Thread: Preventative Maintenance

Originally Posted by Fausto79

..... i'm always happy to be corrected by better experience.

Not trying to correct, nor sway anyone's opinion either way.. just reiterating my experiences too.
The overall outcome hopefully to have a better informed set of experiences.

My experiences were predominantly on my '79RRC and over the course of about 20 odd years and 500K klms. Think of any road condition and that car had driven it.
D1 looks to be 99% RRC based with some very minor differences.

My first experience with poly bushes was the shocker rubbers. Without fail every 6 months to a year they'd chop out the rubber ones. Probably the corrugated roads(but just a guess). I don't really remember extending the suspension to it's fullest travels all that much .. so I'm guessing rough roads(and lots of klms).
My parts guy got me onto Nolathane poly shock bushes first up. Not only did it tighten steering response madly it stopped what appeared to be steering kickback completely. Except for the odd failed drag link balljoint, I never had issues with steering kickback or failed shocker rubbers ever again.
That would have been at least a year before I had to do that rear radius/control chassis end bush.. again! and that was my second Rangie Spares modded bush. I reckon it lasted a bit more than a year, at which point enough was enough and I got my parts man to get me some Nolathane bushes all round. I'd done the front radius bushes a few years before and they seemed to be OK. But I changed them all anyhow. Only bushes I left out were the rear control bushes that mount to the axle(the small press in ones).
At the time they didn't have the A frame bushes, but I never had issues with them at all. Once with the associated balljoint and then the self levelling unit at a later time.

Panhard rods I reckon I'd done a couple(maybe more but at least two rubber sets).
The main difference in using the polys was for that pathetic rear control arm to chassis bush that would wear out just setting the car back down off the stands after replacement!

When I do my D1 bushes I'm planning on getting a pair of kinked trailing arms to help with that, but I reckon just the poly bush itself(going from experience with my RRC) should last at least 200K klms ... if the quality of the product hasn't diminished.

I did my RRC about a month prior to heading up north for 3 weeks with the ex. All along the tracks up that way(hardly any bitumen) and the old Ghan track past Finke was so badly corrugated I had to remove the Hella 2000 spotties as they wouldn't stay put. Car tracked perfectly on the corrugations with no sidestepping out ever!. Speed was low due to the road conditions(30ish maybe 40ish) for the really bad sections and the old rail nails were more of a danger anyhow .. so low speed seemed to be appropriate.
But driving over some of those rough roads and the security of handling those poly's gave was more than enough for me.
Bonus was that they lasted to the day the poor old rusted hulk was flatbedded away for the last time(sad day or me after 20 odd years and all those klms done).

I've seen comments to the effect that poly bushes for the shockers was something to avoid .. and my experience about that is more along the lines .. you'd be mad not too change them.
I'm currently running polys on my shocks because the first thing I tested was the amount of slack they had .. ordered a pair immediately(but only got cheapies off ebay for now).
Of course they tightened up the steering as I'd expected. That was over a year ago now.
Made zero difference to ride comfort, but the ride comfort is hard/firm anyhow. So I'm looking to replace the springs and shocks soon anyhow(hence the cheapie poly bushes for the shocks when I did them).
When I get the chance too, I'll update the springs and shocks and do new poly bushes at the same time too.

I'm thinking that bad reports on poly bushes probably stem from cheapo versions of some unknown plastic material pretending to be a urethane bush.

Can't comment on SuperPro, as I've never had them.

Even the guys in the vintage & historic car clubs use urethane bush's now

And those guys do take some convincing

I'm tempted to go for the SuperPros simply because no one seems to have used them on a d1, predominantly I'm guessing because of the perceived low value (many try telling me I've wasted my money on ~5k worth of repairs in the last three months). I know Brett from roaming the outback put them in his 110 with great effect while the bloke from Allloffroad on YouTube (forget his name) also raves about them (could have been from sponsorship, can't remember). Anyhow I've found a kit for around $450 which I'll pick up in around early November (touch wood no more major repairs soon) with the wheel bearings and brakes, ill check to see how much meat is left on the discs before I order too in case they need replacing, also ive got a two inch lift but never put in extended brake lines, should I perhaps look at that too?

