Upper control arm bushings disintegrating

G

Garys 68

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2008
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476
This may be a bit rudimentary for the discussions here, but for those of you who bought suspension kits from a vendor whose name starts with a letter very late in the alphabet.....
I rebuilt the entire suspension and steering about 7 years ago, maybe have 10,000 miles on it. Thursday, I hit the brakes at about 20mph, there's a bang, the car pulls hard to the right and I smell rubber burning. Looking at the right front, it's got about 30 degrees of camber. The rubber upper control arm bushing had disintegrated. Not just one, all of them. The lowers looked perfect. Anyway, the bushing broke apart, the control arm slid forward off the cross shaft, swinging the upper control arm in, A LOT!
Anyway, I've heard from others that had the same issue, just something to check.

The rubber bushing off the broken side.


And on the intact side, almost in as bad of condition.
 
Those LOOK like urethane, I did mine in Urethane years ago, they failed after about ten years, so replaced with stock rubber style, fine so far.....the lowers are urethane but never did fail....go figger......
 
The grain of that material looks like rubber to me.

Crap poly will fail. Good poly won't. When my second Talon died, it had 10 year old Energy Suspension bushings in it that had been on two different cars and still looked like new. The red ES bushings I used in the 77 are getting close to 10 years installed, and they were on the shelf for a while before that. Still look like new.
 
Sam Cogley said:
The grain of that material looks like rubber to me.

Crap poly will fail. Good poly won't. When my second Talon died, it had 10 year old Energy Suspension bushings in it that had been on two different cars and still looked like new. The red ES bushings I used in the 77 are getting close to 10 years installed, and they were on the shelf for a while before that. Still look like new.
Click to expand...

ES is the brand I used, not that I could recall on a cold memory.....but the uppers failed.....dunno why....I greased them all upon assy, ..oh well....

:twitch:
 
Those were rubber stock replacements from a complete kit. Like I said, the uppers were the only to fail.
I replaced with Mexican made rubber, but think I'll buy a poly set.
Can anyone explain why originals were in much better shape after 35 years than these in 7 years?
 
Garys 68 said:
Those were rubber stock replacements from a complete kit. Like I said, the uppers were the only to fail.
I replaced with Mexican made rubber, but think I'll buy a poly set.
Can anyone explain why originals were in much better shape after 35 years than these in 7 years?
Click to expand...

Import crap and EPA means we can't make anything anymore.....would not want to disturb the delta smelter stink fish.....

:surrender::twitch:
 
Polyurethane can be pretty tough stuff if formulated the right way. If molded the easy way (which is probably the case here), it has awful water absorption/deterioration properties. That includes absorption of water out of the air or even improperly dried material when molded.
 
Are you sure it's just the Zips that do it ? I've seen crappy parts with all vendors and I'm guessing here, but how many manufacturers are there for bushings ?

When installing mine, I first tried to use the hardware from them. Totally crap. I ended up reusing my originals. They are also different in that the replacement hardware is totally flat and the originals are rounded at the egdes. I think that this makes it grip the rubber in a different way also.

How is the bonding of the rubber to the inner and outer sleeve ? Is there still rubber attached to the metal or did it come completly loose ?

Thanks for the heads up though.
 
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I got a note from another vette owner who had the same issue from another vendor.
How many suppliers? My bet, 1, the cheapest obviously.
I reused the rounded outside washer too.
After removing all the bushings, there was no bonding to the inner or outer metal. They simply fell apart.
The mushroomed rubber outer part had split off all of them. The rubber tube separated from the inner/outer sleeves and slid down the shaft and split.
 
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Some of the vendors clain "original" style. Not sure what that means. If these start looking bad, I'm going poly and adding a spreader bar while I'm at it.
 
For whatever it's worth, for parts like these, I always go the Chevy dealer and get the ones in the blue GM packaging. The Chevy dealer I deal with is good about finding OEM stuff, even taking weeks sometimes to locate in forgotten warehouses or even Canada, new old stock rather than aftermarket replacement.
 
JPhil said:
For whatever it's worth, for parts like these, I always go the Chevy dealer and get the ones in the blue GM packaging. The Chevy dealer I deal with is good about finding OEM stuff, even taking weeks sometimes to locate in forgotten warehouses or even Canada, new old stock rather than aftermarket replacement.
Click to expand...

That's basically out of the question on the other side of the ocean.

Anyway, I think Gary was lucky nothing more happened. I've got aftermarkets as well. Will keep a close eye on them.

