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Creaky Squeaky Bushes
simonk - 5/7/10 at 12:57 PM

So, following the various threads of advice on the forum I stripped down the rear 'bones, cleaned the powder coat from the ends of the wishbone tubes, cleaned and polished the crush tubes with W&D paper, re-assembled with lots of white lithium grease - different squeaks, but still squeaky......

Are we missing the point ? Are the wishbone tubes too tight ? When I assemble the crush tubes into the bushes outside the wishbones they are a good sliding fit, but once the bushes are in the 'bones the crush tubes need pressing in with a fair bit of force......

Simon

Am talking to Superflex next...
Simon

Madinventions - 5/7/10 at 01:00 PM

Had a similar issue with mine. I fitted the poly bushes, then used a 19.0mm reamer to open the hole again so that the crush tube was a good sliding fit. No more squeaks!

Ed.

nick205 - 5/7/10 at 01:20 PM

The other aspect to check is the crush tube length against the outside faces of the fitted bushes. i.e. measure the fully fitted bushes face to face (with a vernier is easiest) then check the length of the corresponding crush tube. The crush tube needs to be ever so slightly longer (~0.5mm) so that when the wishbone is bolted in place the bushes are not "clamped" by the faces of the wishbone bracket. NB - too much over length on the crush tubes and you'll get unwanted fore/aft movement of the wishbones. Also, it's worth checking each set of fitted bushes and each crush tube - don't meaure one and assume they'll all be the same. Finally, make sure you grease the outer faces of the fitted bushes where they will rotate against the wishbone bracket.

(I hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs here BTW - just offering what I learnt building mine)

Mal - 5/7/10 at 01:34 PM

This sort of problem makes matalastic bushes a good thing to use.

whitestu - 5/7/10 at 02:07 PM

My Indy is the same. I think the bushes are too tight, but haven't got round to doing anything about it yet! It's only been on the road for 3 years!

[Edited on 5/7/10 by whitestu]

carpmart - 5/7/10 at 02:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mal
This sort of problem makes matalastic bushes a good thing to use.


Or rose joints!

wilkingj - 5/7/10 at 02:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by nick205
The other aspect to check is the crush tube length against the outside faces of the fitted bushes. i.e. measure the fully fitted bushes face to face (with a vernier is easiest) then check the length of the corresponding crush tube. The crush tube needs to be ever so slightly longer (~0.5mm) so that when the wishbone is bolted in place the bushes are not "clamped" by the faces of the wishbone bracket. NB - too much over length on the crush tubes and you'll get unwanted fore/aft movement of the wishbones. Also, it's worth checking each set of fitted bushes and each crush tube - don't meaure one and assume they'll all be the same. Finally, make sure you grease the outer faces of the fitted bushes where they will rotate against the wishbone bracket.


The problem is the Luego Crush tubes are a bit short. This was a manufacturing issue that nearly all Luego owners have had to solve.

The Bolts need to be nice and tight. Dont not loosen them to make the arm move more freely, as this is unsafe and will wear the mounting holes oval, and then fail an MoT.

I had to remove about 40thou from the outer ends of the bushes as they nip the polybush between the wishbone eye, and the mounting bracket.

Simplest answer is to get longer crush tubes.
Cheaper answer is to remove a little of the outside end of the poly bush, which is what most of us have done. Once this has been done the suspension works fine. No real need to ream the polybush.

This is a Luego specific problem, that to mu knowlege does not happen with other kits. ie all down to the crush tube being a bit short.
Luego are aware, and one would assume have recitifed their drawings and their manufacturers been notified of the change.

As for greasing the bushes, I used Silicon Rubber grease (Avaiulable in a tube from Maplins, but oddly, not shown on their website, and its not the aerosol spray can either) and I think Rusty Nuts used Brake rubber grease.

procomp - 5/7/10 at 05:46 PM

Hi

" This is a Luego specific problem, that to mu knowledge does not happen with other kits. ie all down to the crush tube being a bit short. "

Saying it is a Luego specific problem is very misleading. Having 4-5 cars through the workshop every week from virtually all kit manufacturers it is fair to say that all those using these cheap bushes have the same issues. Simply by measuring the outer wishbone housing and the difference in the bushes and the length of the inner pivot tubes it is quite clear that there is quite a tolerance to be found on all dimensions on all manufacturers cars using these bushes.

Might not be a bad idea to have all these different threads regarding this bushing problems collated in to one there's currently three threads running if proof was needed how bad things are.

Cheers Matt

Madinventions - 5/7/10 at 06:49 PM

Yup - mine's not a Luego, and in fact my crush tubes were a little bit too long so they had to be shortened. I think it's a fairly common issue across all manufacturers...

Ed.

simonk - 5/7/10 at 08:54 PM

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. I only measured one assembly (assumed they would all be the same ... dohhh !). Crush tube is 42.12mm, built up polybushes in the wishbone (powder coat cleaned off) measure 41.59mm, almost exactly the 0.5mm suggested as the right clearance. Am tempted to go with a 19mm reamer and see how I get on with, replacing the bush assemblies with better ones with stainless crush tubes as the next guess. Any suggestions for well made bush kits in the Luego size would be welcome - I'm going to do a bit of a search of a few of the sites now to see if any of the stock sizes look right.

Thanks all
Simon

Steve Lovelock - 5/7/10 at 09:17 PM

Let us know what you find as I need to replace mine, they are driving me mad.

Steve Lovelock - 15/7/10 at 05:03 AM

I took the Velocity to Le Mans for the weekend and was embarrassed every time I drove the car anywhere, it squeaked so loud. I have to get this sorted. I am going to change the crush tubes and bushes but not sure what to go for and would appreciate advice here. I know Superflex do bushes that appear to be high quality but they work out at several hundred pounds a set which is too heavy.

So, any idea if a set of bushes can be bought that are not too expensive but are better than the standard rigid plastic things I have now?