Bushing Caps for Control Arms

[Three504spd]

Evening,
Ordered a bushing kit and it does not come with the metal parts .
Where can i get the metal "washer" that sits on the end of the rubber bushing?
Or any of metal sleeves as well?
Thanks.

 

[someotherguy]

From stock bushings.

Richard

 

[Schurkey]

You're supposed to re-use the metal end-caps. Smack them out with a long punch and hammer. Put the punch in from one side, smack the opposite cap off by hitting the raised ID of the end-cap.

You must be registered for see images

The Polyurethane bushing kits I've seen (Energy Suspension and Prothane) expect you to re-use the upper steel sleeves as well. They give you new sleeves for the lowers--you only have to re-use the pressed-in steel shell--but not for the uppers.

I had to whittle new upper sleeves for my '88 because the originals were so far gone due to rust.

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

From stock bushings.

Stealing the metal parts from "new" rubber bushings would be the easy way. I have to make four more sleeves before I rip my '97 apart. It's not fun, because I don't have a lathe.

 

[Vanishing Point]

See if this helps!

https://www.fme-cat.com/overlays/pa...pe=Control+Arm+Bushing+Kit#.XXg8kOzCJ9I.gmail

 

[Three504spd]

You're supposed to re-use the metal end-caps. Smack them out with a long punch and hammer. Put the punch in from one side, smack the opposite cap off by hitting the raised ID of the end-cap.

You must be registered for see images

The Polyurethane bushing kits I've seen (Energy Suspension and Prothane) expect you to re-use the upper steel sleeves as well. They give you new sleeves for the lowers--you only have to re-use the pressed-in steel shell--but not for the uppers.

I had to whittle new upper sleeves for my '88 because the originals were so far gone due to rust.

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

Stealing the metal parts from "new" rubber bushings would be the easy way. I have to make four more sleeves before I rip my '97 apart. It's not fun, because I don't have a lathe.

What did you start with to make your new ones?

 

[Schurkey]

I had to mail-order steel tubing because I couldn't get tubing in an appropriate diameter locally. I bought two eighteen inch lengths so I'd have plenty of material to make sleeves for two trucks (four sleeves each, about 2" per sleeve) and have some left over in case I screwed-up.

The outside diameter needs to be cut down to match the OD of the original sleeve--which may be a metric measurement because it sure seemed to me to be an odd size. I also had to open up the inside diameter at each end to allow the end-cap to slide inside.

All this would be easy if I had a lathe. I'm doing it with hand tools and a drill press, and it sucks mightily. OTOH, I can hold tolerances to a few thousandths and that's plenty good enough for this application. The original sleeve doesn't seem to be precision-made--the diameter of the ones I removed seems to change depending on where I measure. (Not just because they're corroded.)

As I said, buying new rubber bushings and either using them directly, or whacking them apart for the inner sleeve (and end-caps, if needed) to use on the Polyurethane bushing inserts would be the easy way. It's just not in me to do stuff the easy way.

 

[Three504spd]

Can I get away with using flat washers in place of the couple wasted end caps? One or two of them are nearly wasted, will the flat washer effect the bushing or is just a spacer?

 

[Schurkey]

Define "nearly wasted".

The end cap protects the side of the bushing. I see end-caps on control arm bushings where the alignment angles are adjusted via eccentrics. Olds Toronado/Caddy ElDorado up to '78 had the same style end-caps on the upper bushings, and the same style alignment adjustment.

 

[Three504spd]

1 or 2 are heavily rusted and not much material is left, I might be able to take the insert part of the washer and tack it on to a washer however, the stock washers are convex to the shape of the bushings.

 

[Schurkey]

Mine were rusted, I cleaned them up as best I could and re-used them. If they're rusted so bad that the metal is thin and weak, I believe I'd buy new rubber bushings and steal the caps from them. That also gets you new inner sleeves, too.