new upper control arm bushing design

So having only one upper control arm on the front of my jeep has killed 2 control arm bushings so far. the last one lasted one trip. I figured the extra strain from only having one arm was doing it in. the bushing would end up having so much slop in it that setting the caster was a nightmare. the inner sleeve was nearly all the way to one side of the bushing.
I decided to make my own bushing, which wouldnt allow the axle to roll forward and back under braking, but still allow misalignment when flexed out.
i made it out of a solid piece of steel, bored out slightly bigger than the od of the metal sleeve that presses in the poly bushings. then i bored it out to 1.5" diameter on each side to allow the poly bushings to be pressed in. i also put a taper on the material left between the bushings down near the hole in the center, which allows the metal sleeve to pivot to the point where it can nearly touch the sides of the 1.5" bore, so it will allow as much angular misalignment as needed.
It pressed in fairly easily, but still tight enough. Drivability was normal, no noise or handling quirks. i think it will work out ok, and since the center sleeve wont be able to move far enough to damage or distort the poly bushings.
what do you think?

the metal outer section

looks great.

I need to get you to machine some stuff for me

How much?

oh i dont make anything for sale, just for my heep. just throwing it out there for anyone who wanted to make one for themselves.

So you are running just on upper arm off the the lower control arm ??? Just wondering if its the load your putting on that are because of the angle it in ??

You really want a hard joint there. But that should work if I understand it correctly.

I'd use the passenger side arm and make a new axle bracket using heims after welding the tube to the diff.

Good work though!

MoparManiac said:

You really want a hard joint there. But that should work if I understand it correctly.

I'd use the passenger side arm and make a new axle bracket using heims after welding the tube to the diff.

Good work though!

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thanks! thought about a solid one, but didnt want the clunk, if any. figured i'd try this first.
i didnt really want to mess with this axle a whole lot since i'll be swapping in my d44 soon. this is only temporary, but i figured i can use this bushing for the 3 link when i swap it.

I hardly get any clunk from the hard joints in my RK 3 link, and that's after 3+ yrs of no maintenance...

this is more or less a hard joint, it's not going to move more than .015" or so front to back, and all of that is absorbed by the poly bushings pretty well

wont the hard poly degrade faster?

it's going to have a certain amount of elasticity before it starts to deform, and the steel outer bushing should stop the sleeve from moving far enough to damage it. at least thats what i hope. if not, i can replace them with delrin or something.

ive thought about delrin myself.





this is what they call, "research and development." lol.

VAhasnoWAVES said:

ive thought about delrin myself.





this is what they call, "research and development." lol.

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yea, and it cost me nothing to make, so no big deal if it doesnt work. i have delrin too. but so far so good!