Originally Posted by Fausto79

nolathane was designed for more precise steering and stiffer suspension on track cars. it is too harsh for 4wding. read up on it. plenty of forums have info with first hand experience on it. as they are not very flexible they will wear and split if pushed. some after only a few weeks of fitment.

there is mixed feelings with super pro bushes. apparently they are less harsh and feel more like rubber with the added advantage of resistance to environmental/oil exposure. but if you ask here there are still some people who recommend staying clear of them and just sticking with rubber as per vehicle design. my rubbers are original and still in reasonable condition. i believe after market ones or later rubbers are not as good as the original ones and wear a lot quicker. I will be changing them soon but whether to rubber or super pro i am not sure yet.

Those that don't like superpro bushes on here have never run them! They have run poly or neurothane and put them in the same basket as superpro, which they definately are not!
Those that have run them love them, like myself.

Originally Posted by wllgbsn

I'm tempted to go for the SuperPros simply because no one seems to have used them on a d1, predominantly I'm guessing because of the perceived low value (many try telling me I've wasted my money on ~5k worth of repairs in the last three months). I know Brett from roaming the outback put them in his 110 with great effect while the bloke from Allloffroad on YouTube (forget his name) also raves about them (could have been from sponsorship, can't remember). Anyhow I've found a kit for around $450 which I'll pick up in around early November (touch wood no more major repairs soon) with the wheel bearings and brakes, ill check to see how much meat is left on the discs before I order too in case they need replacing, also ive got a two inch lift but never put in extended brake lines, should I perhaps look at that too?

I had them on my d1 and rrc, wouldn't use anything else.
I suggest you use the search function on here, this thread has so much bad info from people with dated experience or experience not with the product on hand.

At the end of the day Super Pro or Nolathane will do the same job and prob cost about the same

Some stuff stolen from the internets

Is Nolathane too hard?
Nolathane formulations have evolved over many years. As the clear market leader in Australia & New Zealand our formulations have become progressively softer whilst becoming stronger. Each bush is designed using the most suitable grade of softness to suit the application. Misinformation spread by small competitors suggests that Nolathane is hard - this is simply old hat! We invite you to compare the "leading brands" and you will find virtually all bushings are now of similar softness. As the Australian & New Zealand markets are so small with only 24 million total population we have focused away from just motor sport application to what we call 'Streetable Polyurethane". In other words you can fit Nolathane products to a family car and obtain good performance improvement without compromising too much on ride, improved handling, steering & in many cases brake response without a harsh ride. Most Polyurethane you might see in the USA or Europe is around 93-95 Durometer shore A as they concentrate on a racing / extreme performance market, less than 1% of the Nolathane range is 93 Duro and these are normally to replace original hard nylon bushings. Most of our products are 74 or 85 Duro. When we design a bush we evaluate the best duro (hardness) for the application and that is what we design to, we do not normally make the same part in different hardness's as we try to pick the best handling / ride compromise.
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Could not find info on the Super Pro duro rating, but found this
SuperPro bushes - Extreme Use Only - durometer



SuperPro bushes - Extreme Use Only - durometer

I thought I would pop this bit of info up in here as it may be useful for others in the future. I was unsuccessful in finding it in my time spent searching the forum database.

I am looking to replace my suspension bushes and I was looking through the SuperPro catalogue < Find SuperPro Parts for My Vehicle >.
I noticed that for the D2 SuperPro list some of the bushes as a standard part number and some as for 'Extreme use only'. I wondered what the difference was - being for a 4WD could they be softer for flex, or harder?

A phone call to Fulcrum Suspension's (the head company) tech department and the difference is in the durometer rating of the bush (the hardness - see [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shore_durometer"]Shore durometer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] ). The standard bushes are usually a 70 rating. The extreme bushes are harder and are in the case of the D2, an 80 rating.
The rating of the Extreme use only bushes is identifiable in their part number, e.g.
standard bush - SPF2128K
Extreme use only - SPF2128-80K

I imagine that most other Land Rovers also have the listing option for harder so thought this information may be useful for others in the future.

Thanks Guys, I appreciate all the info, will search up a bit more now, and I'll keep in mind that hardness scale, likely don't want the 80's

Originally Posted by wllgbsn

Thanks Guys, I appreciate all the info, will search up a bit more now, and I'll keep in mind that hardness scale, likely don't want the 80's

Why not ?. Its not that much harder ( if any ) but will be slightly stiffer, and will last a lot longer than rubber ones