Old bushings.......

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Wilecoyote

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My 99 K1500 4x4 suspension bushings are 23 yr. old and the bushings are dry rotted, I'm gonna replace every bushing/joint soon. In the last month we've had a lot of rain/driving in heavy rain and I've noticed the ride is much more harsh even driving 25/35 mph around in town where the roads have lots of patches and bumpy pavement. Yesterday I sprayed Liquid Wrench silicone on the upper A arm bushings, sway bar bushing and the leaf spring bushings w silicon.Then I took a drive in the rain last night, I thought I felt smoother. Driving to and back from work today it was riding much more smoother and I purposely ran over patches, train tracks etc. w/o slowing down. The ride was way better than before. I looked at the front bushings when I got home and they looked like they had swelled up some. I'm gonna spray the lower arm bushing right now.
 

RichLo

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While your in there, replace any ball joint or tie rod that has a broken or dry rotted boot.

IMO, I would do a full front end rebuild if you can afford that.
 

Schurkey

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Spraying silicone on them may make the ride better for a week, but it's no solution. Aside from any chemical reaction that might "swell" the rubber, the rubber is not supposed to move on the steel outer shell or steel inner sleeve. The rubber is supposed to twist. It's bonded to the steel pieces--not supposed to be lubed.

The usual problem is that the steel pieces have rusted, the rust build-up stretches and rips the rubber.

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Unlike the rubber bushings, Polyurethane bushings aren't bonded. They're installed with grease between the steel parts and the Poly parts. They're easier for a DIY installation because no press or special tooling is needed--just a propane torch to remove the rubber from the steel outer shell. Then the Poly bushing and a new steel sleeve are pushed into the cleaned-up original shell by hand.
 
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ItsMarty

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I just rebuilt my entire front end, replaced all the bushings with energy suspension polys while I was in there. Poly bushings are known for squeaking, after doing some research I found some people saying that wrapping the poly bushings with thread seal tape (the white plumbers tape) along with the correct grease keeps them from squeaking. Don’t over lap the tape, wrap it like a candy cane or you’ll never get the bushings in.

For the upper control arms I ended up purchasing another set of OE replacement bushings to use the sleeves/outer plates as the polys don’t come with them. If you don’t feel like making new ones like others have^
 

mr_josh

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I also did poly bushings and also sacrificed a set of new rubber bushings for the sleeves and outer pieces. Think it was worth it, truck drives really well.
 
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