4g61t.org

Sway bar bushing goes bad, sway bars don't work as well, control arm bushing goes bad, car is unsafe to drive. Big difference.

_________________
Had a:
1991 Eagle Summit ES Hatchback - 4g15 12v 5spd
1991 Dodge Colt -4g15 12v 4spd
Have a:
1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass - 468BBO TH350
Round 3:
1990 Dodge Colt-4G63T 5spd

Go bad? We are talking about a 1mm gap. Mine has a very minute amount of play. What do you think is going to "go bad"? Maybe I should break out my electrical tape instead of buying a 2 dollar bushing. Do you have these bushings on your car with turbo control arms? 99% of CSM's are running around with the factory rubber bushings so perished they're probably "unsafe" to drive.

You do realize that teflon tape has little to no substance to it right? It's less than paper thin and would easily squish out the first time the bushing saw load. You can go back and read my warning about not using substandard filler on a control arm bushing. ColtiXim did it the correct way with a metal spacer.

_________________
Had a:
1991 Eagle Summit ES Hatchback - 4g15 12v 5spd
1991 Dodge Colt -4g15 12v 4spd
Have a:
1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass - 468BBO TH350
Round 3:
1990 Dodge Colt-4G63T 5spd

i've done some googling, and quite a bit of reading, and it seems the teflon tape trick is by and far not to take up slack, but to stop squeaking bushings. and quite a few people were complaining that while it stopped the noise for a while, the bushings tore the tape up pretty quickly.

seriously though, electrical tape on swaybars is a bad idea, and so is teflon tape on a bushing that is rather important to the safety of the car. do it right, or don't do it at all guys.

either way, simmer down please.

Alright, so here is where things stand.

We are here to help, it's a two way street.

There are many threads containing bushing info, new information that I have received regarding US based contacts instead of SuperPro directly answering my questions via email (thinking a phone call would be best), and none of this gets us very far up and until this point because of discrepancies.

Our biggest issue is the lack of knowledge of what parts cross over from the non turbo and turbo style (from the North American point of view) and the pre facelift/post facelift/ non and turbo variations from the JDM/AUS/NZ points of view.

We have an offer of information to help in this regard and I had posted a thread in the moderators section so as to drum up some business surrounding the poly bushing information listed to the site.

We don't censor postings outright, unless there is a major reason.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, on either side of the fence.

With that in mind, please be respectful of people, regardless of title.

Debate is fine, there is no reason it can't be written out calmly, so as to come to a concensus (with or without the help of others watching this over the net).

I posted the reasons why there are issues when ordering bushings just a little earlier in this thread I believe. Other members have been coming up with solutions to solve crossover between correct bushings with alternate control arms or vice versa; where there is a will, there is a way - but better to know what part works correctly, the first time!

Seeing as how you are learning that not everything went as planned, it would help to know which bushings did NOT work, with the EXACT parts you were using, so as to further backup what information will be compiled for future use to save people the headaches you have just gone through. Seem reasonable? It's a thought.

We lost use of our site gallery when the site changed hands some time back. We don't have the password, or a back door reset feature as of yet to reinstate it.
When and if we can get another gallery going, we can have some more permanent to backup photos that make this site what it is, one of the best remaining sites for 89-92 style CSM's.

The weigh in on sway bars bushing "shimming" and control arm bushing sleeves to take up play in the rear bushings.

A sway bar can be omitted from a vehicle entirely and was sometimes an option! J body Cavaliers/Sunfires comes to mind. It is not a major safety issue, if the vehicle handles well enough with slop in a bushing set or if the links meet spec for play, but still rattle.
Adding electrical tape to a bar where the firewall/front subframe mounts hold a sway bar can help reduce clunking and help restore some function to a well worn or even corroded setup. It is a bandaid, but stands to reason that it is not a major safety issue.
If using some loops of Teflon tape on a bar stops the infamous squeak, then it is performing the same function that the white grease that ships and is directed for use with poly parts to metal, was intended to do.

Control arm bushings that get weak and whether from actual separation or just weakening of the joint, allow the control arm to move outside it engineered movement path, you have a dangerous situation!
Ever watch a wheel that feels like it is brakes locking it up at a front corner, as it rolls and then reduces speed as it is coming into a shop to be lifted? I've seen wheels "sway/shudder" and exhibit 2-4 inches of free play under these loaded circumstances It's unbelievably scary to think a vehicle will instantly exhibit almost zero caster on one corner just by hitting the brakes, when the opposite front wheel is still 2-3 degrees positive ! That is unsafe, and will cause a pull or worse. That fails minimum road worthy standards anywhere you go, I am sure.

