What bushings are being used by Japanese tuners?

[Ivan141]

I wouldnt know how they compare to more expensive makes of bushings. But polyurethane is polyurethane.. It's a pretty stiff material that is more prone to cracking over time than rubber. Keeping in mind that they wont last you forever you might as well go for the cheaper ones. I've heard you need to grease them up a bit every once in a while to extend the life-span. If your going to spend more money just buy TRD rubber bushings.. Best alround choice for streetcars...but 3 times the price of the prothane ones.

[nmwisima]

I have metal at the front! Customade. A bit noisy.

[Dogs Danglies]

Found out an interesting point on ziptied.com the other day, is that if your going for spherical baerings on the rear 4-links, its only worth doing if your upgrading to equal length links (which means alot of cutting and welding of the body) or junk the panhard rod, for a watts-linkage, as the panhard rod moves in an arc, and spherical bearings won't give like a rubber bush, so you end up flexing the body mount to provide movement, which isn't good. I'm going to stick to upgraded rubber for now, as my cars going to be about 50:50 street and track.

[Matt Skinner]

banpei Wrote:And do you mean Bushings instead of Bushes?

Nah, thats the americanised version! Bushes = perfectly correct.

About the alloy bushes idea. Not a good as rubber bushes are usually only used on a joint that articulates in several axis. Alloy would not allow this and bend things. Spherical joints are the best bet in these areas and contrary to the popular myth about noise, they aren't horribly noisey unless you use cheap and nasty spherical joints.

As dogs danglies says the body can flex when you go over to spherical mounts to reinforce anything that looks like it needs it. Same applies for poly bushes though just not to the same extent.

[Dogs Danglies]

Matt, what I mean is with unequel length links, like the 86 has as standard, they need a slight amount of tolerance to allow for the arc they follow with a panhard rod, rubber or poly will allow the play needed, spehircal mounts offer zero tolerance in the direction there not ment to move in hence it flexes the next weakest link the body

This is a quote from a guy in the US, and is taken from ziptied.com the whole thread can be found here... http://www.ziptied.com/forum/viewtopic.p...sc&start=0

BattleVersion on Ziptied Wrote:Then since we are on the topic of 4-links. The rubber ends cost me more to build then just using a rod end. That also has to be included into my cost of manufacturing. The rubber bushings are important to why the Battle Version set is a step above any other set of 4-links.

Something you may not know about suspension design on the ae86 is the fact that any time you have more than 4 links connected to a moving suspension piece (remember you still have the lateral rod!!!) it will end up in a bind. Meaning that 2 of the links will always be pushing and pulling against one another. This is why the original T3 sets had breaking issues. The rod ends themselves are strong, but when you go into a bind, it's like hitting a bump stop untill something gives. Many of you dont realize that if you run solid rod ends on all ends, then it does bend the floor mounts of your car and the rear end mounts.

The rubber bushings I use are 80% urethane and 20% rubber which gives them a solid feel but has enough give to allow your suspension to move freely instead of binding. The fact that they make less noise, I dont care, but people buy it because of that.

I just want to add that the problems of my car breaking were never suspension related. And If you want to see results, I have been the only American to run D1 in an AE86 and finished top 25. No one else can say that.