lonewolf532
Registered Member
Has anyone used factory rubber bushings instead of urethane? Heard a lot of bad things about urethane for a daily driver. Trying to find the size of rubber bushings I need. Have 1986 Cevy 4x4 1 ton CC.
CK5
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Anybody using rubber bushings ?....
- Thread starter lonewolf532
- Start date
You can buy rubber bushings from LMC truck (among others I'm sure) perhaps even GM still. I don't know as I'd want aftermarket rubber bushings.
Problem with rubber bushings IMO is that they are more expensive than urethane, ignoring the performance differences.
Rubber would theoretically make the truck ride better, but honestly, in a one ton, I doubt you'd notice the ride difference, it's gotta be such a small part of the ride quality in these trucks. Lubing the poly bushings though is something I don't want to deal with.
Problem with rubber bushings IMO is that they are more expensive than urethane, ignoring the performance differences.
Rubber would theoretically make the truck ride better, but honestly, in a one ton, I doubt you'd notice the ride difference, it's gotta be such a small part of the ride quality in these trucks. Lubing the poly bushings though is something I don't want to deal with.
lonewolf532
Registered Member
thanks, that,s another thing greasing them. Who would want to take apart their daily driver once a year to grease them. The greasable ones I'm not convinced on that either.
I have k30 and right now I have poly in front and rubber in the back. I bought new springs that had the rubber bushings already in them so I left them there. The ride difference is unnoticable. What is noticable is after 7 years the rubber is degraded and cracked while the polys still look brand new. Now I am going to pull the rear springs and change to poly and I will just stick a grease gun to the front ones again.
lonewolf532
Registered Member
what kind of poly did you use? also what springs ?
The poly bushings are a mixed bag. Some I got from ORD so whatever they were selling in 2001, the other ones are from energy suspension. I put in some poly body mounts by them 4 years ago as well because the original rubber was of course shot. I think those were by prothane. The greasable bolts I purchased from ORD.
You don't need to re-grease poly bushings every year. I took mine apart after four years (and 25K miles or so) and they were still well greased.
The OEM's use rubber to reduce vibrations and noise on new vehicles, in a K5 there is so much noise and vibration that I really doubt you will notice any difference. I didn't notice any noise or vibrations when I installed poly body mounts, poly motor/trans mounts or poly leaf spring bushings.
IMO, poly bushings >>> rubber bushings
The OEM's use rubber to reduce vibrations and noise on new vehicles, in a K5 there is so much noise and vibration that I really doubt you will notice any difference. I didn't notice any noise or vibrations when I installed poly body mounts, poly motor/trans mounts or poly leaf spring bushings.
IMO, poly bushings >>> rubber bushings
