Bush Kits

[iamrtl]

In the middle of my chassis refurb and was gonna replace all the bushes from here:

http://www.shengltd.com/tvrextras/docs/PolybushBun...

so turns out this chap stopped trading a while back.

does anyone know of a place that does kits or do we now have to source each bush separately.

cheers

Rob

[Gazzab]

I think Clever Trevor has bush kits?

[N7GTX]

They do!

http://www.clever-trevor.net/TVR/Parts_details/POL...

[iamrtl]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290574191979?_trksid=p20...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270761573165?_trksid=p20...

These ones seem to work out much cheaper and are powerflex same as steve heath. Only thing is it does not look as if they come with the bolts and washers.

[scotty_d]

Go direct to powerflex and find your local agent, that's what I do sure some one close to you can get them in.

[iamrtl]

I'll have a go at that, thanks!

[Ireland]

I probably still have all the Powerflex bush numbers somewhere

Give me a shout if you need them and I'll go and search

[gruffalo]

Please don't polybush your car unless you really want to wreck the ride and handling, the standard bushes are perfect for the job with very little rubber actually employed in the bush.

Polybushes tend to burn out and disintergrate quickly where as I changed my original bushes at 10 years and now at 15 years I am on the sames set and I do tend to push the old girl hard.

[iamrtl]

gruffalo said:

Please don't polybush your car unless you really want to wreck the ride and handling, the standard bushes are perfect for the job with very little rubber actually employed in the bush.

Polybushes tend to burn out and disintergrate quickly where as I changed my original bushes at 10 years and now at 15 years I am on the sames set and I do tend to push the old girl hard.

From all the chassis refurb threads it seems alot of folks have changed the bushes. What did the rest of you folks do. Did anyone who put polybushes in find that they really hated the way the car drove.

I've heard different folks (non tvr) give different opinions.

Gruffallo, without wanting to appear rude at all if you put the originals back in (I will look into sourcing and price of them regardless now) what makes you say that the powerflex bushes will wear out fast. I ask because I have heard similar things in the past.

[longbow]

I fitted Powerflex bushes and certainly haven't had any issues with them 'wearing out'. The ride is firm, but I also have coilovers, Kumho V70a tyres and rose-jointed drop links so there isn't much give in the suspension. I did have one rather annoying issue recently when removing the wishbones in order to re-powder coat them. Two of the bolts (one rear upper rear and one front lower) had welded themselves to the glacier bearings meaning that I couldn't remove the bolts through the chassis holes. In the end I had to cut through the wishbones and replace with new ones. I've applied liberal amounts of copper grease putting them all back together so fingers crossed it won't happen again.

I think the cost of these things new is plain silly - circa £500 for a full set. Other than that they appear to work very well.

[iamrtl]

longbow said:

I fitted Powerflex bushes and certainly haven't had any issues with them 'wearing out'. The ride is firm, but I also have coilovers, Kumho V70a tyres and rose-jointed drop links so there isn't much give in the suspension. I did have one rather annoying issue recently when removing the wishbones in order to re-powder coat them. Two of the bolts (one rear upper rear and one front lower) had welded themselves to the glacier bearings meaning that I couldn't remove the bolts through the chassis holes. In the end I had to cut through the wishbones and replace with new ones. I've applied liberal amounts of copper grease putting them all back together so fingers crossed it won't happen again.

I think the cost of these things new is plain silly - circa £500 for a full set. Other than that they appear to work very well.

This is the kind of thing I was hoping to hear, thank you. I dont doubt that the ride will be harder. I intend to replace all bushes, ball joints, wheel bearings and drop links. The car will never feel like it did before but I dont know what it felt like when it was new. If drove around in a MKII CRX V-Tec with a moddified suspension for over 15 years so even a rock solid ride wont bother me in the slightest.
What would bother me is having to replace the bushes over the next 10 years after all the work thats going in now. Also with the powerflex bushes at least I can find a kit. At the moment it seems as though if i want to replace all the originals i have to order them individually.

Thanks you both for the input and please keep it coming. All experiences will help me decide which is the best road to go down.

Rob

[Tanguero]

My car will eat a set of Powerflex front drag strut bushes in a couple of thousand miles. It also tends to chew through the nylon spacer washers in the upper rear wishbone bushes.

I reverted to OEM for the drag struts after destroying 3 sets of Powerflex ones in a year... The car is on its second set of Powerflex bushes in 5 years. Given the price of the Powerflex bushes and the trivial improvement in suspension feel I will revert to OEM when these ones need replacing.

