greetings all

looking for some advice/opinions from the learned members of this forum

Im building a bike engined trike, using sierra diff etc, I have to build the diff cage to my own design as its nothing like the car design, but coming together well, however today just to mock things up and work out the visuals etc, I tightened up the suspension pivot bolts and it just goes solid,

you can just about move the wishbones but takes major effort

I greased the bush tube in the wishbone to press the bushes in, and I greased the crush tube for installation

should I look at skimming a gnats cock off and polishing them before the final build?

or will they bed in after a few miles?

as it is at the moment I could do without shocks and just leave it LOL

You should not grease the tube in the wishbone, it would be better glued in place. Only the crush tube to bush surface should move and the weight of the chassis plus yourself bouncing on it should be enough to free it up.

If you are using polybushes then just tighten up and leave, if using bonded bushes do not tighten until the trike is at its running height or you will destroy the bush.

Regards Mark

thanks guys, they are polybushes

I put a small amount of grease in the wishbone tube just to aid fitment, but they will be getting blasted and cleaned then powdercoated and lacquered before final build, so I will install them dry for that (after removing any powdercoat that crept in there ) LOL

I don't agree with the above. The bushes should form a pivot point and should move freely and accurately, so if it's virtually solid, it's not much good.

1) Ensure that the rubber itself fits nicely into the wishbone bush carrier. If it deforms at all, or you have to force it in, the deformation will cause stiction when tight.

2) Ensure that the crush tubes are marginally longer than the fitted rubber. If they are shorter, when tightened the rubber will cause friction against the wishbone bracket.

I would grease the crush tubes, and also the faces of the bushes which lightly contact the wishbone brackets.

Hi

As Frosty above. This problem alone is whats stopping so many cars/trikes Etc from having sufficient suspension compliance and buggering up so much of the handling on so many cars.

Cheers Matt

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Originally posted by Frosty
I don't agree with the above. The bushes should form a pivot point and should move freely and accurately, so if it's virtually solid, it's not much good.

1) Ensure that the rubber itself fits nicely into the wishbone bush carrier. If it deforms at all, or you have to force it in, the deformation will cause stiction when tight.
I should also add that the MK bushes and crush tubes are differant sizes (at least mine are

2) Ensure that the crush tubes are marginally longer than the fitted rubber. If they are shorter, when tightened the rubber will cause friction against the wishbone bracket.

I would grease the crush tubes, and also the faces of the bushes which lightly contact the wishbone brackets.

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When when we took ours to Procomp the suspension was practically locked due to the bushes binding! I've systematically taken every crush tube out, cleaned and greased them and now its much better but not perfect as essentially the crush tubes arent long enough. Matt (procomp) recommended getting some longer stainless ones made, which is being sorted at the moment, which should make a bigger difference!

[Edited on 5-7-10 by phelpsa]

Common problem with Luego's as already covered on several occasions . When I first built my car the arms were tight and eventually I got fed up with the harsh ride and squeeking. Stripped the worst offending arm off the car , cleaned out and weld penetration from inside the eye and checked the assembled arm/bush/crushtube would rotate when clamped in a vice. Ended up skimming about 0.025"from the outer end of each bush before the arm would pivot. Why can't kit suppliers sort this problem out ? I wonder if tight bush assemblies caused any of the wishbone failures we have seen in the past?

[Edited on 5/7/10 by rusty nuts]

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Originally posted by rusty nuts
I wonder if tight bush assemblies caused any of the wishbone failures we have seen in the past?

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I'm trying to get my head around how it works

So the crush tube should bolt up against the bone brackets and the bush should pivot around the tube as the suspension moves, is that right?

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Originally posted by Johneturbo
I'm trying to get my head around how it works

So the crush tube should bolt up against the bone brackets and the bush should pivot around the tube as the suspension moves, is that right?

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Apologies for the slight thread hijack but...

What sort of grease is recommended for poly or metalastic bushes?

Mine seems to creak an awful lot at the moment and I think a good strip, clean and lube (oo-er) might help just not sure which type of grease is best.

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Originally posted by hobbsy
Apologies for the slight thread hijack but...

What sort of grease is recommended for poly or metalastic bushes?

Mine seems to creak an awful lot at the moment and I think a good strip, clean and lube (oo-er) might help just not sure which type of grease is best.

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Ok, I think I've got some similar stuff already at home. It's white and thick right?

thanks for the advice guys, I am going to leave as is for now, but will chuck all the bushes in the lathe, skim the faces by a smidge, but also take the crush tubes down a thou or 2 and also polish the hell out of them

bushes were a proper tight fit in the wishbones, but was rather shocked at the way the crush tubes went in, or rather didnt go in!

it was a proper vice job to get them in

didnt feel right to me and appears now that its certainly not right.

this is all dry build so will make notes in the lil black book of ideas and jobs to do, then sort on final build

thanks all

quote:

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Originally posted by hobbsy
Ok, I think I've got some similar stuff already at home. It's white and thick right?

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Hi

Regardless of what product you use to lubricate the inner pivot/bushes with it will never really prevent damp/moisture getting to the mild steel inner pivots and corroding. The better solution is to replace with stainless. That's how genuine polyurethane bushes come as STD.

If you are going to put the effort into correcting the problem it will be far easier to do it right first time than end up having to do it anyhow eventually.

Cheers Matt

I would like to replacement my metalastic bushes in the Fury with polybushes but from what you said when we spoke some time ago Matt they aren't available in sizes to suit?

I get a fair bit of stiction at the moment as you saw when setting it up.

If enough people requested a set for a certain application then I guess we could get some made?

quote:

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Originally posted by procomp
Hi

Regardless of what product you use to lubricate the inner pivot/bushes with it will never really prevent damp/moisture getting to the mild steel inner pivots and corroding. The better solution is to replace with stainless. That's how genuine polyurethane bushes come as STD.

If you are going to put the effort into correcting the problem it will be far easier to do it right first time than end up having to do it anyhow eventually.

Cheers Matt

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quote:

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Originally posted by hobbsy
I would like to replacement my metalastic bushes in the Fury with polybushes but from what you said when we spoke some time ago Matt they aren't available in sizes to suit?

I get a fair bit of stiction at the moment as you saw when setting it up.

If enough people requested a set for a certain application then I guess we could get some made?

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quote:

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Originally posted by hobbsy
I would like to replacement my metalastic bushes in the Fury with polybushes but from what you said when we spoke some time ago Matt they aren't available in sizes to suit?

I get a fair bit of stiction at the moment as you saw when setting it up.

If enough people requested a set for a certain application then I guess we could get some made?

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Hi

Slight confusion regarding the stiction there. It's not stiction that the metalastic bushes give. They are a bonded bush so the rubber is bonded to the inner crush tube if you like and the outer housing. This gives resistance to wishbone movement. By replacing with poly bushes you remove the resistance and gain compliance. That's not to say that you cant account for the resistance by adding it into the springing setup. But far better to let the wishbones move freely and let the damper/spring do that job.

Hence the reason you have to slacken all the suspension bushes when setting the car up if it has metalastic bushes fitted and re tighten when the car is set and back at a finished ride height.

Hope that sort of makes sense. was typed in a rush.

Cheers Matt

Yes that makes sense. I now understand the problem a bit better.

I don't know what sizes the bushes are without measuring them or what they are off but I was lead to believe I can't get them off the shelf in polyurethane