irs bushings

[magstang1]

Maybe I'm being a little defensive. I too want to get it fixed, and make it right. I also want people that are looking to buy these bushings to be aware that there are problems with these things right out of the box. Problems that I feel are unacceptable. I'm not talking about the bore in the lca. I'm talking about the delrin bushing for the lca, and the inner aluminum core for that bushing. Mine do not fit together. End of story. These parts are supposed to be designed, and machined to work together. If that was true, I would not need lathes and presses to assemble parts of this kit. I was also unhappy about the front pinion bushings. They needed some modification, but nothing that couldn't be handled rather easily with a die grinder and a little patience. It was not too difficult to fix, but for $85 just for that set of bushings, again, I feel they should work properly out of the box. There are not many times when I buy something, sepecially at this price level and accept the kinds of major flaws that these bushings have. If you bought a set of wheels for your car, got them home, and found out the bolt pattern wasn't right you would probably return them. I wouldn't think about getting out a drill and making some new bolt holes. Maybe that's a bit extreme, but to me it's basically the same thing. I came on here and discovered that there are others just like me having the same problems I am. I emailed nick and gave him a fair chance to come on here to explain/defend himself and his product. What happened? He said TOO BAD. Personally I can think of one less person I will be purchasing products from in the future. This is just my personal opinion, take it or leave it.

 

[MidLifeC]

Part of the problem is the lca bore has about a 1/2 inch on one end that is a little smaller dia. and when the delrin is pressed in it,it reduces the inside dia so the sleeve has over .005 press on it.

I noticed the same thing, size isn't consistent throughout the bore. My thoughts exactly to use a flapper wheel. I have read that Delrin is very difficult to machine, and can 'walk'.

The UCA's were much looser, BTW.

 

[plan b]

I was also unhappy about the front pinion bushings. They needed some modification, but nothing that couldn't be handled rather easily with a die grinder and a little patience.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. If I remember correctly, I had to remove about .050 from the small diameter of front diff bushings. The part that sits down in the pumpkin flange. The original size was a bit too big. The lathe at work took care of that quite nicely. I don't mean to slam Nick's bushings either, some people don't have the problems with them that I've had. Every car is a little different.

 

[Stangcobra93]

If I knew they wouldn't fit I wouldn't sell them.

I didn't come to any of you and ask that you buy the bushings from me. Each of you sought me out. I haven't put a single advertisement out in over a year, but still I have sold hundreds of complete sets and countless diff sets. The only way I could do that is if these bushings really worked, because word of mouth is the only thing that has been selling these bushings for over a year and a half.

By the way who has asked me to fix these bushing problems? I have no problem machining any of the bushings to your exact specs.

My bushing specs are based of a 99 cobra IRS apparently there have been a few differences since then. Sorry but I don't have access to measure up 30 different IRS setups to find where they have varied in dimension, and I don't have your control arms to make custom bushings for every single person.

I have even thought about buying a few sets of upper and lower control arms to use for exchange purposes with the bushings already installed, but the price would almost double with core charge and extra shipping. Would any one have been interested in that approach?

I'm very open to suggestions and would like to make every one happy. I just wish each of you would have come to me before the bashing began.

 

[JB]

If I knew they wouldn't fit I wouldn't sell them.

I didn't come to any of you and ask that you buy the bushings from me. Each of you sought me out. I haven't put a single advertisement out in over a year, but still I have sold hundreds of complete sets and countless diff sets. The only way I could do that is if these bushings really worked, because word of mouth is the only thing that has been selling these bushings for over a year and a half.

By the way who has asked me to fix these bushing problems? I have no problem machining any of the bushings to your exact specs.

My bushing specs are based of a 99 cobra IRS apparently there have been a few differences since then. Sorry but I don't have access to measure up 30 different IRS setups to find where they have varied in dimension, and I don't have your control arms to make custom bushings for every single person.

I have even thought about buying a few sets of upper and lower control arms to use for exchange purposes with the bushings already installed, but the price would almost double with core charge and extra shipping. Would any one have been interested in that approach?

I'm very open to suggestions and would like to make every one happy. I just wish each of you would have come to me before the bashing began.

