red_dragon

iTrader: (10)

I recently bought Joe's (Mr. Mahtab) FD with the 18 piece unobtanium suspension bushings. Whenever get car gets warm they get really noisy, clunking and popping noises everywhere, mostly front the front, sometimes from the back. So he said I just have to grease them up every once in a while. Does anyone else with these bushings have to do the same thing?

AnthonyNYC

iTrader: (3)

I did a search a while back before I got these and this was a common complaint. Search under the name jimlab and bushings and see if anything comes up other than greasing them often.

NewbernD

iTrader: (1)

I'll echo what Gordon said. While they provide a very crisp steering response, after everything warms up they make a little noise. I think I may wind up replacing my fronts (the noisy ones) with some urethane bushings. I drilled the suspension arms and installed zerk fittings when I installed them, so lubing them is as easy as applying a grease gun.

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

These bushing suck for everything including racing unless you like to constantly align your car.

jkstill

iTrader: (11)

Why is that?

BryanDowns

iTrader: (2)

Ditto.

I've had delrin bushings in my car for about 2 years (give or take... ) and around 8000 miles. I recently took it to the alignment rack and it was almost the exact same as it was when I first got it aligned on 3 of the corners. (The 4th corner was off because I took the arms off on that side. The 4th corner was why I was getting it re-aligned)

I'm curious to know why you think this?


edit: also - YES install grease fittings. Mine started sounding like a wooden wagon on the oregon trail after about 18-20 months when the original grease finally wore off. I drilled the arms with them on the car, minus a complication on that 4th corner mentioned above, and installed grease fittings and the noise went away.

I really dont think you have to be that hardcore to use these, though if I were to do it over Id likely have the poly ones and thats where I would steer others too. I certainly wouldnt spend the money/time to remove them though, just grease them once every couple years or something.

red_dragon

iTrader: (10)

Ahh ok that makes sense. The prev owner didn't put on the grease fittings. Can you point me to the right direction on how to do these and such? What parts are needed?

Fritz Flynn

iTrader: (263)

Driving a car w/ slicks on it will put tremendous stress and vibration on the susp causing things to move and even vibrate loose and delrin bushings add to this problem. I've bent two sway bar mounts, broke two rear sway bar end links etc....I'm also guessing that the wheel bearings will suffer as well. When I was driving Gene Felbers old car he had delrins in certain parts of the front susp and I had to replace two front wheel bearings during the 18 months that I drove his old car. Years ago I remember Cam Worth talking about these bushing and mentioning he had to constantly check alignment. I doubt any of us will ever stress a chassis like a pro driver but the point is they aren't suited for road racing.

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

I'm a huge fan of the Mazdaspeed bushing set (rubber, 40% stiffer than stock). I have the entire suspension set (motor mounts and steering linkage to go in soon) and they transform the car without any noise or harshness.

I think they are still available (despite most Mazdaspeed FD parts being discontinued) but they are 2x the price of dDelrin or the like.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

Adding to what Fritz said, I exchanged PMs with Gene some years ago about these bushings. He said that he specifically replaced certain bushings to try and increase drive-ability of the car.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

They are available for Mazda racers through Mazda Motorsports. They are seriously expensive though.

BryanDowns

iTrader: (2)

Assuming they are the delrin bushings (not the jimlab unobtanium's, they are different and the thread title seemed to say both??) then the delrins have a "lube groove" in the middle of them. I used this to my advantage and simply drilled the arms while on the car into the "lube groove". As soon as I went through the delrin you would hear a "clunk" from the empty area of the lube groove. I stopped then. Vaccumed, and q-tipped out any debress, and tap'ed the hole for a grease fitting. This worked on all bushings except one, on the last corner (last bushing as well I might add) where I stupidly broke off the small drill bit into the lube groove and couldnt get it out. (This is actually why I had to re-align the car because I had to take the lower arm off to remove the broken off drill bit piece. )

All noises are gone. Doing it on the car probably isnt reccommended, so be safe I will say the arm I took off I went ahead and pulled out the pin on the other bushing I had already drilled/cleaned and didnt see/feel any debress in there, so I guess it worked out for me

If you have the actual NYLON unobtanium Jimlab ones, I dont know if they have a "lube groove" or not. If there isnt one, I would wonder if you could get away with this, because how would you know when to stop drilling?

