poly vs. rubber control arm bushings

[johnunit]

95-97 brakes are a little bigger, and fit behind a 15" wheel. Thats as good as it gets for braking without a wheel upgrade.

And those come with (presumably better) cast control arms.

So my parts list for that would be control arms, calipers and pads, spindles, rotors, wheel bearings, and poly bushings?

They wouldn't work with my current spindles, right? I'm sorta trying to avoid swapping that stuff because of all the brake parts being new anyway. It's the bushings and a couple balljoints that are really toast.

[johnunit]

You might want to give some thought to a bit of a rake. I noticed significant results from having an air dam alone, and then not much, if any, added benefit from a rake (on my 2000 MGM with rear air suspension). But, when I took off the air dam for winter, I didn't lose much of the benefits. The rake alone seems to be almost as beneficial as the air dam alone.

True enough. I guess I should have said I don't want an obvious/cosmetic rake. I definitely don't want nose-up, iI'm just not out for the streetmachine or snowplow look.

[gadget73]

95-97 stuff would not be able to use the stock spindle, rotor, caliper, or pads. You could keep the stock lower arm, and use the 92-94 upper arm. Its basically the same process as the 98-02 brakes, except you use 95-97 bearing, rotor, caliper, caliper bracket and pads. The spindle assembly is the same 95-2002. The only thing that uses stock brake parts is the stock brakes.

[johnunit]

95-97 stuff would not be able to use the stock spindle, rotor, caliper, or pads. You could keep the stock lower arm, and use the 92-94 upper arm. Its basically the same process as the 98-02 brakes, except you use 95-97 bearing, rotor, caliper, caliper bracket and pads. The spindle assembly is the same 95-2002. The only thing that uses stock brake parts is the stock brakes.

That's what I'd figured.

Stock arms it is I guess. Part of why I wanted to buy new arms one way or another was then I'd have painted arms and wouldn't have to install the poly bushings and ball joints while the car took up a hoist at work or was otherwise without wheels. All 4 control arms, with burning out the bushings and pressing in ball joints, and shocks sounds like a full day's work even without cleaning the arms up all pretty. Pretty annoying that Rockauto doesn't have uppers for anything pre-95.

[johnunit]

While I'm at it, anyone try these yet?

http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/sum-77-3364001/overview/year/1990/make/ford/model/ltd-crown-victoria

[sly]

never knew those even existed. Expensive buggers though.

[slack]

That's what I'd figured.

Stock arms it is I guess. Part of why I wanted to buy new arms one way or another was then I'd have painted arms and wouldn't have to install the poly bushings and ball joints while the car took up a hoist at work or was otherwise without wheels. All 4 control arms, with burning out the bushings and pressing in ball joints, and shocks sounds like a full day's work even without cleaning the arms up all pretty. Pretty annoying that Rockauto doesn't have uppers for anything pre-95.

Yeah it is. I actually ended up doing mine over the course of 4 days or something on the weekends. Reassembling and taking back apart the following week.... I wouldn't recommend doing it that way... wayy too much extra work . If I could have I would have done them all at once but yeah it's a decent amount of labor. The bushings took longer than I expected to burn out. Putting the poly's in took little to no effort though. (I bought extra assembly grease/goop)

never knew those even existed. Expensive buggers though.

Me either. Might be interesting!

[turbo2256b]

Wouldnt use the roller brg ones if they could be made to fit. Reason would only use on a track only vehicle. One the street dirt and water might get in the bearings and there junk after that.

[gadget73]

yeah I don't see that holding up to DD use. Also, the NVH would be fairly horrible. Closest comprimise would probably be Delrin bushings. They are very hard, but have no moving parts so there isn't much for water or dirt to damage.

[johnunit]

Fair points, I hadn't considered whether they were sealed.

[turbo2256b]

There is another thing about poly bushings is they do not provide tortional spring action.

[slack]

There is another thing about poly bushings is they do not provide tortional spring action.

Curious what exactly you mean by this. (Honestly not sure).

[IPreferDIY]

I'm guessing his comment relates to poly bushings not being bonded to the outer shell and inner sleeve the way the rubber ones are.

[johnunit]

Yeah, poly bushings don't resist rotation of the joint like rubber bushings that have to twist to allow movement. That's why poly bushings can squeak, they're moving relative to their shells. If a rubber bushing squeeks ssomething is wrong.

[gadget73]

The torsional bit shouldn't be all that significant. it is a factor, sure, but it probably does more to dampen the spring than actually adding any significant spring action of it's own. Likely you can make up for this easy enough with a stiffer set of shocks.


All this is preference. I have a set on my Towncar front and back and have no complaints about it. Scott dislikes them. I have a set on my Mark VII and hate them. At some point, I will pull those arms back off and change the bushings to rubber. I'm just hoping I can get away with just changing the front back to rubber on that and eliminate that whole kidney stress test thing that it seems fond of doing.