[urq] Swaybar bushings. Scene 1, take 2.

[Louis-Alain Richard]

Hi friends,

I am back from the shop and we now have more questions, before creating a
prototype.

Outer bushings, early style, 857 411 313B:

For these, we wonder if it is feasible to have them made in something harder
than the "green" rubber. We figured 2 potential problems:

- Since the swaybar movement is in another plan than the a-arm arc, the
bushing must have some deflection to accept the relative differences of
movement. So any hard plastic, nylon, delrin or poly is out of the question.

- The second problem is the installation process: if we make a hard-plastic
bushing, will it be possible to slip it over the end of the bar without
destroying the inner ring ? I doubt it.


So, my question is : is there a sufficiently "soft" material (which is NOT
rubber) that can overcome these 2 problems ? If you have a suggestion,
please tell me now.

However, all is not dark. If we cannot find a suitable material, there is
still the solution of creating a mold, and have new real rubber bushings
made. The mold itself is a several hundred dollars expense (750 to 1000
$CAN), but then, the cost of producing the bushings will be less than 5$
each (without the mold cost, obviously). And we will only commission 1 mold
for the outer 24mm bushings. More to follow on this, since my friend will
meet a guy from a rubber-molding shop for an estimate.



Inner bushing, early style, 857 411 327:

For this one, poly, nylon or delrin or any hard plastic is feasible since
the bar is only rotating in it. However, we still have the same problem of
slipping it over the bar toward its install position. The bushing must
"corner" the bend in the bar, without destruction and without too much play
once in situ. 
The proposed solution is to split it so it can enlarge a bit over that bend.
To prevent any movement once installed, the split will not be straight, but
more like a zig-zag or like a square-wave so it will interlock once
installed.

That's it for now, more to come later.

Louis-Alain