I was actually told by the rep from Red Ranger (Nolathane) that the supplied amount of grease will do up to 10 kits!!

Putting the grease everywhere can cause an effect they call "hysterisis". The excess grease lubricates the bush at the press-fit surfaces causing rotation/movement. This will in turn heat and chop the bush up. In severe instances the bush on disassembly will crumble and fall apart. This is more so prevalent on leaf spring eye bushes. Most suspension shops do not know this! Also yes the knurling is there to help hold grease. ONLY grease the pivot surfaces.

When I did my car every single rubber bush was stuffed. I f you want a smoother ride just do the radius rod and sway bar bushes in ureathane and the lowers in rubber.

Also do the lower front ball joints, they normally are worn. Will need a press, or pay a suspension shop $20 or a slab of beer.

I followed the directions for fitting the bushes that were in the bags, which stated a " light " coating to help the bush slide into the holes, and a " light " coating on the steel insert.

What i didn't do, was put enough grease between the faces of the bushes and the shocker mount, subframe mount, and radiud rod washer. There is movement there, ofcourse, and they squeak like all hell atm.

I'll try to get the radius rod bushes, sway bar D bushes, and some wheel bearings that i need to finish the front end up this w/e. I don't wanna pull it apart to grease the bushes, then reassemble to have to pull it apart to add in more bushes.

I used a similar light coating of grease when putting the lower wishbones back into my toranas subframe and didn't get any squeaking. I wonder if the bushes are moving in the lower arms on my ford. They shouldn't be, they were nice and tight in the holes once the steel insert was inserted.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

I had nolathane bushes fitted to my VL. And they were markedly better than the rubber ones. I did destroy a set on the rear, where the bolts go through an eyelet to hold the diff into the car, but that thing did run 10.2@135mph, and made over 495rwkw, so it was to be expected. I say fit them, they are money well spent. I have also destroyed the front rubber bushes in my 5.0, but that was due to a transmission line leak, and oil and rubber dont mix
Brett

does it matter what type of grease to use?

If you use a bentone clay based wheel grease on the bushes then they will definitely squeak. Use General Purpose Lithium grease, it should be grey in colour, sticky with a consistancy slightly thicker than golden syrup.

As a matter of fact never use bentone clay based grease ever. It never melts, even in wheel bearings but flows away from the bearing as they get hot and then sets like soap (hard).

Its fine to stick lots of grease on the rubbing faces but not EVERYWHERE. Ureathane up to a point is self-lubricating.

As a point of note:
When doing link bar bushes in ureathane, reverse the faces of the washers so the bushes are not held captive and can slid freely like a bearing surface. Then only tighten the link bar until the bushes just start to deform. If the nuts are not tight you either need new jam nuts (best), nyloks, or threadlocker. Its amazing how people tighten thoses link bars rock solid tight and destroy the bushes.

Finally anyone can do almost all a front end suspension rebuild with some basic hand tools, time, organisation, and using their brain. The only thing I didn't do was insert the lower inner bushes and the lower ball joints, this cost me $40 at the local suspension shop (didn't have free access to a press at the time).

Not enough there and they are squeaky as all hell! I'll fix that up this w/e, i bought the sub frame to radius rod bushes and 2 sets of wheel bearings yesterday. I'm getting a few weird looks in traffic atm, due to the squeaking, but i sorta laugh, as i know i've just replaced the worst bushes..... LOL




Those ball joints, look rather tricky to press DIY, do you need some special plates or so forth for the press?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Most people with a press will have lots of little lumps of steel, drifts, etc that you can use to prop the upright.

The problem is that its a very uneasy feeling pressing out the factory ball joints, they are usuually in very tight. You have to sometime ram them with lots of pressure just to start moving them.

Prop it up eh? I can sorta imagine how that would be done, but would love to see a pic of it if anyone has one. Looking at it, it's not easy, but probably not has hard as the upper wishbone bushes for a Torana / Kingswood.

Cheers

ToranaGuy