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Sway bar bushings

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tgreening

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Is there a current known good source for sway bar bushings, especially the uppers? My lowers seem good, but uppers have totally left the building.
 
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TomTime

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tgreening

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Third From Texas

Third From Texas

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tgreening said:
Hoo-doggy. Those folks sure proud of their parts…
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Yeah, when you consider that you need four sets to do a truck (plus the lowers).

Im not really sure you need the washers and sleeves.


And with that out of the equation, I bet that there are civilian solutions if you know the specs (L, ID, OD).

Some place like this is a bit more realistically priced:

Prothane 19605 Pivot Bushings - OD 1.5 in, ID .752 in, Tube Length 2 in | Suspension.com

Universal Bushings made by Prothane | 19605 Pivot Bushings - OD 1.5 in, ID .752 in, Tube Length 2 in.
www.suspension.com www.suspension.com
 
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Third From Texas

Third From Texas

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Awesomeness said:
I usually bite my tongue when I see these posts. If you think it should be done cheaper, I'd like to see you try. I practically give mine away, and they still aren't as cheap as I'd like. And the cost of the materials just keeps going up.
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Agreed. I'm all in favor making your own when they can't be found (or for a reasonable price). As I said, the metal washers and sleeves likely are not needed if your truck has them intact (either way, that's only a couple dollars). We're talking about the squishy bits. What hits the wallet hard here is you need four sets per truck (and that $400 from the above mentioned vendor).

Looking at the size of the bushing, I suspect that with $400 you could buy the material to make the mold, and about 40 or so casting. *I base this on our past discussions and the material prices w/shipping So for the over-the-counter price of four of the 2-pc sets from a vendor, you could make you could make five times that for the same materials cost.

So it's not a huge savings of money when you factor in the time and effort involved. But it is a savings and it leaves you with 4-5 spare sets (give or take) which should cover the cost of materials (even if you sold the complete set of eight for only $100).

But IMO, the trick to beat the high cost in a case like this is to find a civilian solution (not a surplus). I see similar sized mass produced bushings selling for ~$15-20 for the pair.

But yeah, I bet 99% of the LMTV/MTVs out there likely have no upper swaybar bushing. We should pool out resources and scour the Internet for a civilian solution. Or you could see what you could turn them out for (I'd always rather support a community member that actually MAKES his wares).
 
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tgreening

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Awesomeness said:
I usually bite my tongue when I see these posts. If you think it should be done cheaper, I'd like to see you try. I practically give mine away, and they still aren't as cheap as I'd like. And the cost of the materials just keeps going up.
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🤷🏻‍♂️ Didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers, and my comment was about their parts in general, not the bushings specifically. A lot of that stuff they’ve got posted is being done cheaper, or at least sold cheaper, and fairly readily available. There are things being sold by places I won’t further mention, at about 400% mark up, that can be readily bought off the shelf. I don’t mind paying some extra for somebody else to do the leg work, but I don’t expect to put somebodies kid through college over a single item. Exaggerated, but that’s the gist.

Apologies. I won’t comment further about cost, good or bad. Happy Holidays.
 
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tgreening

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Third From Texas said:
Yeah, when you consider that you need four sets to do a truck (plus the lowers).

Im not really sure you need the washers and sleeves.


And with that out of the equation, I bet that there are civilian solutions if you know the specs (L, ID, OD).

Some place like this is a bit more realistically priced:

Prothane 19605 Pivot Bushings - OD 1.5 in, ID .752 in, Tube Length 2 in | Suspension.com

Universal Bushings made by Prothane | 19605 Pivot Bushings - OD 1.5 in, ID .752 in, Tube Length 2 in.
www.suspension.com www.suspension.com
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I’m not sure what’s left of mine. They just got a cursory glance while I was doing other stuff, because I’d just watched someone’s video about changing them out. Same with the cab bushings, but kind of odd in that case. The uppers look practically new. The lowers have left the building. Completely Mia.
 
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TomTime

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You know the bottom cab bushing it gone when you put the cab up and the flex step hits the tire, that’s how I knew they were shot!
 
coachgeo

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....

But IMO, the trick to beat the high cost in a case like this is to find a civilian solution (not a surplus). I see similar sized mass produced bushings selling for ~$15-20 for the pair.
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there is a rather long thread in here on trying to find available generic or name brand in right size bushing for the lower. Far as I recall there was no success. Maybe some of the resources brought up in that thread might help though.

