Solid strut rod bushing on stock strut rods...good idea?

[MrBelvedere2]

I am having a hard time finding the right strut rod bushings for a 1974 Satellite budget road race car I'm building. The hole in the K member is way bigger than the usual one found on 1972-back.
The strut rods are also different, no one that i can see when looking around makes adjustable strut rods for this model. They bolt to the lower control arm with 2 bolts instead of the one bolt in the end like on our A bodies.
The bushings were done, So I made some exact copies out of Delrin,I am thinking about putting them in and being done with it.
Is there any problem with using solid front strut rod bushings on the factory strut rods that I might be missing? I am worried it might take away some of the flex for the up and down movement of the lower control arm.

 

[doug 371]

I think it will limit travel

 

[C130 Chief]

The strut rod bushing must provide axial location through a non-moment connection. That is, the strut rod can't move forward or backwards, but must be able to pivot up and down freely. I suspect you won't be happy with Delrin in this application. Delrin is stiff and has low elasticity. The up and down movement of the rod as the suspension cycles will distort the holes in the bushings or possibly split them in half. Or the rod will be overstressed and distort.

 

[remytherat]

I think they would not have enough give for up and down movement and get torn up because they are too brittle. The front bushings take a hell of a beating and have to have a little give to work properly.

 

[Scody21]

you want something like these

Mopar Dynamic Strut Bars

Your Mopar will get an instant improvement in performance with QA1's Dynamic Strut Bars.

www.qa1.net

Or these

Suspension Parts Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Bergman Auto Craft

Bergman Auto Craft uses our experience to bring a high quality mix of house made and manufactured parts to bring the best combination of parts to the market. SPC, Bilstein, Fox are available in addition to the BAC brand. We test the parts we sell on the street and the track in order to give our...

bergmanautocraft.com

Post up some photos of the control arms. There must be a way to make an adapter to fit the control arm side.

 

[MrBelvedere2]

Thanks for the replies, you guys pretty much confirmed my suspicions...Now to find the right dang bushings!

 

[michiganpat]

these? lists applications up to the last of the B body cordobas?

https://www.energysuspensionparts.c...HX9JpKHP-8HwhNeE5BunfRF4AbiWJ0YIaAiczEALw_wcB

 

[MrBelvedere2]

these? lists applications up to the last of the B body cordobas?

https://www.energysuspensionparts.c...HX9JpKHP-8HwhNeE5BunfRF4AbiWJ0YIaAiczEALw_wcB

Yes those are the ones I have. They are too small for the hole in the K member and move around too much for my liking.

 

[jos51700]

I've always wondered if steel cable would work instead of rods.

Stupid idea.

 

[72bluNblu]

Delrin is a no go for strut rod bushings. As already mentioned, they have movement in multiple axes so while you want them to be stiff to resist forward/aft movement on the LCA you also still need them to flex to track the up/down movement of the LCA. Otherwise you’d lock out your suspension travel. That’s why the adjustable strut rods work well, they resist forward/aft travel while allowing for free up/down travel.

I don’t know if they have adjustable strut rods for that application though. They’re not terribly difficult to make, if you take the measurements at the K frame you can have a set of pillow blocks made up for the K. The rest is just a heim and a threaded tube, you can buy the later as generic parts from AFCO.

Or just source an earlier k and get rid of the ISO stuff. In which case, I’d buy your LCA’s if you want.

I've always wondered if steel cable would work instead of rods.

Stupid idea.

Yeah that would do the opposite! It would allow forward/aft movement of the LCA under braking/acceleration, allowing for significant caster changes. Strut rods are also known as “brake reaction struts”.