Oilite bushing question

[David Deyo]

I am replacing my bushings due to bent control arms wearing out the stock bushings. When I pulled the bulkhead bolts there were remnants of plastic alongside some of the washers, but not next to all of them. Are these needed with the oilite kits and should they be next to all of the washers? They were paper thin and I suspect some were just worn completely away.

 

[David Deyo]

OK- new question. Got my bushings and all is good except for one bulhead mount. The bushing is loose in the hole.
I will try later tonight to see if the plastic bushing can be used as a bushing for the bushing, but doubt it will work.

Anyone have a trick to fix this?

 

[kered]

How loose is the bushing ? I had one loose bushing as well

 

[David Deyo]

Hard to say, other than noticeably loose. I split a plastic bushing to go around the oilite bushing and it would not fit in the bulkhead hole like that. I ended up using a steel reinforced epoxy putty and made a thin ribbon to wrap around the bushing. Crammed it in the hole, installed the bolt and tightened it down to keep the bushing aligned and to try and squeeze as much putty in there as possible. There is still a tiny amount of play, but way better than before. How durable this will be is unknown, but something had to be done or the new bushing would have been destroyed in short order as it was.

 

[kered]

you have me thinking about taking mine apart and putting some Loctite around the bushing. Mine slid in the hole easy where as the rest I had to tap them in

 

[kered]

Do you know the torque on the bulkhead bolts? Are they supposed to turn somewhat?

 

[David Deyo]

The shouldered bolt prevents it from tightening completely to the bulkhead. It should be able to rotate when torqued down to specs which are 27 ft/lbs according to Ulmer Racing website.

 

[Austlor]

Just put a set of Oillite bushings in my wife's phazer tonight. I put them in the freezer for a week, to shrink them ever so slightly. They still didn't push right in, so I pursued them in with my bench vise. No slop or play in them