I bought a kit of bushes that are suposed to be designed to fit my car..
However.. when I went to fit them I discovered that the total width of the wishbone tube and two bush heads comes to 42mm..
The crush tubes I have are 38mm
I might be able to squash the bush a LOT to get it to bite on the crush tube..
But should the crush tube ideally be longer so it bites on the suspension hangers much tighter than the actuall poly bush?
Ha hah!
Way to start a big argument from the old days! 
In my opinion, the crush tube should be ever so slightly wider than the bushes. That way the wishbone and bush will rotate around the stationary crush
tube.
If the crush tube is too much wider then the wishbone may slide laterally... which you don't want. So I'm talking wider by less than
1mm!
HTH,
James
On everything else with polybushes that I have seen, landrovers, range rovers etc the crush tube is flush to the bush allowing it to rotate without
lateral movement.
So us southerners are in agreement here
quote:
Originally posted by James
If the crush tube is too much wider then the wishbone may slide laterally... which you don't want. So I'm talking wider by less than 1mm!
HTH,
James
IMHO the crush tube should be +0.5mm wider than the total thickness of the press fitted bushes. The tube will then be clamped firmly before the
bracket starts clamping the bushes therefore allowing free rotation of the bushes around the crush tube.
As per AFJ above - on my Indy I had to selectively assemble the bushes and crush tubes to get the best fit and even then ended up trimming some of the
crush tubes to take out any lateral movement.
The crush tube MUST be done up tight and solid.
The Pivot point is the crush tube, NOT the Bolt, which is the securing device.
Test by assembling the bush, and nipping up in a vice. You should have a smooth movement of the arm, and no lateral movement in the bush.
You can pad out the crush tube with small washers or by turning down the outside of the bush in a lathe. Or by reducing the width of the tube on the
arm, but that messes up the integrity of the powder coating. I tuned down the bush.
DO NOT have a loose bolt to allow the arm to turn.
1. It wears the Bolt and can become dangerous if it breaks.
2. A loose bolt will allow the holes in the brackets to elongelate / oval and mean you will have to change them later on. Again potentially dangerous
and a MoT fail through free play.
Either get correct lengths of crush tubes, or pad with small washer, or turn down the poly bush to give the correct clamping and clearance.
This is really the only way to solve this.
Finally lubricate the poly bushes with Silicone Rubber grease (Tube from Maplins is £3.99, or a grease suitable for rubber ONLY. (I think code RE90X -
its in a TUBE not a can of spray)
Do not use mineral / axle / wheel bearing grease.
[Edited on 29/5/2009 by wilkingj]
Hmm.. looks like I will have to get in touch with the suppliers...
At £11 per bush.. and having 24 on the car.... that was a lot of money for it to be wrong!!
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
At £11 per bush..
How much? Those wouldnt fit though!
Its an unusal car with even more obscure parts.... 
Hi
What needs to be established first is whether we are talking about genuine Polly bushes IE superflex etc or the cheap nasty things that the general
kit car market are using.
The genuine type should be as mentioned above flush. The cheap versions need to be 0.25 mm longer to actually allow free movement.
Cheers Matt
Popcorn - check
Comfy chair - check
Ok we're ready.....
Cheers
Chris 
These are proper superflex bushes... the expensive ones!
I guess its not a problem that the two halves of the bush dont meet inside the wishbone tube?
I emailed the supplier asking what they would suggest....