LATEST news on strut rod bushings?

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LandYachts

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My SRB’s are squeaking and causing a slight pull. I plan to replace the LCA’s and SRB’s ASAP.

I can already guess people are going to jump in with pasted replies or from old experiences but I did search before posting this and found nobody has RECENT news on SRB’s.

Just as Hyundai is no longer communist-grade tin scrap makers and Lincoln is no longer a market contender, things and paradigms change.

Can anybody give some news about new aftermarket SRB’s and where to buy? I have tried to find OEM but the cost is outrageous and the supply has to run out soon.

I would like bushings that have similar characteristics in ride quality as OEM, I’m not looking to make a drift car out of a boat.

Any advice helps!
 
Talk to Bill Evanoff over at SuperCoupePerformance.com as of about 6months ago, he had a decent stock of OEM reproduction SRB's
 
These sources are looking way too premium.

Has anybody had any luck with ANY of the aftermarket stuff? I had read that there was some changes to some product lines that improved the longevity.

If Firestone is going to warranty the work, and they’re installing NAPA parts, is it worth it?

Are there other Ford models that should work in this application? I’ve been surprised how often something differs in the slightest way and this gets a totally different part number, but yet is plug and play.
For instance, I’m sure a lot of you know that the door lock actuators from 70’s FLM vehicle’s are the same up to the 90’s, just updated mechanics. I put 1996 Mustang actuators in my ‘77 Mark V.
 
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I put these in my 97 and it goes nice & straight down the road over any road bumps and irregularities . No issues for the 25 bucks.
Dorman 536-549
 
not quite 3K miles on the new upper & lower CA 's and SRB's. The car rides great. The bushings are made out of the poly urethane stuff. Its easy enough to change out if they don't last. With 67K on the car, I didn't need the SRB's at all really but since the uppers were shot, I wanted to clean slate the front end. I would suggest Rock Auto with a discount code and get CA's with grease fittings. Now I can grease the ball joints.....upgrade.
 
LandYachts said:
Do you remember what brand? Or even a SKU?
Click to expand...
I just looked it up and the lower control arms are Mevotech #CMK8784 & CMK8783 I should have use the Mevotech upper CA's also since they also have grease fittings but I had all ready gotten ones with the spring conversion kit. The LCA out of the spring kit were junk with one seized ball joint. If I had to do it all again, I would just get all Mevotech stuff from Rock Auto. Rock has good CS also. They ship fast. The 5% off coupon of the day is 10703653554843330
 
They seem to be similar SKU’s to Moog. Are they under the same corp. or is one better than the other in some way?

I was seriously sold on Moog complete lowers.

Did you install all of this yourself? Difficulty?
 
Moog is fine as long as its the ones with grease fittings IMO. I did the work my self and it was the first time I wrenched control arms. It wasn't too bad to do. Main thing I learned was on all the bolts, you only turn the nuts NOT the bolt head since there is a fixed position plat pinched to the bolt head, camber bolt included. The only other important thing is keep all the control arm bolts Not Quite Snug until you put the weight of the car on the hubs. The way I did this is I put about 5 - 5/8th" washers on 3 wheel studs and tighten the rotor down with 3 lug nuts. Then set the car down on to the bottom edge of the rotor with another pump jack facing away from the car. that's because the rotor will push outward once you get full car weight on it. Once the car is on both rotors, block the CA's up as a safety catch in case a rotor came off a jack. Tighten all the CA nuts at this point. Instead of pulling the brake res out to get at that UCA nut, I just put in a regular 10.9 G bolt that I bought from Bolt Depot Metric flange bolts, Partial thread (DIN 6921), Class 10.9 steel plain finish, 12mm x 1.75mm x 70mm - Bolt Depot . Putting these 4 bolts in the UCA's made it easy to tighten by the bolt head rather than the nut only of the originals since you can barely get a wrench on the nut by the brake res. You can get the torque values off google. I did have to buy a ball joint press out tool from Auto Zone (PN #OEM27022). That was easier than I thought with the tool. Just get good pressure on the ball joint stem and then smack the press bolt head once and that popped the ball joint out of the CA. Hope that all helps u out :)
 
I was aware of not snugging the bolts until the car is down. The PO wasn’t and I ended up fixing his mistake...

How easily (?) did the strut rod nuts break? Did you ‘have’ to use an impact?
 
Piece of cake. A big cresent wrench on the rod flats and a pipe extention on a ratchet.
 
I'm having an issue under braking where the steering wheel will pull to the right and come back straight after braking. The bushings are less than a year old and the problem only started after changing the bushings. How do you recommend tightening them down? Weight on the wheels?
 
Strut rods need not have weight on the wheels to be tightened. Just make sure they are firmly bushing-ed and snug in their seats. Could be a tie rod problem. Get under the car where you can see the tie rod joint and then just have some one jerk the steering wheel left and right. If the rod has play over its ball joint while the wheel stays stationary, You need new tie rods.
 
Thanks for the tip. I just checked that out and the tie rods seem fine. I'm going to dissemble and resemble the rod bushings and see if that changes anything.
 
Amazing!

I purchased the bushings/sleeve kit from Super Coupe Performance ($162.98) and after putting about 50 miles on them I’m as pleased as can be.

I did replace all the control arms too, so I’m not sure how much the bushings contributed to the ride quality.

The old driver ball joint can actually be pulled up and down in the socket. The passenger was loose but not enough to move up and down. The old bushings didn’t seem apparently worn but I can’t judge.

Mine was rough over bumps and the steering was VERY nervous. When I hit the brakes, it would pull hard to the passenger side. Once I did the driver side and tested it, it pulled even harder to the passenger side when braking.

With all the new components it now drives Lincoln SMOOTH, has much more responsive input, never gets squirrely, and bumps are much more manageable. It feels as though all of the car’s weight has shifted to the front wheels. I also just accepted that the steering wheel is over-boosted but with all the new components it feels much better.

Moog upper control arms
Moog lower control arms
SCP bushings and sleeves
PO installed Moog seat bar links
 
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