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Why all the Rusty's hate?

I dont know and that is why I asked. I dont know the difference between Rustys and OEM bushings, thats why I asked. I assume nothing, I am trying to understand the what and why of it all. I cannot change what I bought now, I am trying to avoid issues with what I have. Should I seriously be worried about the lift kit breaking from normal on road use?
 
pbiancardi said:
Should I seriously be worried about the lift kit breaking from normal on road use?
Click to expand...

YES!

The majority of Rusty's failures occur driving down the road, not on the trail. Plenty of people who ran those parts and experienced failures rarely hit the trails. A rig driven daily will see more stress on the suspension than something occasionally wheeled on the weekend and parked the rest of the time. Listen to the old hands here, Rusty's sells inferior parts that can and do fail regularly, offroading or just daily driven. The general consensus has always been Rusty's for leafs and springs, if you must, but for nothing else. No linkages of any kind.
 
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Kittrell said:
YES!

The majority of Rusty's failures occur driving down the road, not on the trail. Plenty of people who ran those parts and experienced failures rarely hit the trails. A rig driven daily will see more stress on the suspension than something occasionally wheeled on the weekend and parked the rest of the time. Listen to the old hands here, Rusty's sells inferior parts that can and do fail regularly, offroading or just daily driven.
Click to expand...

Ok so I should worry that the springs are going to snap apart? The control arms are going to snap in half? I have read several issues with track bar but now you are saying that the lift kit itself has a history of catastrophic failure??
 
Ok just to make everyone happy - Rustys sucks, I will probably die in a flaming wreck and leave my poor kids fatherless.

Now for the love of christ can someone please tell me if I should grease the bushings and if so how?
 
Don't be dramatic, everyone here is trying to help you. It's not like we have some unreasonable raging hate for Rusty's. What we do see often though is people who come in here and make threads like this. See all of this kind of advice and still buy the parts because their mind is already made up. Then experience some kind of failure or experience first hand how inferior his parts are. Ultimately spending more money down the road to replace everything with quality components.

His bushings are not greasable.
 
pbiancardi said:
Ok just to make everyone happy - Rustys sucks, I will probably die in a flaming wreck and leave my poor kids fatherless. Now for the love of christ can someone please tell me if I should grease the bushings and if so how?
Click to expand...

No one really cares what you buy. It's your Jeep, and if the parts break you've been forewarned. So "we told you so" in advance. As far as bushings go, all bushings listed as "OEM" are not created equal. Some are better made than others, but in my experience the MOOG/Clevite seem to be the closest to factory quality (sometimes they ARE factory). Next time do some research BEFORE you order the parts and you'll have to spend less time defending your purchase. And to again answer your last question the OEM bushings are indeed non-greasable.
 
Just like not all chocolate is the same quality and not all coffee came out of an elephants ass, not all bushings are the same quality. There is a lot of cheap rubber out there and cheap steel and cheap manufacturing processes with little or no quality control. Just like how I stated a NAPA bushing broke on installation and sometimes you see Grade 10.9 bolts that are the weight of aluminum.

I think you want to hear the same thing from multiple people and that's not always going to happen. 5000 people aren't going to quick reply 'I agree'. Usually if there is an error people will chime in and correct/comment on it.
 
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I will find another forum.

I wonder if anyone even reads my posts, I am not trying to defend anything, I have said MULTIPLE times that I DON'T KNOW and that is why I am asking. I have asked MULTIPLE times what I should look out for and if there is anything I can do to maintain. It's a shame that most have chosen to attack instead of trying to help. I cannot change what I bought, just trying to make the best of the situation.

Just look at this post which everyone just ignored and instead continued the attack:

pbiancardi said:
Ok I get the idea, can we possibly pull this out of the gutter and give me some helpful info?

1. Is this what I want to get to replace the track bar - http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=IR-STBCK ??
1a. Should I wait on getting it aligned until I have the new track bar?

2. For the upper and lower control arm bushings (Rusty's) is there anything I should do to try and prevent issues? Is there a grease I should spread or spray on to keep them in as good a shape as possible?

3. Is there anything I can or should do to maintain the front and rear springs / leafs (Rusty's)?

4. I also replaced the rear shackles with - JKS OGS651 Rear Shackle Kit for Jeep XJ/MJ, anything I need to be on the lookout for with these?
Click to expand...
 
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pbiancardi said:
I will find another forum.

I wonder if anyone even reads my posts, I am not trying to defend anything, I have said MULTIPLE times that I DON'T KNOW and that is why I am asking. I have asked MULTIPLE times what I should look out for and if there is anything I can do to maintain. It's a shame that most have chosen to attack instead of trying to help. I cannot change what I bought, just trying to make the best of the situation.

