Energy Suspension Poly LCA bushing problem

[JBurt]

After searching and not finding what I was looking for here's the question.

I got the energy suspension 8.3115 poly lower control arm bushings. It's for a tacoma but I found several people that said it worked well on their 4runners. The problem is that the inner diameter of the bushing is way bigger than the outer diameter of the cam sleeve.

half melted stock bushing on the left for comparison:

If I install it this way I don't see how the cam is going to adjust the lca for an alignment. Anyone with this bushing that can chime in?

While we're at it whats wrong with my passenger side LCA bushings (still on vehicle currently)?

Front:

Rear:

 

[coinball]

You have to remove the inner sleeve of the stock control arm bushing (by prying off one side of the flange and pushing the sleeve and side still connected out of the rubber) and reinsert it in the poly bushing (and stick the side on that you removed before).

I have those bushing still sitting in the box, as when I did my LCAs I wasn't sure how that part was going to go.

 

[PNWRunner]

Your gunna have to burn/cut/pry off the old rubber bushing until you get down to the metal, its a PITA. I burned the rubber off and used a wire wheel to really clean it up. Make sure all the old rubber is cleared off and its lubed with the supplied grease or the bushing might squeak.

 

[Gerdo]

I assume that you are talking about the control arm bushings.

Yes they are a pain in the ass.

Read this http://threeg4runners.freeforums.org...poly-t998.html

PS
You do need to reuse most of the steel from the OE rubber.

A bench mount with a wire wheel is your friend for getting the left over rubber off and clean up the cam adjusters and bolt threads.

 

[JBurt]

Thanks for the replies guys. I really welcome the help.

So are you talking about reusing this metal?

Getting it out and cleaning it out won't be a big problem but unless there is more beef in there covered by the rubber I don't think it's going to fill the gap in the new bushing.

I hope energy suspension is open on monday.

 

[JBurt]

So I took out that metal sleeve also and there wasn't any good chunk of metal hiding under the rubber, so that doesn't really help much.

My thought is that they might not have been the stock bushings. Then the metal parts that I need aren't part of the old bushings.

From the link Gerdo posted (thanks btw) it looks like there is significantly thicker inner sleeves that are part of the bushing.

Any thoughts?

 

[PNWRunner]

Its been a while since Ive done these things, but I believe you've got the wrong bushing there.

Your looking for the bushing at the top of the picture, which you would want to slide into the metal sleeve in the LCA, then slide the cam adjusters into the new bushings. My memory is a bit foggy on this, but Ive thought for a bit and believe Im correct.

 

[JBurt]

PNWRunner those look much better than the one I got. I ordered the 8.3115G kit for tacoma's off at autozone. That's the one that J-money and Gerdo said they used. I'm pretty sure that the Tacoma and 4runner LCA's are the same. THe ones that I got match the pictures I've seen around the web.

Where did that picture come from?

 

[JBurt]

So after talking to customer service at ES they took some time to think about it and emailed me back and told me that there was no way that what was in there was a factory bushing so it wasn't going to work. His recommendation was to find a stock bushing or to go to one of their retailers and order a complete bushing by size. Not a bad option but my local dealership had them in stock so I went and picked up some oem bushings.

Moral of the story is that if you want the poly bushings from ES make sure you've got stock bushings to begin with.