Bushing material alternative

[eiregti]

Hey guys,

Being a bit of a tight arse in general you can imagine my reaction why I noticed the prices for poly bush prices for my ep80 starlet (fully aware this is a Micra club but to be honest a lot of you seem to have a lot more knowledge, not to mention you can appreciate the DIY attitude a little better)

My question to you is do any of you know of any materials that would be acceptable to use as a bushing material that would yeild similar results to polyurethane as well as having the low maintenance factor too.

I've considered ALU with a steel insert but would imagine this would need to be regularly dismantled and greased to avoid them drying and wearing out prematurely.

I've thought about nylon or delrin but would these be too soft/hard to use even with a steel insert?

Another was to use a large spherical bearing for the front control arm and turn down something to house it?

I don't have access to a lathe but capable of creating detailed enough drawings of my ideas to have them produced locally

Any info you guys can offer would be much appreciated and look forward to getting different perspectives and opinions from you.

 

[r-reg-sr]

,,,,you can say that again.this the micra club where you might hear a lil dub
first though look at the job bush meat does then know vibration is sent elsewhere ,,,,,,

 

[eiregti]

Haha yeah know full well vibration is sent elsewhere but fully prepared to live with the consequences

And MSC is a pretty wicked club. A lot of people put them down but it's surprising just how many rally and motorsports participants there are compared to any other forum I've been on.

Back to the point at hand. From a lot of reading Delrin seems to be the way forward. Polyurethane would have tighter tolerances and a lot more give in the material, more forgiving in an impact etc where as delrin is harder and more durable but due to the minimal give in the material can regularly throw the tracking out a little because of how little give there is in it but I'd imagine this would be on cars running all delrin bushings with several bushings per corner, coupled with hardened suspension such as coilovers meaning all the load passes to steering arms and the likes.

Surprised there wasn't more discussion about this

 

[drand]

Surprised there wasn't more discussion about this

Me too. Would be interesting to hear some opinions, even just for my own education.

 

[eiregti]

Posted late last night, easy to get pushed down the bottom of the in such a busy forum I'd say. That or nobody really cares lol