Airplane bus

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Finished up the inside and moved outside to tackle something I've been putting off. Turns out they haven't made this bushing in 25 years. All part of the wonderful bus life I guess,lol


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So this thing has a wishbone rockwell front suspension that I always felt had lots of potential,not just comfort but safety also. I've identified several things I dont like about this setup so the lack of replacement bushings is not that big a deal.[ATTACH]20200704_142437.jpg[/ATTACH]

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Wrist pins rusted in place and I had to beat them out with a aluminum slug. I went ahead and sent them to a machine shop for repair.

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The actual sleeves are not damaged so that's a huge plus.

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Super fun pulling this crap out.

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So I basically bought the stuff and spent the last month practicing vacuum molded polyurethane.I also added a (bushing face) so it cant rub metal to metal anymore which was a design flaw from the factory. Also had to add grease zerks and it takes a special grease but it's worth it not having those crappy rubber tension bushings.

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Also added a thrust washer so the face of the bushing has something to ride on.

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[EastCoastCB]

You're a very handy dude.

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Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

You're a very handy dude.

Man! I am handy but there's a serious learning curve to that poly. Didn't have much of a choice but to learn the hard way.

[wrenchtech]

Amazing work! You are on a level of competence that few will ever reach.

[Mountain Gnome]

My only concern is that I put polyurethane "high performance" bushings in my truck's upper control arms. They barely lasted a year. New rubber ones lasted much longer. But something is better than nothing in your case!
Amazing work, and thanks for sharing the possibilities. That may be something I (and many more of us) need to know how to do in the future.

[joeblack5]

Very nice, why is there a key way on the bushings and the shaft/ pin?


The photo shows the upper wishbone, how does the lower setup work?



Johan

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Originally Posted by joeblack5

Very nice, why is there a key way on the bushings and the shaft/ pin?


The photo shows the upper wishbone, how does the lower setup work?



Johan

The wishbone is from the bottom and the upper arms are shorter/separated. The reason it has key ways is because the factory rubber bushings were solid and movement would push/pull on the shafts pretty hard. It was built solid like that to help locate everything and not rub because the bushings had no face.

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Machine shop was backed up so I had to fix these parts myself. I just changed the damaged 1 1/8 nut to 1 inch. Should work fine.