Good luck!

red_dragon

iTrader: (10)

Wait...the unobtanium ones are nylon? I guess I was totally misinformed then! So what's the deal with the nylon ones then? Does clunking mean worn out?

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

Either way, nylon or delrin, you're better off with mazdaspeed or urathane. A little bit of absorption isn't a bad thing. I remember talking to Gene F. as well about his car, and one of the reasons he removed them was also that it made the car very darty and unforgiving, particularly on uneven surfaces, not to mention noisy and uncomfortable on the road.

DaveW

Remember, also, that a bushing that flexes rather than slides will generally be better in several aspects:
1. Flex bushings mostly add spring rate. Sliding bushings add mostly friction (bad for grip and makes it harder to set corner weights).
2. Flex bushings generally last longer than sliding bushings due to not having sliding gaps where dirt can get in and cause wear.
3. Flex bushings, as stated previously, are less noisy.

pomanferrari

iTrader: (1)

Not according to Jim Labreck: the unobtanium nylon 6/6 bullshings that he peddled and hawked were for off-road uses.

Contrary to people saying the bushings made the steering and handling tighter, I found out that it was the opposite as the car heats up, in hot weather or if you're pounding on it. The steering got looser and less predictable and the noise, lord the noise, turn the steering wheel and your car groans as if you're on a sailing slave ship tacking into heavy winds.

I had zerks fittings and lubed them religiously but did no good. Ended up buying all new front and rear arms (something like $2000 to fix a $600 purchase).

EDIT:

But 4 years later Jim tells us that off-road uses of the bushings means your car is on jack-stands with these bullshings. When used as indicated by him ("off-road") you should not have any problems.

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

I think the horse is dead.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

I think we should all get together and drink some beer in memory of the horse. :-)

red_dragon

iTrader: (10)

Oh man. That's totally my experience with the bushings so far. When it's cold, it feels really tight, but also really rough, and then when it's warm, the car gets all loose feeling and strange (also very bouncy for some reason). Sigh. Another thing to add to my list. I think the prev owner got the 18 piece kit, should I switch them all out or are there a few that won't matter if left as nylon?

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

I love mine. They almost give my FD the rawness that my Integra Type-R had.

Has anybody ever tried the entire Original Box set? I believe this set replaced all the rubber bushings with pillowballs.

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

I think John Magnuson did on his car. Its for sale here:
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-rx-7-1993-2002-vehicles-107/fs-track-street-93-fd-successful-racing-history-streetable-w-full-cage-831188/

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

For reference, here is the Mazdaspeed set:



Includes all control arm rubber bushings, trailing arm bushings, differential mount bushings, inner toe link (not outer), anti-roll, shock mounts, motor mounts, and steering linkage.

About $3k for the entire set (including anti-rolll bars), which sounds expensive (and is) but not much more than the price of a set of high end wheels. By far the best $3k I have spent on any car.

The real pain with these is installing them.

pomanferrari

iTrader: (1)

Well if anyone in the bay area needs a 10 ton hydraulic press, I have one to do the job.

jimlab

Poman resurrects the horse frequently. He also uses the ship metaphor frequently. I'm beginning to suspect that he's not a deep thinker.

jimlab

Depends on the condition of the bushings. Since I haven't sold them for 6+ years, they could be anything up to 8-9 years old.

Keep the trailing arm and diff bushings if they're in good shape. Replace the front upper and lower control arm bushings (assuming the ball joints are in good shape, which is unlikely if you have a high mileage car) with stock parts from Ray Crowe. Replace the rear upper control arm bushings with stock parts also, and check the condition of the all the pillow bushings in the rear. If excessively worn (they last about 60k-80k miles) they can produce a lot of clunking noise and will make the rear of the car feel loose.

The Super Pro poly bushings seem to work well, but like any low-volume part produced by an individual or a small vendor, they don't have years of testing to determine if they'll hold up well or how much maintenance will be involved, if any. If you have the coin and inclination, buy the Mazdaspeed rubber bushings, but I doubt there's a substantial measurable (as opposed to mental) difference between them and stock bushings.