BTW : I heard all kinds of problems with poly as well.
 
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Yeah, after realizing it would have been REALLY bad if it happened at 70 instead of 20mph, I realized towing might do more damage.
The tow truck driver really knew what he was doing. He put a wedge under the frame to get it on the flatbed without the flailing wheel tearing up the body work.
 
JPhil said:
For whatever it's worth, for parts like these, I always go the Chevy dealer and get the ones in the blue GM packaging. The Chevy dealer I deal with is good about finding OEM stuff, even taking weeks sometimes to locate in forgotten warehouses or even Canada, new old stock rather than aftermarket replacement.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, rubber does age on the shelf. Would you want to drive on a set of old-production tires that were made in 1985 and stuck on a shelf somewhere? They may work, but they're probably not going to behave exactly as they're supposed to.
 
Well, I have a hard time understanding why you can fuck up something simple like this type of suspension bushing. Even for a low price ...

I've said it before : these low quality issues we are seeing are going to kill our hobby in the end.
 
Belgian1979vette said:
Well, I have a hard time understanding why you can fuck up something simple like this type of suspension bushing. Even for a low price ...

I've said it before : these low quality issues we are seeing are going to kill our hobby in the end.
Click to expand...

Which is why I have done so many mods to my car over the years/decades almost....I have found that with major help from my welder/fabricator buddy and some judicious parts hunting, and sticking to basically stock parts from sources and junkyards.....the car and I am much happier.......

I have had this '72 for some 19 years now....just about the time I hopped on the internet, which has been a fabulous source for information, but the primary source of parts has always been local.....and I know that drives you krazy being on the East coast of the Pond......

:surrender::eek:

I just feel luck I have done what I did when I did, not so sure I could pull it off today.....


:cool:
 
mrvette said:
Belgian1979vette said:
Well, I have a hard time understanding why you can fuck up something simple like this type of suspension bushing. Even for a low price ...

I've said it before : these low quality issues we are seeing are going to kill our hobby in the end.
Click to expand...

Which is why I have done so many mods to my car over the years/decades almost....I have found that with major help from my welder/fabricator buddy and some judicious parts hunting, and sticking to basically stock parts from sources and junkyards.....the car and I am much happier.......

I have had this '72 for some 19 years now....just about the time I hopped on the internet, which has been a fabulous source for information, but the primary source of parts has always been local.....and I know that drives you krazy being on the East coast of the Pond......

:surrender::eek:

I just feel luck I have done what I did when I did, not so sure I could pull it off today.....


:cool:
Click to expand...

It's not that alone Gene, but we also have to pass tech inspection and if they spot something that doesn't quite look original you're in for a problem. Recently the rules have changed even for old timers and for example they could make a problem out of using poly's if the spot them. Luckily most of them don't know these cars well.
 
Belgian1979vette said:
mrvette said:
Belgian1979vette said:
Well, I have a hard time understanding why you can fuck up something simple like this type of suspension bushing. Even for a low price ...

I've said it before : these low quality issues we are seeing are going to kill our hobby in the end.
Click to expand...

Which is why I have done so many mods to my car over the years/decades almost....I have found that with major help from my welder/fabricator buddy and some judicious parts hunting, and sticking to basically stock parts from sources and junkyards.....the car and I am much happier.......

I have had this '72 for some 19 years now....just about the time I hopped on the internet, which has been a fabulous source for information, but the primary source of parts has always been local.....and I know that drives you krazy being on the East coast of the Pond......

:surrender::eek:

I just feel luck I have done what I did when I did, not so sure I could pull it off today.....


:cool:
Click to expand...

It's not that alone Gene, but we also have to pass tech inspection and if they spot something that doesn't quite look original you're in for a problem. Recently the rules have changed even for old timers and for example they could make a problem out of using poly's if the spot them. Luckily most of them don't know these cars well.
Click to expand...

THAT shit to that extent would get someone a uppercut to the jaw and a roundhouse to the jaw......fuck the nazis......hate to turn this political, but I am an extreme right wing in this country....on other forums you find me wanting to take our USA .gov down to maybe 20% of present size......except our .mil .....enough with this enviro crap already....

I suspect it's even worse on your side of the pond, but here it's totally nutz when the shut down productive farm land SO critical we import food from Mexico due to some smelly delta farter fish......

I dunno you know much of this crap on your side, but here it's a done deal, they killed off a very significant portion of the California farms community....I have NO respect for the EPA at all.....

:(:friends:
 
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