DieselDan
Dedicated LVC Member
Evening fellas,
Felt like sharing my experience for the evening with all of you. I have been chasing a small front suspension gremlin for a little while now and have replaced most of the front suspension. The upper control arms, sway bar links, tie rod ends, and RH Lower control arm are all Moog/TRW. The lower control arms were installed on my car by the previous owner, by Jamie. They are OE brand. Anyway, the LH lower BJ has had a torn boot for maybe 3 years now, but I kept it lubed via the grease fitting and it didn't give me much trouble. Well, I decided that I wanted to replace the strut rod bushings, thinking that was the source of the rocking in the steering wheel I was getting on braking. I ordered a Moog ball joint, and a pair of Movotech strut rod bushings. The ball joint was great, I have used them in my past 2 Marks. The strut rod bushings however not so much. First thing I noticed was that they were red, no biggie, just odd. I took them out of the bag they were in, and the bag was covered inside with red powder and the bushings themselves looked almost melted a little bit. If you squeezed them, more of the hard exterior (plastic?) would flake off... Anyway, I had my car completely disassembled from last night in anticipation of the parts arriving today. I went outside and hung the control arm on the car and got my BJ press out to begin putting it in. Now keep in mind, this is an OE arm with a Moog BJ. The ball joint can be completely seated by hand, no good. It seems that the hole for the BJ is oversized and will not accept a aftermarket joint, causing my LCA useless. And, on that note, when I slid the sleeve into the new strut rod bushing, a chunk of the red plastic/rubber came out with it and the stretching of the bushing exposed a whole bunch of cracks. I will post pictures up later. Anyway, my time is limited as I have been working all the OT I can get at work, and that leaves me with one day off a week. My solution to this problem, since I need to get it fixed before work on Saturday is go to the upulland pay and get a (hopefully) stock arm, and press my Moog joint into it and roll with that. I wasn't trying to cheap out on the strut rod bushings, or not buying a whole control arm, but with a kid a month away, and my solo income, things have been pretty tight... I would have spent more money though, knowing what a POS these bushings were going to be.
Felt like sharing my experience for the evening with all of you. I have been chasing a small front suspension gremlin for a little while now and have replaced most of the front suspension. The upper control arms, sway bar links, tie rod ends, and RH Lower control arm are all Moog/TRW. The lower control arms were installed on my car by the previous owner, by Jamie. They are OE brand. Anyway, the LH lower BJ has had a torn boot for maybe 3 years now, but I kept it lubed via the grease fitting and it didn't give me much trouble. Well, I decided that I wanted to replace the strut rod bushings, thinking that was the source of the rocking in the steering wheel I was getting on braking. I ordered a Moog ball joint, and a pair of Movotech strut rod bushings. The ball joint was great, I have used them in my past 2 Marks. The strut rod bushings however not so much. First thing I noticed was that they were red, no biggie, just odd. I took them out of the bag they were in, and the bag was covered inside with red powder and the bushings themselves looked almost melted a little bit. If you squeezed them, more of the hard exterior (plastic?) would flake off... Anyway, I had my car completely disassembled from last night in anticipation of the parts arriving today. I went outside and hung the control arm on the car and got my BJ press out to begin putting it in. Now keep in mind, this is an OE arm with a Moog BJ. The ball joint can be completely seated by hand, no good. It seems that the hole for the BJ is oversized and will not accept a aftermarket joint, causing my LCA useless. And, on that note, when I slid the sleeve into the new strut rod bushing, a chunk of the red plastic/rubber came out with it and the stretching of the bushing exposed a whole bunch of cracks. I will post pictures up later. Anyway, my time is limited as I have been working all the OT I can get at work, and that leaves me with one day off a week. My solution to this problem, since I need to get it fixed before work on Saturday is go to the upulland pay and get a (hopefully) stock arm, and press my Moog joint into it and roll with that. I wasn't trying to cheap out on the strut rod bushings, or not buying a whole control arm, but with a kid a month away, and my solo income, things have been pretty tight... I would have spent more money though, knowing what a POS these bushings were going to be.
