I just got my car on the rode and it feels a little sloppy in the rear. I was thinking about machining some delrin bushings to take some slop out, anyone every ran that on the leaf springs and shackles?

 

It would be a good idea if you find some slop in those spots. A panhard bar also works pretty well to settle the rear down. I'd do bushings first and see if that is enough for what you are looking for, a panhard on a leaf spring vehicle is pretty extreme. I'm not sure the rear of the car is heavy enough to really put a side bend on the springs if they are snug with the bushings.

 

I don't have any personal experience with delrin bushings and leaf springs but I think as long as the joint only has one axis of rotation it should be fine and would definitely take up some slop compared to the stock rubber.

If you can machine it yourself why not just give it a try and see what happens?

I hear delrin as a rotational bushing is squeaky though. I just ordered some UHWM polyethylene control arm bushing for my BMW. haven't installed them yet but they are self lubricating and are supposed to be silent and almost as stiff as delrin.

 

cool, I will look into that material. I definitely don't want a squeeky ride. Settin up my turning center is gonna take a while, so I wanna use the proper material for sure. thanks.

 

My experience with Delrin bushings are limited to the FD chassis. Delrin bushings are very noisy (creaks, popping/cracking sounds) and require constant greasing to keep noise levels down. I think they're good on a full blown track car where noise isnt an issue but personally wouldnt run them on a dual purpose street car. If you can get good polyurethane stock and machine these bushings, go this route instead. If not, check out my thread for poly bushings by clicking here. I've had good feedback from people running poly in the rear shackles.

 

Leaf springs need to articulate so the one of the best set ups for the rx4 would be factory oem or group N rubber front eye bushings and YES give the shackles Derlin why not or nolathane, a custom leaf spring with a mid eye front and rear and an extra Half main leaf because you want the front part of the leaf to act like a control arm and the rear to do the spring work especially if you have a turbo 13b , a 1 1/2 inch or 2 inch drop and either a single adjustable or double adjustable rear shock, if you go hard around corners a Panhard is a must and Yes I have driven an rx4 with one and it does make a substantial difference , a sway bar wouldnt hurt as well either a 16mm or an 18mm would complement the front nicely.