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

[martin at quattro.ca]

Louis-Alain,

THe later style inner sway bar bushings are split anyways, otherwise they
would not fit over the link end (a large eye).
So.. I don't think there is a problem with splitting it.
I just ask for any non rubber parts to be made out of Black material, this
way at least they "look" stock.
I agree about the outer bushings, they should be made of something that
can take deflection, I know the bushings I used to have (long time ago) on
my '82 Coupe (with Ur-q bar) used to be green and were tougher than stock
rubber.  Don't know what the material was, however it didn't take kindly
to oil and easily split.  I ditched it for a Camaro setup and thre out the
remains of the bushings.

Cheers
Martin Pajak

http://www.quattro.ca

1982 Audi Ur-quattro (50,000 mi) new project
1983 Audi Ur-quattro (85,000 mi) Concourse d'Elegance
1985 Audi Ur-quattro (212,000 km) Euro spec. import mit 3B :)
1987 Audi 4000s quattro (205,000 km) wintervagen mit 7A :)
1990 Audi V8 quattro (365,000 km) pipe and slippers



> 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
>
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