A arm bushings revisited

I see where there is a bunch of chatter about A arm bushings and such on the 'other' forum.. My .02 cents... There are some very poor repop rubber bushings out there..the metal shells are so thin that they deform when you 'press' them in the A arms. You can almost press them in by hand... Needless to say they spin in the A arms and sooner or later will murder the arms. The GOOD ones have 'silentbloc' on the rubber and that is easily readable. As far as the Delrin ones...Studebaker used SOLID A arm busings for years as did many other manufacturers. The cracked frames seen on many Studes are from a weak design that was corrected in later cars by adding a reinforcement and addressed in the manuals and mentioned by one of the guys on the forum although most seemed to ignore his post. I seriously doubt that Delrin bushings caused any kind of cracks. BTW, the Delrin ones out there are not perfect; they need 'tweaking' and proper spacing to work right and I have had several that had to be turned down a touch to get the proper press fit in the arms. Also, I have seen many shafts that were damaged beyond use and when using EITHER bushing the shafts should be in good shape and the end bolts torqued properly with the car on the ground under load. Studebaker George

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Studebaker George
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Many of the 'usual suspect' vendors still have the 'siletbloc' ones although I have no idea who makes them. I suspect they are MOOG or Perfect Circle; I ask them to look, it is easy to see. I would NOT use the other unmarked ones at all. The Delrin ones are fine either way but do your homework before installing them or let someone who is familiar with them put them in. I wish there were other choices, like urethane, but so far there is not to the best of my knowledge. BTW, I have found very little difference in the ride quality between the 'hard and soft'. The GOOD rubber ones should last you at least ten years...PROVIDING they are installed CORRECTLY and you can keep the fluids off them...'fix you s**t"...I mean leaks from power steering pumps and fuel pumps as that will eat up the rubber bushings...the Delrin ones don't care about that as they are 'immune' to Studebaker leaks.. Hope this helps, Studebaker George

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Studebaker George

Forgot... I can do either one but be advised this is usually a NASTY, FILTHY job that I don't relish and charge out the ying yang to do. AND...I am getting old and not as fast as I used to be.....so I may need the car for a while. It is also a job that very easily could expose MANY OTHER worn out front end parts that could send your wallet reelin' and rockin'...the last Avanti I tore apart for this stuff ended up needing almost everything front end wise. A thorough inspection of the front end will give you a decent idea of what is needed but when it is apart more stuff may show up. Studebaker George

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Studebaker George

More to add.. The Delrin bushings when properly installed do NOT need the car on the ground with a load on it to have the end bolts torqued. When spaced right there is very little resistance moving the A arm through it's range. You can set them up and even torque them on the bench. Installing the rubber ones takes some finesse; the book says special tool blah blah but can be done without. A 'chatter gun' (air chisel) takes them out but many times the inner sleeve is stuck to the shaft and can be a booger... This job would make for a whole tech session at the nationals...maybe several... Studebaker George

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Studebaker George

Right now I am up to my eyeballs in engines and transmissions. The weather has put me behind. I may be caught up in a month or so. Studebaker George

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Studebaker George

AND HE OWES A CERTAIN CRUISER JOCKEY SOME power steering!!!!!

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So. Ga. Cruiser

It works for me

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Ala

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