Hence why on boards like this it is highly recommended for everyone to SEARCH FIRST before posting. You might find parts of your questions are already answered.

Greaseable polyurethane sway bar bushings

Just weeks after getting my M1078, the sway bar bushings fell apart, and were soon completely gone. I decided to make some heavy duty polyurethane replacements, and make them [optionally] greaseable. Here's the CAD model so far... I 3D printed a prototype, to test fit, and everything looks...
www.steelsoldiers.com
 
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coachgeo

coachgeo

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coachgeo said:
there is a rather long thread in here on trying to find available generic or name brand in right size bushing for the lower. Far as I recall there was no success. Maybe some of the resources brought up in that thread might help though.

Hence why on boards like this it is highly recommended for everyone to SEARCH FIRST before posting. You might find parts of your questions are already answered.

Greaseable polyurethane sway bar bushings

Just weeks after getting my M1078, the sway bar bushings fell apart, and were soon completely gone. I decided to make some heavy duty polyurethane replacements, and make them [optionally] greaseable. Here's the CAD model so far... I 3D printed a prototype, to test fit, and everything looks...
www.steelsoldiers.com
Click to expand...
try this

https://www.energysuspensionparts.com/energy-suspension-universal-polyurethane-bushings.asp


IMHO I'd look also for using a bolt with grease zerk. couple sources for those. they do have them at Etrailer... but there are other sources. Maybe even McMaster Carr. Key search term is "WET BOLT".. unfortunately though you can't search by that in any Discussion Forums cause it wont search for a 3 letter or less thing. Like WET or LED "unless you use your browsers advanced search feature to search within a specific website via a URL
 
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Awesomeness

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tgreening said:
🤷🏻‍♂️ Didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers, and my comment was about their parts in general, not the bushings specifically. A lot of that stuff they’ve got posted is being done cheaper, or at least sold cheaper, and fairly readily available. There are things being sold by places I won’t further mention, at about 400% mark up, that can be readily bought off the shelf. I don’t mind paying some extra for somebody else to do the leg work, but I don’t expect to put somebodies kid through college over a single item. Exaggerated, but that’s the gist.

Apologies. I won’t comment further about cost, good or bad. Happy Holidays.
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It's just that every few months, another new member comes in and starts this same discussion, about any number of parts that are "too expensive". For all the talk, there are few/no cheap solutions of equal quality found.

For the bushings specifically, there are so many costs that go into doing these well, from the cost and time of making the master patterns and molds, to the ~$85/gal material itself, to the consumables (e.g. paint sticks, rubber gloves, mold release, black dye, shipping boxes, grease fittings, etc.). Not to mention $1000 worth of equipment. For people to walk in and casually scoff at the price just means they haven't even started thinking about what it takes to make them. Low Volume Production of anything is tedious, and there are a lot of costs that add up.
 
Third From Texas

Third From Texas

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Awesomeness said:
It's just that every few months, another new member comes in and starts this same discussion, about any number of parts that are "too expensive". For all the talk, there are few/no cheap solutions of equal quality found.

For the bushings specifically, there are so many costs that go into doing these well, from the cost and time of making the master patterns and molds, to the ~$85/gal material itself, to the consumables (e.g. paint sticks, rubber gloves, mold release, black dye, shipping boxes, grease fittings, etc.). Not to mention $1000 worth of equipment. For people to walk in and casually scoff at the price just means they haven't even started thinking about what it takes to make them. Low Volume Production of anything is tedious, and there are a lot of costs that add up.
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I've ALWAYS stood up and stated support for anyone making products like that.

Where I ridicule and point is at the vendors who purchase this crap at auction for $100 a pallet of 10,000 and then mark the individual items up to $100/ea. I give zero f''s about "supply and demand, capitalism at work", and all the other excuses when I see a blatant case of ripping the community off.

I'll shout it from the rooftops every time. And I'm far from a new member here or anyplace else I frequently point out such wallet rape of the surplus community.

But I fully support vendors who make their wares (I always have). People like you and Plasa who actually MAKE their stuff get my money and my praise. Someone who is just in the flipping business of buying a pallet of crap with an NSN then making it up 1000% and 5x what the equivalent civilian commercial truck part cost....well, they don't get much support from me.

Bottom line in this case, if you or someone else makes these I''ll buy them. Hopefully it can be done fur under $400 for eight rubber grommets, though. But if not, I'd rather pay someone making them than flipping them.
 
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