1993 Splash in SC

[Curious Hound]

The welding and grinding is finished. I'll look over my checklist in the morning. Then clean and paint.

 

[Curious Hound]

All finished except to hook up to the battery. I want to get some different battery terminals in the morning. I'm pretty happy with the final result. Everything is tucked in nice and neat.

Bottom side, showing structural reinforcement.

 

[sgtsandman]

Just be careful not to let the magic smoke out!

 

[Curious Hound]

While doing the bumper, I noticed that the new bushings I put in the steering idler arm are split already. Basically only have about a week of offroading on them. So I'm hopefully improving it this time. Instead of poly bushings, I ordered bronze. Got them installed today. But I still have to make new sleeves to go inside them since the ID is 1" instead of 3/4". I hope to make the sleeves on the lathe at work this weekend.

Note the split bushings in the upper idler arm tube.

The new parts

New bushings installed

 

[Uncle Gump]

I'm going to have to remember this.

I've never been a fan of poly bushings. We use to tear them up regularly in our off road buggies. I'm sure they have their place... I've just never found where that isl

 

[Curious Hound]

I'm going to have to remember this.

I've never been a fan of poly bushings. We use to tear them up regularly in our off road buggies. I'm sure they have their place... I've just never found where that isl

Not sure I would do this everywhere a poly bushing fails. But this is a case where I don't think the shock absorbing qualities of poly or rubber are needed. In my mind, this is purely 2 pivot points. It won't take long to find out if I'm wrong. I have a trip planned to Windrock in Tennessee in a few weeks.

 

[Roert42]

My first assumption would be that something is wrong that could cause the bushing to fail so premature.

I agree that the rubber bushing is not needed, but the poly bushing should not have failed with that little hours.

 

[Uncle Gump]

My first assumption would be that something is wrong that could cause the bushing to fail so premature.

I agree that the rubber bushing is not needed, but the poly bushing should not have failed with that little hours.

You've never seen him drive...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You've never seen him drive...

Scaled down so the awesomeness doesn't break the camera..

 

[Curious Hound]

Finished the steering repair. I'll test drive later.

 

[Roert42]

Oil light bushings or just regular bronze bushings?

 

[Curious Hound]

Oilite because that's what I found. Doesn't matter. I'll keep it greased.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Oilite because that's what I found. Doesn't matter, the 3.0 will keep it greased.

FIFY.

 

[Shran]

Well that's interesting. I hate poly bushings but I am really curious why they blew out so soon? I agree that bronze (or bearings) should be used here but hopefully the failure point isn't just moving to something more catastrophic. Maybe it was just the forces from the steering that blew out the poly bushings, will be interesting to see how your new setup works.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Looking at the linkage the forces on that top bushing would be pretty big I imagine, that looks like a good solution, I'm curious as well, something similar would be reasonable to do to my Explorer when I build it up the way I want...

Your oil pan gasket is escaping in the bump under the crank... not a fun fix, but didn't know if you saw that or not