[iamrtl]

Tanguero said:

My car will eat a set of Powerflex front drag strut bushes in a couple of thousand miles. It also tends to chew through the nylon spacer washers in the upper rear wishbone bushes.

I reverted to OEM for the drag struts after destroying 3 sets of Powerflex ones in a year... The car is on its second set of Powerflex bushes in 5 years. Given the price of the Powerflex bushes and the trivial improvement in suspension feel I will revert to OEM when these ones need replacing.

ahhhh!!!!, total opposite experience!!!

Hard to make a decision with such differing information. Just out of curiosity Tanquero are you taking the car on the track? Do you use it as a daily drive?

I really dont want to be replacing bushes again soon so the more info i can get about your driving style the better.

cheers

[Tanguero]

iamrtl said:

Tanguero said:

My car will eat a set of Powerflex front drag strut bushes in a couple of thousand miles. It also tends to chew through the nylon spacer washers in the upper rear wishbone bushes.

I reverted to OEM for the drag struts after destroying 3 sets of Powerflex ones in a year... The car is on its second set of Powerflex bushes in 5 years. Given the price of the Powerflex bushes and the trivial improvement in suspension feel I will revert to OEM when these ones need replacing.

ahhhh!!!!, total opposite experience!!!

Hard to make a decision with such differing information. Just out of curiosity Tanquero are you taking the car on the track? Do you use it as a daily drive?

I really dont want to be replacing bushes again soon so the more info i can get about your driving style the better.

cheers

Both a daily driver on the road and regular sprinting on track when it was at its worst. That said - I put a new set of poly bushes (apart from the drag struts) on it when I did my body off refurb in 2012. Despite it having done only 1k miles since - I noticed yesterday that the nylon spacers were disintegrating at the rear again.

When I replace them I will be going back to OEM bushes. I originally put poly bushes on for sprinting to tighten the handling up but to be honest I didn't find that they made much difference to that. The one significant advantage I see over the OEM bushes is ease of replacement - I have a 20 ton press and still struggled to get some of the old bushes out of the suspension arms.

Where the polybushes are a must have is for the diff mounts. It makes life massively easier should you need to change them ever.

[iamrtl]

Just off the phone with powerflex, they are now offering a lifetime warranty on all purple series bushes. If yours are going it might be an idea to ring them.

I was asking them if they supplied all the bushes for the cerbera as a kit and they said no.

when you tot up all the bushes it works out £706.63 (i have 22mm front and back arb)

but the two kits i posted originally from ebay are coming in at £430 or there abouts.

Seems very odd.

[Rochester TVR]

How do them prices compare to the OEM jobbies?

[iamrtl]

Rochester TVR said:

How do them prices compare to the OEM jobbies?

I dont know because I cant find a site that lists all of the bushes and prices for OEM.

29 bushes direct from powerflex = £ 706.63
29 powerflex bushes from ebay shop in 2 kits = £416

i dont understand how going direct to powerflex can be 75% more expensive.

[Tanguero]

iamrtl said:

Just off the phone with powerflex, they are now offering a lifetime warranty on all purple series bushes. If yours are going it might be an idea to ring them.

They replaced the drag strut bushes for free the first time it happened, but when it happened again they told me I must have installed them wrong and didn't want to discuss it beyond that.

[gruffalo]

iamrtl said:

gruffalo said:

Please don't polybush your car unless you really want to wreck the ride and handling, the standard bushes are perfect for the job with very little rubber actually employed in the bush.

Polybushes tend to burn out and disintergrate quickly where as I changed my original bushes at 10 years and now at 15 years I am on the sames set and I do tend to push the old girl hard.

From all the chassis refurb threads it seems alot of folks have changed the bushes. What did the rest of you folks do. Did anyone who put polybushes in find that they really hated the way the car drove.

I've heard different folks (non tvr) give different opinions.

Gruffallo, without wanting to appear rude at all if you put the originals back in (I will look into sourcing and price of them regardless now) what makes you say that the powerflex bushes will wear out fast. I ask because I have heard similar things in the past.

Driving one with Polybushes and one without back to back on the same road, the Polybushed car noticibly less comfortable over the bumps.

[cerdad]

Just had my chassis refurbed by rt ,and they do not recommend poly so i had originals fitted,they did say its ok on the diff and the arbs to fit poly .I now have to get rid of mine as i bought them ages ago.