dman535

I had the vette up on the air for a bit today to change the oil. Was looking at all my steering/suspension pieces. Looks like all the rubber has split. I did a whole Vette Brakes/Products suspension kit a few years ago and the rubber boots are torn and the grease is all over the underside. What is the accepted span of life for this stuff? Seems pretty sad that this stuff is all shot after only a couple of years on a non-daily driven car.

Gordonm

I have had mine on for about 7 years now. Most of it is urethane but there is some rubber boots. Mine is all still looking like new. I have had mine apart a couple of times also. Don't know what happened to yours though.

page62

Quality issues aside, perhaps there's a reason why this happened. Remember, they don't actually make the bits...I'd guess they're TRW or Moog.

I don't have an answer, but I'm guessing a few questions and answers from more educated folks will help determine a cause...

MEGALADON

Why not give them a call.
I have had there stuff on for a couple of years,
and everything is still like new.

stingr69

I bought a kit from a well known vendor for another car of mine. The boots on the ball joints all split within 1 year and the car had never left the garage! I did get replacement boots under warranty but decided to leave them off and go with a set of black polyurethane aftermarket replacements. They were cheap and look like they will last a long time.

-Mark.

Big Fish

Over-greased?

Twin_Turbo

Over greased should not affect the life of a grease/dust boot. I would think you could work something out w/ vb&p, they have been very helpfull judging from the topics here. Be glad you didn't buy from prothane, apart from their junk not fitting properly (inner bushing sleeves) their seals seem to split even without use (just mockup, not torqued down, no susp. load on it), all the ball joint boots split on mine and my complaints were directed at deaf ears. This may sound like a rant, and it probably is but I warn everyone not to buy their junk. I will buy VB&P or plain rubber boots next time, I have VSE solid bushigs now (lower arms)

ddecart

Have you contacted VBP? What did they say? and do you have any pics?

djcwardog

If it is only the boots that cover the ball joints, then ignore the rest of this post! If the bushings themselves look torn up, the only advice I can give is that when you put new bushings in (or just replace as assemblies) your upper and/or lower control arms, you are cationed not to tighen the bolts on the sides until you have lowered the car and it is resting on its suspension, fully loaded - i.e. on the tires ready to drive away. If you tighten the bolts before lowering, the rubber is twisted and often torn. If you know for sure that you did this right, or if it is only the boots that are torn, than you should certainly ask VB&P for some relief here.

Mike Mercury

hmmmm... interesting.

codestar7

I can understand that. Funny I owned the local hobby shop in town for 4 years and built all kinds of miniature suspension and drive systems for radio controle. The front end on my Corvette is somehow simplified by that knowlege. Does any one know much about rubber / silicone compounds and their resistance to petrolium product such as axel grease?

dman535

I don't remember the specifics of the repair as it was a couple of years ago, was done by and ASE master tech. I am pretty sure that things were not loaded when they were snugged up. I have never heard of having to load before tightening up. In the case of the power steering ram and the tie rod ends, there is no real way to load those so that they don't spin.

The stuff has maybe 15,000 miles on it and while there are some leaks on the underside, its not like the boots were bathed in oil. I will drop a note to VBP and see what they say.

bobs77vet

heres a picture of mine two years old and about 2-3 thousand miles on it, its being taken out because i am getting ready to put in steeroids...

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

NHvette

When I did my front end rebuild, I was less than impressed at
the quality of the tie-rod boots. The ball joint boots were OK,
but the others were cheap rubber and deformed from packaging.
I ended up cleaning the nice ones that were on there and re-using them.

Missileman

The loading issue affects the upper and lower control arm bushings, not tie rod ends. The rubber in the bushing is bonded to the inner and outer sleeves. Pressing the bushing into the control arm fixes the outer sleeve by mechanical interference. The inner sleeve is fixed by the tightening of the mounting bolt forcing the washer against the sleeve and contacting the stationary frame. This bolt should be tightened when the car is on the ground and there are no static forces acting against the rubber. If the bolts are tightened when the car is in the air then the rubber is under constant shear forces unless the car is on a lift. This significantly reduces the life of the rubber and causes premature cracking. Polyurethane bushings do not have this issue because the metal sleeves are reused, and the bushing is allowed to have rotation in the sleeves. This is also why poly bushings have the annoying sqeak problem.

68/70Vette

I recently bought a rebuilt power steering ram - not from VBP however. I installed it about three months ago. It has a rubber boot where it attaches to the idler steering rod. I hand tightened the bolt. (Most of my new suspension is still loose). I didn't apply any grease. The rubber boot cracked!!!. The rubber boots that I took off my car (36 years old) look to be in perfect condition except for slight punctures where the pickle fork pinched them. Where does this junk come from? It seems that it'd be really difficult to find rubber boots that disintegrate after 90 days exposure to room temperature air if you purposefully went out looking for boots that would!! I've since become aware that it's important to strike out on your own for quality parts. For instance, I've since found out that you can buy AC Delco tie rod ends (with real rubber boots). Similarly for the idler arm - I bought mine from AC Delco. A lot of the suspension components that are for sale, are sent to you with no manufacturers name. Also, I wouldn't buy wheel bearings/differential bearings without asking where they come from. I buy only Timken.

Z-man

When I upgraded my suspension, I went with polyurethane bushings for this very reason. Polyurethane is impervious to grease, oil, etc., and won't deform like rubber eventually does. Bad atmosphere will make rubber boots crack prematurely however.

Cory1970

Has anyone used energy suspension bushing in the past? poly or rubber