jim's bushings
 

I'm thinking of buying a set of jim's bushings, but I recently rode in an FD that has them and the rear end clunked worse than my car after 60k of boston potholes(note my friend's car didn't clunk before installing them). What is the verdict on these things?-good or bad?

Chris Carlisi

I heard something similar about clunking and slightly excessive noise after they have been in there awhile..I think that's why some ppl are going to put in zerk fitting (read entire GB thread)...I have the first run set and debating with myself about installation... my car already sweaks like a true race car:D ..need to lube them coilovers...

I think Jim bushing are aimes toward the performance minded..not street only use.

I don't mind squeaks, but the clunking was so excessive in his car, I asked him if his roll cage was loose! What is the GB thread?-I've been off the forum/out of the loop for a couple months:)

In the group buy section... Jim Bushing's...
Towards the end there... ppl start to talk about the zerk fittings for lubrication of the bushings.....

You might want to tell him to check the bolts on his PPF, for starters. They can easily work loose and cause the noise you describe, and this can result in a broken PPF.

Then check the rest of the bolts on the rear suspension, especially if someone else did the work. There's no slop when all the fasteners have been torqued to the proper values. The center pins are fixed in place and there's only about 0.001" of clearance between the Nylon body and the pin. The bushings will, however, make any other suspension noise or "shortcomings" more noticeable. I'd start with the PPF and the fasteners before blaming the bushings.

Also if he does have a bolt-in cage, it will tend to make more noise after the bushings are installed. A weld-in cage obviously would not.

The Zerk fittings were arrived at to allow reapplication of lubricant, if necessary. A few people complained of excessive squeaking and the common trait seemed to be that the cars were used for daily drivers in varying weather conditions. The lubricant was probably being washed away or reduced to the point at which noise resulted. Reapplying lubricant to the bushings solves the problem, and it makes sense to add the Zerk fittings so that this can be done more easily with the suspension on the car. Of the 250 or so sets sold, there have only been a handful (5 or 6) who have complained of this problem.

Anyway, N-Tech Engineering (www.n-tech.net) will be selling the bushings from now on and if you're interested, you should contact Nick and let him know. He'll be starting up a group purchase shortly.

Thanks for the input jim and John. I think I'm going replace mine with stock bushings. I don't do enough corner carving to justify the hassel of additional maintance. I know my friend didn't have the grease ports put in, but was talking about having it done. They were installed by KD along with new shocks and dif bushings. He complained to dave about it and dave suggested the grease fix. I'm just surprised that a lack of grease could make that much noise. Keep in mind (as I'm sure you will:) that I have no first hand knowledge about who or how they were installed. I'm not blaming anyone here, just curious.

Chris

Dave swears by the grease fittings, I'm surprised he didn't put them in. Might have been one of the first few sets he did, though.

Yes must have been...because I've heard the same...all zerk fittings now

So Jim, if I install your bushings in my street driven FD, am I going to have problems with squeaking? I thought the bushings were self-lubricating?

Nylatron GSM is self-lubricating. If you put a piece in your pocket, you'd quickly have a big oily stain. It's also $120+/foot, which is why we ended up going with 17% glass fiber reinforced Nylon 6/6, which "only" costs about $24/foot in quantity. :)

Nylon 6/6 is slippery, but not self-lubricating. It doesn't make much friction, but rides better on the stainless center pin if a lubricant is applied to the pin. The directions have *always* mentioned lubricating, the latest development is adding the ability to RE-lubricate while the suspension is on the car, should it become necessary.

Due to the small number of complaints (5-6 out of 250 sets or so) about noise, it's not likely that you'll have any, but if you *did*, it'd be a lot nicer to be able to do something about it without disassembling any of the suspension, wouldn't it? :)

Install the Zerk fittings, if you have the chance.

Ok sounds good, so where do I get these, and how much are they? Thanks a bunch Jim. Oh, and I want updates on the V8 project!

Read the latest stuff at http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlab/instructions.htm

You can get the Zerk fittings locally, or if you want, you can order them through someone like McMaster Carr (www.mcmaster.com) who has everything under the sun. :)

As far as my engine, the intake was just returned from Hogan's, minus the throttle bracket they were supposed to include, so we're waiting on that. We are also waiting on a set of 72# injectors, and my set of 50s is being sold. 72s were required to support up to a 300-shot dry direct port nitrous system. We'll start at 200 and work up from there, according to Mark, my builder.

The engine should be dyno tuned shortly, assuming we get those two things, and then it'll be packed up and shipped up to me finally. :)

Hi Jim,

Do you still have your installation instructions for the bushings and zerk fittings available?

Thanks!

massi

wow, 9 years old almost to the day since the last post.

Sold mine and bought Superpros!