ZSS Racing

[GTSBoy]

When I had urethane bushes in various of my suspension arms, I used to grease them regularly and probably replaced them at ~5 yr intervals. I found this to be annoying, but fine.

I now have harder rubber bushes in some arms, sphericals in others. The rubber ones get no attention at all and if they ever die and they are not available, I will just either buy complete new arms of the same type, or maybe buy sphericals to go onto them (which is usually possible). The existing sphericals I have demand regular attention. I clean and grease them at least annually and have replaced some of them at least twice, across the 6 or so years that they have been on the car. Although the front caster rod sphericals have been on the car for nearly 20 years and they are trouble free.

[silviaz]

1 minute ago, GTSBoy said:

When I had urethane bushes in various of my suspension arms, I used to grease them regularly and probably replaced them at ~5 yr intervals. I found this to be annoying, but fine.

I now have harder rubber bushes in some arms, sphericals in others. The rubber ones get no attention at all and if they ever die and they are not available, I will just either buy complete new arms of the same type, or maybe buy sphericals to go onto them (which is usually possible). The existing sphericals I have demand regular attention. I clean and grease them at least annually and have replaced some of them at least twice, across the 6 or so years that they have been on the car. Although the front caster rod sphericals have been on the car for nearly 20 years and they are trouble free.

Yeah, that's a pain lol. I'm gonna be going with the Nismo ones that morboost mentioned.

[GTSBoy]

I put up with the degrees of pain associated in order to obtain the best performance.

My main requirement, particularly in the rear is full adjustability of both upper arm lengths to allow me to minimise bump steer. The bushes involved are somewhat secondary to that consideration.

[Murray_Calavera]

27 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

When I had urethane bushes in various of my suspension arms, I used to grease them regularly and probably replaced them at ~5 yr intervals. I found this to be annoying, but fine.

I now have harder rubber bushes in some arms, sphericals in others. The rubber ones get no attention at all and if they ever die and they are not available, I will just either buy complete new arms of the same type, or maybe buy sphericals to go onto them (which is usually possible). The existing sphericals I have demand regular attention. I clean and grease them at least annually and have replaced some of them at least twice, across the 6 or so years that they have been on the car. Although the front caster rod sphericals have been on the car for nearly 20 years and they are trouble free.

Slightly off topic question, but this jogged my memory - 

Is there anything special you need to do to inspect the spherical bushes / is it obvious when they become worn? 

I also do the some poly, some spherical and it might be the case that I've had some spherical bushes for maybe 5 years? without any thought/maintenance/they haven't been touched since installed.... 

I've always associated worn bushes with clunking noises, so no clunk, no issue, but I'm guessing this isn't actually best practice lol. 

[GTSBoy]

With sphericals you have to exercise a little extra paranoia. There's a number of things to be paranoid about. The parranoia may well be true paranoia, but the consequences of anything bad actually happening can be pretty dire, so the effort spent is probably worth it.

This list may not be complete, in fact probably isn't. It's just what rolls around in my head.

If they get scores on them then they can crack. So a piece of grit that manages to get dragged inside might bring you undone.

If they come loose at all (on the adjuster locknuts) then they can rotate to the point where they bid at one end of travel because they're not centered any more. Perhaps, if they have loosened, then this won't load them enough to cause them to fail, but it is well known that they should not be operated such that they reach the limit of rotation.

Depending on what other noises are around, you may not hear them moving if they are significantly worn, but if they are significantly worn, because they are such a small ball relative to the lever length of the arm, a little freeplay can result in quite a loss of control of arm angle/position.

If they get wet they can rust.

[Murray_Calavera]

15 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

With sphericals you have to exercise a little extra paranoia. There's a number of things to be paranoid about. The parranoia may well be true paranoia, but the consequences of anything bad actually happening can be pretty dire, so the effort spent is probably worth it.

This list may not be complete, in fact probably isn't. It's just what rolls around in my head.

If they get scores on them then they can crack. So a piece of grit that manages to get dragged inside might bring you undone.

If they come loose at all (on the adjuster locknuts) then they can rotate to the point where they bid at one end of travel because they're not centered any more. Perhaps, if they have loosened, then this won't load them enough to cause them to fail, but it is well known that they should not be operated such that they reach the limit of rotation.

Depending on what other noises are around, you may not hear them moving if they are significantly worn, but if they are significantly worn, because they are such a small ball relative to the lever length of the arm, a little freeplay can result in quite a loss of control of arm angle/position.

If they get wet they can rust.

Sounds good. 

So I don't need to do anything extreme like attack them with a pry bar to see if there is a mm of travel or anything like that?

[GTSBoy]

If you disconnect the spring&shock unit from the suspension, so you can move the arms up and down more easily, then you can generally feel by hand if there is anything to be worried about at the pivots. Same as if it was any other bushing. A prybar may or may not help with some of the directions that you might want to push things.

Anyway, when they are firm, they are firm. You can really feel that there is nothing going anywhere. If you ever have doubts, you know it feels a little wrong compared to when they were new, then there is probably some play. We're talking really tiny movements here though that the insensitive might just gloss over. You just have to filter out the effects of imagination.