bloc
SILVER Star
I got my king 2.5s installed a couple months back and love them. But of course, 2 weeks later in an unrelated thread @Taco2Cruiser posted the following about king rear upper bushings being trashed at 4k miles: Squeaky Spherical bushings BP51
This got me wondering what mine were like, and I decided to pull the shocks at about 3k to have a look, since it's a pretty easy job. I decided to have new bushings on hand in case they were bad, and this involved a little back and forth from Ben @ Filthy motorsports. The first bushings he sent were standard flat pin-mount bushings, but king puts a different version in our application designed to do a better job of centering itself in the larger hole in the crossmember. Ben eventually got these to me, and mine were good enough they stayed on the shelf for later.
Here are the bushings.. new king 200-series on top, regular pin-mount king on bottom, and my 3k mile bushings to the right.
Basically, after 3k, mine looked great. The bushings Taco posted seem to be the flat design. He has a good explanation in that thread about the side-to-side and front-to-back movement of the axle during suspension travel meaning it is inevitable for these bushings to die quickly, but I wonder if this is why King changed the design.
Still, while I had it apart I explored other options. Here is what toyota uses for the stock setup. 2 rubber bushings on either side of two metal washers, one of which has a raised section to center it in the larger hole in the crossmember.
Frankly it is a great system, as you'd expect OEM from toyota. You'll basically never have problems. Someone suggested taking that metal washer and putting it in the stack of king bushings, but with the stock ones it just won't fit. With the regular flat ones though..
I don't think the upper flat washer is really necessary, and if you leave it out, this should bolt right in. it isn't perfect though, the ID of the washer with the raised lip is substantially larger than the metal and plastic sleeves king has centering these bushings. Whether that would be a problem or not, I don't know.
Someone with a lathe and some machining skills could easily knock out a washer that has the raised lip and a smaller ID.. but I'm not sure if it's even necessary.
Here's another pic of the setup
This got me wondering what mine were like, and I decided to pull the shocks at about 3k to have a look, since it's a pretty easy job. I decided to have new bushings on hand in case they were bad, and this involved a little back and forth from Ben @ Filthy motorsports. The first bushings he sent were standard flat pin-mount bushings, but king puts a different version in our application designed to do a better job of centering itself in the larger hole in the crossmember. Ben eventually got these to me, and mine were good enough they stayed on the shelf for later.
Here are the bushings.. new king 200-series on top, regular pin-mount king on bottom, and my 3k mile bushings to the right.
Basically, after 3k, mine looked great. The bushings Taco posted seem to be the flat design. He has a good explanation in that thread about the side-to-side and front-to-back movement of the axle during suspension travel meaning it is inevitable for these bushings to die quickly, but I wonder if this is why King changed the design.
Still, while I had it apart I explored other options. Here is what toyota uses for the stock setup. 2 rubber bushings on either side of two metal washers, one of which has a raised section to center it in the larger hole in the crossmember.
Frankly it is a great system, as you'd expect OEM from toyota. You'll basically never have problems. Someone suggested taking that metal washer and putting it in the stack of king bushings, but with the stock ones it just won't fit. With the regular flat ones though..
I don't think the upper flat washer is really necessary, and if you leave it out, this should bolt right in. it isn't perfect though, the ID of the washer with the raised lip is substantially larger than the metal and plastic sleeves king has centering these bushings. Whether that would be a problem or not, I don't know.
Someone with a lathe and some machining skills could easily knock out a washer that has the raised lip and a smaller ID.. but I'm not sure if it's even necessary.
Here's another pic of the setup