Just look at this post which everyone just ignored and instead continued the attack:
Click to expand...

Really? Because if you actually read instead of ignoring you'll see that we have answered those questions, you just failed to notice. Two have answered the bushing question, we have all said double shear(hmm the link you posted says double shear!!) see where I'm getting? Instead your attention is on us giving you advice or your term 'attack' on why not all bushings are made the same ie: quality control.
 
The groupthink is strong in this thread.

I have a thought on why OEM (or OEM style) bushings might not hold up in Rusty's control arms. OEM control arms are stamped steel in a shape which allows them to twist. Aftermarket control arms tend to be rigid so something else has to absorb the twisting forces. This ends up being the control arm brackets or the control arm bushings. More expensive control arms have some sort of flex-joint or oversized bushings.
 
pbiancardi said:
I will find another forum.

I wonder if anyone even reads my posts, I am not trying to defend anything, I have said MULTIPLE times that I DON'T KNOW and that is why I am asking. I have asked MULTIPLE times what I should look out for and if there is anything I can do to maintain. It's a shame that most have chosen to attack instead of trying to help. I cannot change what I bought, just trying to make the best of the situation.

Just look at this post which everyone just ignored and instead continued the attack:
Click to expand...


Your questions have been answered several times, but I'll go at them again more direct:

1. Is this what I want to get to replace the track bar - http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/Merch..._Code=IR-STBCK ??
1a. Should I wait on getting it aligned until I have the new track bar?
Click to expand...
Yes. You only have 2 adjustments in your alignment, and this would reset both of them.

2. For the upper and lower control arm bushings (Rusty's) is there anything I should do to try and prevent issues? Is there a grease I should spread or spray on to keep them in as good a shape as possible?
Click to expand...
Not really. Nothing you can do will improve the welds or make the bushings out of a better material, so just keep an eye on them.

3. Is there anything I can or should do to maintain the front and rear springs / leafs (Rusty's)?
Click to expand...
Not really. If you start seeing the rears sag a lot, replace them with a first tier brand (Alcan, Rubicon Express). The coils are fine, they are just a little soft for an XJ loaded with gear.

4. I also replaced the rear shackles with - JKS OGS651 Rear Shackle Kit for Jeep XJ/MJ, anything I need to be on the lookout for with these?
Click to expand...

Those are an excellent product and there is nothing to worry about.
 
pbiancardi said:
So the OEM is stronger / better than rusty's??
Click to expand...

yes.







Apologies if these have already been posted, I'm not reading 6 pages of rustys apologising.

I will say I'm happy with his 4.5" rear MJ leafs though. Aside from the bushings going from brand new to completely shagged out, metal on metal contact in under 5k miles, mostly pavement pounding. The leafs are fine now that I put good bushings in.
 
I was going to send this to pbiancardi as a PM but it needed to be said to everyone. I know there are lots of nice builds out there where the money and time were committed to doing it right, but that is really just the minority on this site.

The thing you should notice in your Rusty's thread is the one's complaining are all using second hand info or it was on someone else's Jeep and they witnessed the failure. Have I had a Rusty's part fail, yes I have but it was my fault; I failed to notice the bolts had loosened and that lead to a critical part failing on a trail.

I ran a Rusty's adjustable upper and lower control arms before upgrading to Rusty's long arms, which I'm still running. I also ran Rusty's adjustable track bar with TRE on 3" of lift, converted to the double shear mount and joint in 2008 when I bumped up to long arms and 5" of lift, and right before going to Moab with NAXJA I had a custom steering system fabbed by a local builder to accommodate high steer and hydro assist but the Rusty's track bar mount is still there.

If you wheel or hang around Jeep groups for a while you will start to notice trends or stereo types by makes or models. I love my Cherokee but the stereo type is we are some cheap skates who run bigger lifts or tires than the parts are rated for and typically you see more failures on Cherokees than your see with other rigs. Although CJs and YJs break a lot as well, and if you move outside of Jeeps then it is the Nissan group that I would compare to XJ owners as the ones too cheap to build it correctly.

What needs to be done, is to remember you are driving a vehicle that is at least 13 years old. The parts are tired and require attention. Then you go put a lift and bigger tires on it and you are really limiting the service lift of parts.

*Personally, the best thing I ever did was to read Cal's and RWK Haus Supply build threads and adopt many of their post race inspection and maintenance ideas for my XJ. I may not be racing it, but it is 26 years old and it takes a beating every time I drive it off the trailer. It doesn't matter what lift you are running, if you don't maintain it you will have parts failures.
 
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