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Poor quality bushings, or bad track rod?

I have a 240 wagon, and I'm doing all 10 of my rear bushings. Today, I had rubber bushings that I had ordered from FCP Groton pressed into my Panhard rod and right trailing arm. Upon getting the rod back to my garage, I accidently dropped it a foot or so. Imagine my surprise when the bushing with the bigger hole popped partially out! When I held the rod up to the light, I could see a 1/2mm or so gap in places between the bushings and the inside bore of the rod ends. Tapping lightly on the bushings with the plastic end of a screwdriver moved them in and out. What's worst is that I could see light between one bushing's rubber and its inner shell. Furthermore, when I tighten a bolt and nut across either of the two bushings, I can spin it in the rod.

Are the bushings sold by FCP Groton just complete s**te (as I suspect - are they ScanTech, maybe?) or did the mechanic somehow screw up when pressing them in and stretch out the rod ends? The one trailing arm bushing that I've had done so far is fine, and flexes rather than spinning in it's bore when the inner shell is turned using a bolt and nut tightened across it.

TIA, -bosozoku (frustrated)

Reply to
at
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I'd say poor quality bushings. It would be very hard to stretch out the end of the panhard rod without distorting it.

Reply to
Mike F

It depends on which ones you bought. Anything branded ScanTech or MTC is almost guaranteed to be crap. If it weren't raining I'd go out and check the (MTC) transmission mount that I installed about 1000 miles ago... and it already feels like it's toasted.

FCP usually sells three types of bushings: cheap knockoffs (ScanTech, MTC), OEM, and polyurethane replacement (SuperPro, etc). The cheap knockoffs are the ones to avoid. Check out Dave Shannon's page for an example of just how short lived the cheap RTA bushings are.

-- alex

'89 765T, 172,7xx mi

Reply to
Alex Zepeda

Amazing enough, I too have replaced the pan hard rod (track rod) bushing as well as all other bushings in the read end of my 1996 240 wagon purchased from FP Groton. The passenger side trackrod lasted about 5 months and needed replacement again. My mechanic replaced it with a volvo oem part and once again, after 6 months it needs replaced again. I had a different mechanic look at it this time but couldn't find any other reason why it would be wearing out so soon. I'm not sure if anyone will read this but if you do are there any reason that you could think of? THanks in advance.

Reply to
Necromancer

Have your mechanics check the trailing arm bushings if they are bad they will cause the track rod bushings to fail prematurely

Reply to
G Klein

Also, if the bolt for any suspension part is tightened up on the hoist, with the suspension at full droop, the bushings will be stressed in the normal position. The final tightening needs to be done on a wheel lift hoist, so the suspension is sitting in the normal position.

Reply to
Mike F

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