Nick, I would hope that there will be no bashing at all.....as far as your intentions are concerned, your statements ring true, and personally I wouldn't expect you to make an effort to accommodate the differences between cars

as you said, these folks sought you out and I think they should be willing to do the extra work to fit them to their application (and they are doing so, in addition to educating the masses as to what's involved) :beer:

edit: maybe a disclaimer might be in order to inform potential customers that variances between vehicles may result in a trim-to-fit condition

 

[dougwg]

Snip....Any machinist will tell you the average lathe is only accurate to .005". ...snip

Nick

I hold .0002" on my lathe :shrug:

just my $.02.... carry on

 

[plan b]

Nick, You put out a fine set of bushings, my statements weren't meant to bash you. Hopefully you didn't take it that way. I didn't contact you after because it wasn't really a big problem to me. I figured you're specs were for a different IRS. Only the front diff bushings were off for me, all the others fit fine. Just a bind in the lca's. Like I said earlier, I could have made them work but I lack patience. I'm an impatient SOB at times.

 

[MidLifeC]

I hold .0002" on my lathe

hmmmm...

One man with a problem(and a fresh 15 pack of Guiness);
one man with a potential solution??? :shrug:

 

[badboy]

On to the next problem.

 

[magstang1]

If I really wanted to bash you then why did I personally send you an email telling you about what is going on, and where to find it?

 

[BreBar21]

If I really wanted to bash you then why did I personally send you an email telling you about what is going on, and where to find it?

I understand your concern and I don't want to act like a mod or father or anything, but let's try to keep this informative for the rest of the people who might have these problems, not a he said she said. If we can get all this sorted out, then we can help a whole bunch of people. Just my $.02.

 

[dougwg]

hmmmm...

One man with a problem(and a fresh 15 pack of Guiness);
one man with a potential solution??? :shrug:

you know where to find me

 

[MidLifeC]

Thanks for the offer!

I'll let you know what I run into. For now, I am trying the RRCobra trick (from the other site) with the brake cylinder hone. I still might need some help with the front diff. spacers.

Let me know if the upr deal falls through.

 

[magstang1]

***UPDATE***
I decided to try to fix the lca bushings myself before trying to find a machine shop. Looking further at the aluminum cores for the lca's the outsides were a bit rough, and had a few scores on them. For this I went to the hardware store and made an arbor out of 3/8 threaded rod, and some washers and nuts. I used a nut then a washer, then a rubber washer on each side of the aluminum. I chucked it up in a drill on a low speed and took the nicks off with 400 grit sand paper. After that I followed up with #0000 steel wool. The finest I could find, just to clean the whole surface. With the aluminum clean I proceeded to the delrin bushings. The insides of mine were pretty rough, and the aluminum still didn't fit into them. To solve this I used a Lisle (brand name) brake cylinder hone part #10000. I bought this at my local auto parts store for $14.50. There were two of them. One with two stones, and the one I bought with three stones. I used this to slowly open up the I.D. of the delrin bushings. After honing the inside of the bushings, the surface was clean, and smooth. Some required a little more honing than others. All of my bushings now fit properly. Total parts was around $20. I'm now waiting for my lca bushing removal tool, to install the bushings and test the fit in the control arm.

 

[BreBar21]

Sounds good. All of my stuff is installed, and is bouncing a little bit. Someone should definately start a service to fix these. We send them the crush sleeves, they fix them, and send them back. There seems to be a good bit of demand for it.

 

[magstang1]

I want to get the bushings into the control arms to see if there is anymore bind there. They fit together good on my workbench, but after that arm is squeezing them ?????

 

[magstang1]

I may have found another part to this problem. When I was refitting these bushings in the garage I had the heater on and it was ~65-70 degrees. I just went back out to the garage and the aluminum crush sleeves are seized in the bushings now. It's probably ~20 degrees in there now.

 

[black10th vert]

I took a piece of 1/4" round stock and used a band saw to split it up the center and wraped it with 150 grit emory paper and used a die grinder to open mine up.

 

[johnny-longtors]

I'm now waiting for my lca bushing removal tool, to install the bushings and test the fit in the control arm.

Huh? Who's tool might this be? Have I missed a thread on a home-made design?

 

[JB]

Huh? Who's tool might this be? Have I missed a thread on a home-made design?

the tooling is provided by Maximum Motorsports with their bushing kits, although some have fabbed their own

not sure if they also sell it separately :shrug: