bushings bushing everywhere

[jhughes26]

hey guys i'm new to this site and new to dimes in general. i bought my 69 last november and have been making very slow progress since then. I am running the L16 with the weber DGV 32 36, so nothing amazing under the hood, yet.

 

 

all my bushing were shot and my mantra for this car is " don't replace, upgrade" so i got myself a set of polyurethane bushings from energy suspension, the trouble is i haven't had too much success.

 

 

first thing i tried were the front control arms, got them off pretty easily, but discovered that the 69 is different in that the hole for the bushing isn't straight all the way through, it narrows towards the middle and even with a 6 ton press we couldn't get them in, so they are at a machine shop right now getting bored out to fit.

 

 

then i decided to move on and not waste time, so i started the mustache bar bushings, took off the nuts securing it to the diff and the frame, but as they are perpendicular it wasn't coming off with out the diff moving, so i decided to move the diff...(probably a stupid idea). took of the half shafts and propellor shaft and undid the 4 bolts securing it to the frame, had to take off the anti roll bar to do this. so now the diff is resting on the frame with nothing securing it to anything, and i still don't have the mustache bar off so i can replace the bushings. damn

 

 

 

 

 

decided to try the shock absorber ones this time, maybe they will work out better. undid the bolt holding the shock, undid the three bolts holding all the other stuff, rooted around until i found the old bushing, which a) did not look too bad off and B) looked nothing like what i was supposed to putting on.

 

 

i put on half of the bushing ( they come in 2 pieces with a metal sleeve in between)

 

 

and it fit wonderfully, so i am now wondering where the other half goes.

 

 

 

 

then i tried the tie rods, which look crazy easy, and i botched them up pretty bad, once again the new and old don't look anything alike and the new ones don't look like anything is right

 

 

 

would appreciate any and all help, comments, suggestions, all manner of aid. i know i am a fool and i am just trying to learn and save some cash. i acknowledge that i am pretty ignorant, but i am trying to change that.

 

thanks

 

Joe

[benzo]

from your pic how many of those so called shock bushings with sleeves did they send you? if they sent you 4 with 2 sleeves then those may not be for the shocks. those may be for the tension rods. just a comment. I personally do not like urethane all around and they are noisy. I only like it for certain areas. I don't like using them on control arms or tension rods or anything with a lot of movement. makes it squeaky and makes the car sound junky

[defdes]

A suggestion for the mustache bar next time is to put 2 nuts on each threaded stud coming out from the cover of the diff, lock the nuts together and turn the studs out, then the bar will just drop down.

[oregondime]

yea those are definitely the tension rod bushings in the bottom pics. the metal sleeve goes inside the mount hole and one bushing on either side. the rounded edge is the side that faces the mount, look up dime quarterly, they say to drill 6 holes evenly spaced in them, if no holes are made then its to stiff and can break if i remember correctly.

 

the shock bushings look like cones.

[thisismatt]

Personally I would only use polyurethane for subframe bushings (rear crossmember and differential crossmember (mustache bar)). For everything else they do not provide the correct compliance that the original joints were designed to have.

 

What you put on the end of the strut shaft are for your T/C rods. I 100% would not replace rubber T/C rods with anything as stiff and noncompliant as polyurethane...unless I wanted my T/C rods to break unexpectedly some time in the future while I'm driving at a high speed. I also would not use polyurethane for the strut or rear shock bump stops, again because they're not very compliant. For lower control arms they would be okay except most people add caster (or caster & camber for the rear) at which point they once again become too non compliant and add unnecessary stress to suspension pivots/bolts.

[jhughes26]

hey thanks guys for the help

 

yeah there are four pieces and two sleeves making it for the tc rod, no wonder they didn't fit lol. i will put them where they go tomorrow. the box said front strut, i guess i can't trust the labels after all :)

 

i checked my 'complete kit" and i don't have any for the strut

 

about he noise and stiffness, i have already paid for these, if they are really unbearable, i can pull them out later, and as it is, anything will be better than the crap that was in there before, it was really badly corroded. on a side note, what would you guys recommend to run on the non subframe bushings? for a street car

 

 

defdes, thanks for the idea about the mustache bar, that should work a lot better, i knew there was a way to get at those without pulling out the diff.

 

i have that issue of DQ, and was planning on that mod, should work with a regular drill bit, right?

 

separate issue, i know the tie rod end is wrong, the cover i pulled off was different from this one, getting the feeling that putting it there was a mistake, would appreciate help on that.

 

thanks again

[Logical1]

Love your gusto for just "going for it" as I am in the same boat ;) I need to replace my entire bushing set as well and was looking at the Energy Poly bushing sets on ebay, So I am very curious as what everyone here recommends. Someone here posted this link for bushings and I like that they are blue but still poly...

 

http://www.noltecsuspension.com/products.php

[jhughes26]

that site looks interesting, although i have never heard anything about polyester for bushings, so i cant speak to that

 

one place where i have found a lot of 510 specific suspension stuff is this site

http://heavyindustrie-s.com/datsun510.aspx

[jhughes26]

the datsun gods have smiled on me :)

 

got my control arms back from the shop, the bushings fit now. success.

 

 

 

i also dropped my t/c rod bushings off to get the 6 holes drilled in them as per the DQ article

 

 

tried the lock nut idea and it worked great, the trick was getting them apart once the stud was out, but i managed

 

 

well the mustache bar is out, just got to get the old bushings out and the new ones in

 

 

 

once again i think i may have a mislabeling issue, these are the ones that were in the box marked "rear mustache bar" but they seem to look a lot thinner than the holes they are supposed to go in. haven't got the old bushings out yet, but it looks like the hole will be to big, would like to know if this is right

 

 

 

[slodat]

The hole is too big. 510's have two different mustache bars. The ES poly bushings only fit the other one.

[pl521sss]

The hole is too big. 510's have two different mustache bars. The ES poly bushings only fit the other one.

 

Really?

Can you tell me more about this differences on bush on mustache bar

 

 

 

Here's pics of bushings for shock bump stop and subframe if you decide to replace the subframe bushings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[slodat]

Really?

Can you tell me more about this differences on bush on mustache bar

 

As I said above, the size of the holes on the one pictured above are larger than the ES poly bushings. The "other" one has holes that the bushings fit. I don't have reliable year info on which came in what cars. I do know that the two '72's I've had and the 12/69 car I have now have the one with the larger holes that the ES bushings will not fit.

[jhughes26]

if you guys were in my shoes, would you look for bushings to fit my too big mustache bar, or look for a smaller mustache bar to fit my too small bushings?

 

 

where could i get either of these?

[defdes]

I ran into the same problem years ago, here's a 3 page post on the subject:

http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4815&hilit=mustache+bar

 

Apparently you need the Z car mustache bushings for the oversized bar.

Edited July 18, 2009 by defdes

[jhughes26]

thanks defdes, that helps a lot

 

i'll call up the guy i bought them from, see if he will swap them out for the 7.1102s since mine are still pretty clean, can always hope

 

if not i will call up energy and see about that

[jhughes26]

hey the guy i bought them from swapped me out, so all is well. i burned out the old ones, who knew working on cars could be this fun?

 

 

so now the old ones are gone, but the metal sleeve inside is giving a bit of trouble, its flared out one one side,

 

 

 

but in on the other.

 

 

 

i can easily fit the new bushing in on the flared-out side, but it wont go on the flared in side.

 

 

i tried using pliers to bend the sleeve out, but it wouldn't go towards the middle, i could get the corners to move a bit though. how did you guys deal with this? didn't see anything relating to on the realm page

[denveratsun]

Die grinder...?Dremel tool...?drill with a machine bit in it....file...patience?:D

 

Its gonna be worth it man. I have driven old rigs with new suspension parts in it and it is so much nicer. Right now I am in need of the same work you are doing. Not looking forward to it even though I have all the parts sitting on a shelf.

 

Keep it up though. You are gonna love it.:cool:

[thisismatt]

Uh, you drive it out with a drift of any kind that works. A flat screwdriver will even work

[jhughes26]

thanks denveratsun, encouragement means a lot, especially when you mess it up as many times as i do:)

 

great success today

 

the weapon:

 

 

 

the battle:

 

 

 

the most glorious victory:

 

 

 

 

i like it:) nice and red, and its clean too i'm stoked :)

 

now just got to get to those pesky rear control arms :(

[jhughes26]

my TC rod bushings coming back from the machine shop. they were modified as per the DQ issue

 

 

 

old ones, pretty nasty, huh?

 

 

 

old vs new

 

 

new ones going in

 

 

 

beautiful

 

[Logical1]

Nice Work Sir! Thanks much for the continued progress updates as this thread will be my bible when I get the gusto to do mine!

[xAH510x]

so do the bushings from energy sus. work? i jus went on the online catalog and it said they have 68-73 510 front end control arm bushing set, rear end control arm bushing set, front strut rod bushing set, front end links, and tie rod boots...were those bushing for the 510 that he bought even though they didnt fit??

[jhughes26]

logical, thank you so much, it really boosts spirits to have someone compliment you, its really encouraging.

 

AH510, what i bought was a complete set for the 510, the only trick is that 69 was a pretty crazy year (not just for datsuns) and they did everything differently, the only real hitch was the front control arms. and those were pretty cheap to machine anyway. you shouldn't have any trouble with a kit if you have a 70+ if you have something else, PM me and i will give you more info

 

when i get home i will get back to work on the rear control arms, got everything but the brake hose disconnected

[xAH510x]

ya i was confused 4 a moment wether they worked or not and i didnt wan2 spend that money on something i probably couldnt get my money back 4...its good 2 have threads like this one so i know what problems i may come across.

Thanks:)

[jhughes26]

no prob AH510 i'm still at the stage where i get a lot more information out of this site than i put it, but i try to put what i can back in

 

got the rear arms off, heres some pics

 

hey somethings missing!

 

 

 

on a separate note.... since i have all of this stuff out... was thinking about cheap upgrades for springs and shocks, any suggestions? hopefully something that wont break the bank, everything is stock back there as far as i know