Life of rubber radius arm bushes (1 Viewer)

[sunrk]

I've got 3 inch lift with aftermarket 4 inch compensated arms on my 80 which gives me a little over 4 degree of caster.

I've been noticing the rear of the arms where they mount to the chassis seem to be moving around a lot more recently driving over undulations, rough stuff, etc. so I'm thinking the back bushes in particular of each arm are going out and need renewing.

They're rubber ones not poly. Arms have been in the 80 about 4 yrs and I've driven around 30000 km in that time. No drama to drop each arm and replace the bushes, and it's possible to get both Nissan and Toyota ones that are interchangable.

What sort of life is 'normal' for rubber radius arm bushes where the driving is primarily on road (s*** roads but still roads) and not much off-road?

 

[mudgudgeon]

I would expect more than 4 years/30k km if you're using OEM bushes and not going off-road with it.

I've had aftermarket rubber bushes fail faster than that, but the vehicle was being used frequently for hard 4 wheel driving.

 

[Marco Lau]

My OEM bushing normally last about 2 yrs or so or about 10k miles before then need replacing. This is mostly off-roading and rock crawling 2-5 times a yr

 

[leonard_nemoy]

In my experience the kind of offroading where your flexing a lot will quickly kill any radius arm bushings.

But for just plain pavement driving they should last awhile.

 

[baldilocks]

I've got 3 inch lift with aftermarket 4 inch compensated arms on my 80 which gives me a little over 4 degree of caster.

I've been noticing the rear of the arms where they mount to the chassis seem to be moving around a lot more recently driving over undulations, rough stuff, etc. so I'm thinking the back bushes in particular of each arm are going out and need renewing.

They're rubber ones not poly. Arms have been in the 80 about 4 yrs and I've driven around 30000 km in that time. No drama to drop each arm and replace the bushes, and it's possible to get both Nissan and Toyota ones that are interchangable.

What sort of life is 'normal' for rubber radius arm bushes where the driving is primarily on road (s*** roads but still roads) and not much off-road?

How are you determining that the chassis end bushings are allowing excessive movement of the leading arm? Have you done a close up visual inspection of the bushings and used a pry bar to try forcing them to shift excessively? Based on your type of use, Toyota/Nissan rubber bushings should last much longer than yours have been in use.

 

[robnicko]

when the vehicle suspension is changed and lifted unless the bolts retaining the bushes to the frame are not releived and re tourqued with the vehicle on the ground the bushes will wear much more quickly

i still have the original bushes in mine except the CCorrection ones (ARB) and theyre all still good

 

[Outsane]

I agree with @baldilocks

 

[sunrk]

I always leave bolts finger tight on any suspension link until vehicle is back on the ground, then tighten.

Because I have arms for a 4 inch lift on my 3 inch lifted setup that might be making the rear of the arms move more since the caster is 4+ degrees at present.

 

[baldilocks]

I always leave bolts finger tight on any suspension link until vehicle is back on the ground, then tighten.

Because I have arms for a 4 inch lift on my 3 inch lifted setup that might be making the rear of the arms move more since the caster is 4+ degrees at present.

I run 5* castor on Delta arms. This has nothing to do with the wear rate of oem rubber bushings. Again, how are you determining that the frame mount bushing is failing and allowing excess arm movement?

Did you go to new springs and/or shocks lately?

 

[sunrk]

Short of rigging up some kind of camera under the 80 when I drive over known bits of road that make what I think are the rear mounts of the radius arms 'clunk around' I have no definitive proof, but when I finally get a dry day I'll try prybaring the arms and try to see what the bushes look like. It's pretty simple to drop each arm down with the front axle housing mount in place to look at them out of the mounts.

 

[baldilocks]

Short of rigging up some kind of camera under the 80 when I drive over known bits of road that make what I think are the rear mounts of the radius arms 'clunk around' I have no definitive proof, but when I finally get a dry day I'll try prybaring the arms and try to see what the bushes look like. It's pretty simple to drop each arm down with the front axle housing mount in place to look at them out of the mounts.

Are the bolts properly torqued? For a worn bushing to allow clunking it would have to be completely broken in two.

 

[-Spike-]

Swaybar end bushings can be noisy when damaged.

 

[Gerry McGerry]

Are the bolts properly torqued? For a worn bushing to allow clunking it would have to be completely broken in two.

I had an arm to chassis bushing explode, drove like trash but rode quiet. A shock with two loose mounting bolts made a hell of a racket.