Our ancient rubber OEM control arm bushing are constantly being over powered, run at angles necer intended or tested at, and have become unpredictable.

Case in point, my car.

I sit 2" lower, now have an LSD, rear axle setup must not be completely in line with my front tires due to being lower than 1.5" per math established here years ago; I should have an adjustable rear panhard rod setup.

I get a pull to the right.

Alignment dead on.
Sometimes pull is gone, regardless of crown.
Pull force changes more than the direction of the wind.
I have done everything with regards to alignment, and knowing that all my other components are in good working order or better, I have only one part that could now be the culprit!
Worn out suspension bushings that would have been happy with a car rolling under 140HP duty, at stock ride height, in a warm climate for say 50-100,000 KMs.

My chassis now has 200,0xx kilometers as of this past week.
My engine produces 2-3 times more torque into the driveline than stock, and my lower control arm bushings have never been slacked off and re tightened at the new ride height, like I would always do when replacing parts on a customers car. I couldn't afford the meddle with those bolts when I installed the drop springs.
The only parts on the car that haven't been changed, are my upper strut mounts, lower control arms/bushings, rear trailing arm bushings, panhard rod bushings and rear upper strut mounts.

I have front upper mounts, rear upper hardware kit and some free time soon to try and remedy all these weak points; next step is my control arm bushings once we have sorted out the finite details to make ordering easier, or to find out if SuperPro is still on the ball (we're not far enough in to make any assumptions yet).

We're all getting there slowly, an trying to post correct and relevant info when possible.

JUST FOR REFERENCE(adding this to the new superPro thread as i type)


the peg on the back of turbo control arms is slightly thinner than the non-turbo cars, and uses a bolt on the end to hold everything together. basically, if you're using SPF-1140Ks(which just slide on the peg, no bolt) on a Turbo control arm, you're using the wrong bushing. SPF-1714Ks are for turbo control arms, and will press into your turbo rear mounts after you press the old ones out. if you're trying to save money(the 1714s are pretty expensive if i remember right), and replacing the rear mounts with non-turbo/elantra mounts, but still using turbo control arms, you should be ordering SPF-0837Ks.

SPF-0837Ks appear similar to SPF-1140Ks, but they come with a nice metal sleeve.

Thank you for typing out the long explanation of my reasoning Tim, I didn't have the patience nor will to do so.
Wrapping self vulcanizing rubber tape to take up slack in a rubber bushing on a rear sway bar that sees very little load on a 17 year old car is not the end of the world. Would I do it on the front sway bar of my Colt? No. Would I use any kind of tape to take up slack on a control arm bushing? Definitely no.

_________________
Had a:
1991 Eagle Summit ES Hatchback - 4g15 12v 5spd
1991 Dodge Colt -4g15 12v 4spd
Have a:
1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass - 468BBO TH350
Round 3:
1990 Dodge Colt-4G63T 5spd

anyone done changing their non-turbo lower arm bushing to turbo ones w/ those metal inserts? can this be done? or you need to change the whole thing?

You have to change to turbo control arms because they are slightly different iirc BUT I could be wrong.

_________________
Had a:
1991 Eagle Summit ES Hatchback - 4g15 12v 5spd
1991 Dodge Colt -4g15 12v 4spd
Have a:
1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass - 468BBO TH350
Round 3:
1990 Dodge Colt-4G63T 5spd

The pin for the rear bushings have different diameters between turbo and non turbo cars It may have to be shimmed a mm or two, or routed out a mm or two. I'm pretty sure in your case it would simply be a matter of routing out the bushing 1mm. If you can get the rear bush to fit the whole control arm will work. If it does need to be shimmed you can buy tubing at any hardware store and loctite it to the inner diameter of the bushing not the pin, you should get more life out of the shim that way.

BTW - If you do get it to fit I'm sure you could sell your old brackets in the classifieds maybe save someone a trip to the junkyard.

maybe it would be better to change the whole thing? can this still be bought bnew on the dealership? or just have to find a good one on the yard?

If I had to do it over again, I would've bought new arms. I think rockauto still has them for turbo cars but they ain't cheap.

On what part they are listed for. For listed referrence

Looks like they sold out since last time I checked. Why don't you just rebuild the arms you have? I think the bushings are more readily available.