help.... tension rods are spurting lube....

[foley]

HAHA... I said, "rods are spurting lube" and was in-context

Anyway, I did my first oil change on the car today, and since it sits so damn low I almost couldn't get my floor jack under it, I obviously had to jack it up to get the pan under there.

When I did, the suspension obviously went to full droop, and when it did my tension rod bushings started leaking on the shop floor. I looked at them and the rubber casing of both is cracked / torn.

Here's my dilema:

Liquid filled bushings are too soft, gotta go.

Poly bushings are probably $$ and still may not be "tight" enough

Heim joints are cheap and tights as they come.

I'm thinking I could simply replace the tension rod with a short piece of cromolly tubing with a heim on one end in place of the bushing, and a fitting on the other end to bolt onto the A arm. Sizing everything will be easy enough, just figure the bearing area of the factory 10mm bolt going through the sheetmetal bracket on the subframe and make sure everything is stronger than that. I probably won't even need I book, I think I remember all those equations

So I'm figuring the cost here:

2 Heims, $402 Heim fititngs for the tubing $153' Cromo tubing $15

My time: $1,000,000, but I'll cut myself a break on the first order:)

Is this worth doing? What do the guys who get really "tuner happy" with their suspensions use on the tension rods?

Thanks for any input

Mike

PS, am I overreacting, do all tension rod bushings leak and I should just not worry about it?

[LEMHEAD16]

Look around bro there are lots of sites that sell exactly what you are talking about for about the same price you could build it

[Structure240sx]

this would be better in the suspenion forum, if a mod could move it please

[blubottlemax]

They all wear out eventually. Check out http://www.splparts.com they sell an awsome set that is road and track proven, no need to reinvent the wheel.

[SirTwix]

Ive got the energy suspension bushings(black) for the tension rods, if you want them, I went with the tein pillow ball tension rods

Jeremy

[foley]

hey hey, my post is back...

I need to check out some of the other vendors for this type of stuff, thanks for the links.

twix, is the energy suspension bushing stuff you have an entire bushing kit for the front end, or just the tension rod bushings? What do you want for them?

Mike

[Red coupe]

If you get the energy suspention ones you will need a press to get the old bushing out unless he sells you the arms with the bushing in it, I wouldnt recomend making one unless you realy know what your doing....but if they are cracked and leaking fluid they are dead. If you just want to buy the new arm Id recomened SPL although if you get ajustable arms you will need to spring for a front end alignment