I am doing a few jobs to the car over the winter, I have striped the de deon tube, and find that due to polybushed radius arms, it dosnt have much movement apart from vertically, one end will only move about 1"/1 1/2" until resistance in the bushes stops it. I am thinking of making new rose jointed radius arms, but fear that could make it worse, my feeling is that I need a bit of compliance in at least one end of each arm i.e. rubber bushes in one end and rose joint the other, so any recommendation for suitable rubber bushes ? size is not critical as I will make the new arms to suit.

Why not use the Triumph bushes as used all round on the wishbones, trailing arms and panhard rod?

Will Rose joints not give a freer movement to the De-Dion and allow the shock absorbers to work better?

[Edited on 1/2/18 by nick205]

I made mine with rose joints one end and poly Bush the other. This gives movement and compliance.

I have read that fully rose jointed will bind /lock solid, probably only one way to find out !! I think the current problem is that the polybushes rotate in one plane only. I think the plan has to be get some rose joints, try fully rose jointed, and if it does bind put either rubber or polybushes on one end of each arm. Thank you for the suggestions

From you discription it sounds like the bushes aren't rotating around the crush tube ? Easy way to test with the rod on the car is to slacken off the bolts a couple of turns.
If the suspension them operates easier then longer crush tubes may help. Do a search on here for crush tubes

The bushes are all rotating fine, the axle moves up and down freely, but if I lift one side the bushes stop that side moving more than an inch or so, The axle is bare at present - shockers, shafts, hubs etc all removed. I don't feel that polybushes are suitable for an application that requires both pivoting and twisting. Rose joints ordered, so I will have the answer soon !

Bit of an update on this, I made 4 rose jointed radius arms, but once fitted I still had the same problem i.e. that I could only lift one side an inch or so, I think the problem is that my radius arms were not parallel, the chassis pick ups were approx. 5/8" closer together (vertically) than the axle pick ups. I think each side of the axle would be twisting forward as it went up, fine if both sides going up but not if it was just one side. I have therefore re drilled the upper front pick up holes 5/8" higher - to match the axle.
Job sorted ! the axle will now move up and down at each side independent of the other end - ok not entirely independent as its a de deon tube.
Now the axle moves freely it is possible that I will get more rear end roll, may have to play with harder springs to compensate, but if it was rolling only a limited amount before, then binding solid, I don't think that would have helped the handling. I am aiming to get it all rebuilt and back on the road/track by March, and will find out if all the work has been worth it !