes were very much worse than the front ones were.
I expected an on road handling improvement, but it was way better than I thought it would be. Quieter and smoother, too.
I was staggered at the improvement off road, especially in the slimy stuff, as it was getting the power down to the ground better. No more skipping, bouncing and leaning and loosing traction. It climbs heaps better in the dry stuff, too. Rocky tk was a breeze compared to last time (tho it was very wet last time).
It looks a little harder/scarier in the dark
Wish I'd done these bushes sooner, too.
Shoulda did the disc pads sooner, too, as one shot out, and jammed up the rotor, destroying it entireley

christover