Poly bushes

Good evening chaps.
Does anybody have any experience of rebuilding a BJ8 suspension with poly bushes
I have fitted the lower wishbones and rebuilt kingpins/stubaxles etc but not yet fitted the coil springs
The bushes are a tight fit when the wishbone pins are tightened and it takes some effort to move the stub axle up and down.
Is this ok ??
Any help appreciated as usual.
Thanks in anticipation .
Al

I only used poly bushings for the antisway bar ends, Panhard rod ends and for-and-aft transmission mount. For the others, they also move with some effort, so I would expect the wishbone bushes to require some effort. Do make sure the wishbones are in their normal ride height position before tightening the bushes, otherwise the buses will be deformed and wear quickly.

Thanks for that, the manual recommends a 2 inch spacer under the shock absorbers to simulate normal position before tightening but this is for rubber bushes which rely on torsion as opposed to polyurethane which are meant to slide / rotate?
This is my 3rd restoration over 30 years but the first time with poly...will investigate further.

barnman said:

Thanks for that, the manual recommends a 2 inch spacer under the shock absorbers to simulate normal position before tightening but this is for rubber bushes which rely on torsion as opposed to polyurethane which are meant to slide / rotate?
This is my 3rd restoration over 30 years but the first time with poly...will investigate further.

Click to expand...

I've heard that the poly bushings could get noisy, which is why I only used them where they don't twist.

I have not used them as I was told that the ride is less comfortable and noisier. The white ones look funny to me. The rubber ones are easily replace as needed. But that is why they make different flavor ice cream.

TH: respectfully I disagree re removal of rubber bushes at least on lower A-arms. They rust in place and are one of the worst Healey jobs to remove.


For the lower suspension, avoid the poly bushes which have the metal bush in the center. I had these and they ran dry after a few years and started to squeak badly.

I went with the flexible non-metal-bushed poly bushes. Tom Monaco of Tom's Toys told me he installed his with grease 20 years ago and they don't squeak.

Since I'm retired and have extra time, I drilled my pins and installed 1/4-28 grease fittings on all 4. I lubed the bushes with green waterproof all-purpose grease.

An advantage is you don't have to use the 2" blocks every time you jack up the car. With the flexible bushes the ride should be comparable to the stock rubber bushes.

Thanks for that, a very nicely thought out solution.

I guess I've been lucky (twice).
The worse job I've tackled was the rubber seal on the windscreen (windshield).
I am currently rebuilding an original BJ8 water pump. Very difficult without a press handy.

tahoe healey said:

I guess I've been lucky (twice).
The worse job I've tackled was the rubber seal on the windscreen (windshield).
I am currently rebuilding an original BJ8 water pump. Very difficult without a press handy.

Click to expand...

Mike Salter's blog might help if you haven't seen it. Step-by-step pix on rebuilding BJ8 water pump. He sells the rebuild kits, too.
https://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/2012/06/30/austin-healey-bj8-water-pump-rebuild/

I've been working with his blog and have ordered the parts from him. He has great pictures.

barnman said:

Thanks for that, the manual recommends a 2 inch spacer under the shock absorbers to simulate normal position before tightening but this is for rubber bushes which rely on torsion as opposed to polyurethane which are meant to slide / rotate?
This is my 3rd restoration over 30 years but the first time with poly...will investigate further.

Click to expand...

True for the inboard bushes (my lower A-arms were bored parallel >30 yrs ago, so I could fit Huffaker's MGB Delrin bushes, which were replace about 15 yrs ago with urethane__still no squeaks) but you'll still want to use the spacer to set the lower A-arm outboard__threaded__bearing caps. There are work-arounds to that, but sometimes it's just easier following the procedure in the manual.

I rebuilt my front suspension with poly bushes from Denis Welch.

All went on fine with no squeaking.