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CRUSH TUBES
oliveoil - 19/12/12 at 09:13 PM

HI EVERY ONE, BACK FROM HOLIDAY NOW, BACK TO THE IMPORTANT STUFF, I HAVE A VELOCITY AND READING ON HERE THE SUSPENSION CRUSH TUBES SUPPLIED ARE TO SHORT, CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE PROPER SIZE. THANKS MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL.LES

computid - 19/12/12 at 09:21 PM

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT BUT WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT US?!?!?!?!?

oliveoil - 19/12/12 at 09:48 PM

sorry everyone les

wylliezx9r - 20/12/12 at 08:20 AM

I had the same thing on my kit. I ended up turning the bushes down so that the crush tubes were slightly longer than the bushes when assembled. I'm guessing you can do the same.

wilkingj - 20/12/12 at 11:34 AM

This is a known Luego issue.
Give the search function a good bashing on here, as its been covered several times before.
If you dont, you end up with solid or very squeaky suspension.

Easy fix is to turn down the outer end of the bush by a few Thou.

Assemble the bush and test in a vice. ie nip up in a vice and you should have free smooth up and down movement with no binding, or end float / play. Dont spend hours by testing on the car.... Like I did

I think I took about 40thou off each bush, or was it 40thou total... Not sure... But it was 7 years ago when I did it!
Do it a bit at a time and test as you go. Take the same off each side to keep it centralised.

When you have the bushed correctly dimensioned, use a bit of silicone rubber grease on them to Lubricate the crush tube to the bush. Helps prevent squeaky suspension!
You can get a small tube from Maplins for about £3 ish. Silicone rubber grease doesnt affect the poly bush, std engine/wheel bearing type grease is not the best in this application.

I put copperease on the Bolt / inside the steel crush tube. This makes them easier to get out in the future. If they rust in they are a pig to get out and usually need to be cut off.

Cheap and easy fix.
It just takes a little time and costs no money to do.

The expensive option is to buy new crush tubes. (but who from?)

Make sure you do the crush tube bolts up TIGHT. My luego manual said to do them up then back off the nut one flat.
Everyone on here agrees this is wrong. If the bolt is even slightly loose, it will wear in the U bracket and make the hole Oval over a period of time.
Once the hole is Oval it will alter the steering geometry.
Also it will mean that you have to cut off and replace the U bracket.

If you carefully sort the bushes, it makes a good job, and gives you smooth squeaky free suspension. It also transforms the handling of the car once the suspension is working correctly.


Hope this is of some help.

oliveoil - 20/12/12 at 07:17 PM

thanks everybody try that les

rusty nuts - 20/12/12 at 08:09 PM

I was one of the original people to highlight this problem , If I was in the same situation now I would either probably reduce the width of the wishbone eyes which I didn't do at the time because I didn't want to damage the powder coating which falls off anyhow or make some stainless crush tube the correct size. Having driven the car before and after sorting the problem it's like driving a different car. If your now building the car from save yourself some grief and sort the powder coating out before going any further

oliveoil - 20/12/12 at 10:04 PM

Hi rusty nuts i bought it as a unfinshed project so trying to put right as igo along les

Steve Lovelock - 23/12/12 at 10:06 PM

I tried turning down the tubes without joy. If you want to do the job properly then you should buy good quality bushes and stainless crush tubes. It is not cheap but it works well. I posted details on here a few years back. Don't scrimp on this would be my advice.

Dave Bailey - 16/1/13 at 02:11 PM

I did exactly that on mine... I bought some poly bushes and had some stainless tubes made.. I also had the chassis blasted and then 50u hot zinc sprayed and two packed.. It has been like this for 4 years and no sign of lifting. Granted I haven't IVAed yet but before I reprinted it I ad rust within a year and it was in the garage...

Dave B

rusty nuts - 16/1/13 at 07:43 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Dave Bailey
I did exactly that on mine... I bought some poly bushes and had some stainless tubes made.. I also had the chassis blasted and then 50u hot zinc sprayed and two packed.. It has been like this for 4 years and no sign of lifting. Granted I haven't IVAed yet but before I reprinted it I ad rust within a year and it was in the garage...

Dave B


Another known Luego problem! Check your powder coating

oliveoil - 6/7/13 at 09:15 PM

Hi Everyone,
I have just taken the top and bottom front suspension arms off, I need to know how much longer the crush tubes should be than the over all width of the poly bushes. Thank people. Les

rusty nuts - 7/7/13 at 06:31 AM

I never measured my when I skimmed the bushes , all I did was to remove a couple of thou at a time from the poly bush, the reassembled ,nipped the crush tube in a vice and check by rotating the arm , repeat until arm rotates freely. IIRC I removed a total of about 0.020" from each outer face of the poly bush so in theory I would have needed 0.040" longer crush tubes .The crush tube only has to be a few thou longer than the assembled poly bush to allow free rotation. It might be worth measuring you own to be sure

oliveoil - 7/7/13 at 09:00 AM

Hi Rusty Nuts
Thanks for the info. on measuring my bushes/crush tubes, the crush tubes length is smaller over all than the width of the bushes. I will get some crush tubes made 1mm longer than the over all width of the bushes. Regards Les

Dave Bailey - 7/7/13 at 09:21 AM

From memory I went 0.5mm over the assembled bush in component length.

Dave B