Urethane bushings squeaks

[madkaw]

So I am putting stuff back together and I am curious of my spindle bolts. My right /passenger rear control arm would not pivot at the spindle bolt with the inner bushings removed. I couldn't push down it and make it pivot. The driver's side was stiff but it would rotate at the spindle. I loosened the spindle nuts on the passenger side and everything pivoted fine. It doesn't seem right that I couldn't rotate the arm--????? Could this be part of my squeaking?

So now I am trying to make sure I am torquing things the right way when I put it back together. I know it's best to torque things down while the car is sitting on it's tires. I am having a hard time finding torque specs on the spindle nuts.Any help please?

The other issue that might have caused squeaking is that I had a way of adjusting rear toe, and what little adjustment I might have had, might have been too much for the urethane bushings.

[EuroDat]

I cant remember mine being that tight. I could still move it up and down after torquing, but it required a lot of effort. Thats probably were your squeaking is coming from.

Is the spindle pin centered in the right spot. Maybe lossen the locking bolt and retorquing the spindle to center it. Worth a try.

Torque settings for the spindle are: end nut 54 - 69 ft-lb and the small cotter pin (locking bolt) is 7 - 9 ft-lb.

Chas

[madkaw]

Chas, good point about being centered . Makes me wonder if I actually did the right order when I initially installed the arms after bushing install. So loosening the center nut would allow the spindle to center itself during the torquing and then lock the center in place.

Thanks

[madkaw]

Okay folks, I'm pretty sure I have an issue on my passenger side rear LCA -front outboard bushing. When I torque up the nuts on the spindle bolt the LCA about locks up, near impossible to move. I have attached pics of the control arm and hardware. The washer with the groove is the front outboard. This should tell me what is wrong, but I am too dense to figure it out. I look at the bushings and sleeves and they look alright, but honestly not sure what to look for. The driver's side works good and I can rotate LCA after torqueing. The driver's side bushing sleeves look different then the passenger side.

Also, I did not try to remove the spindle, but they have been replaced. I tried to get the locking bolt out on the passenger side and couldn't get it to budge. The lock bolt seems to be canted inboard in the hole of the LCA, against the threads of the bolt. I don't want to remove the spindle when I'm not sure it's any issue.

[EuroDat]

The bushing and sleeve in photo 014 dont look right. The PU bush looks like its missing the flange section, but that might be the photo.

If the PU bush does not have the flanged section, the sleeve looks too short which will let the washer bind on the lower control arm tube. This is most probably the source of your squeak.

Bad news is that you need to remove the spindle pin to get the bushes out.

Chas

[madkaw]

The flange is there, but the shadows in the pics hides it. You are seeing a distinct line where the washer rides I believe. The sleeves on the other side look different-like is in made from different material. They look plain steel in color on the driver's side.

[beermanpete]

The wear on the washer is allowing the washer to move too far towards the bushign and compressing it, creating friction. Replace the washers and make sure to use some grease when you assemble it. That should help.

[madkaw]

Well I swapped the hardware around to eliminate possibilities. Putting the bad washer on the driver's side doesn't make much of a difference -the driver's side still moves easier then the passenger side. More importantly, putting the good washers on the passenger side doesn't help and it is still near Impossible to move up and down once torqued. So this tells me that;

1. my sleeves are just a tad short on the passenger side? The washer should ride on the sleeve-correct?

2. The spindle is not centered, but not sure how that would effect things. If it's off, I can't see it.

Talked to my buddy and he says that his LCA's will just flop down after releasing the inboard sides. They move VERY freely. If I back off my nuts 1 turn I am there. Be nice to just drill and cotter pin like a bearing!

[madkaw]

So I stopped and pulled the spindle bolt. Looks like I might have truly found the issue. The strut housing where the spindle mounts up is not real flat. You can tell where the sleeve has ridden and worn a spot on the end. I'm thinking this wear has actually moved the sleeve inward and is causing the flange of the urethane bushings to ride hard against the housing. Looking at the pics you can see the high spots on the strut housing end and the gouges on the urethane.

I am happy to report that my spindle popped out easy.

[EuroDat]

Looks like you found your problem. The only way I can think of that wear is the spindle nuts were on tight and the sleeve could spin.

Do you have any ideas on how to repair it or are you going to replace the strut? You could get the end machined flat and use an extra hard metal washer to get the original length. Woulb be a good idea to order a new PU bushing set for the spindle pin.

Chas

[beermanpete]

The sleeves are likely worn and now are too short. New sleeves will help but you make need to make over-length sleeves to take up the space were material has worn from the uprights. New washers are obviously required as well.

All the worn parts indicates the nuts were loose at some point and allowed the collar to move in relation to the shaft and upright.

[madkaw]

I tightened up the nuts very tight and worked the LCA up and down and watch the nut loosen up as the washer turned. So you are probably right that the LCA was turning the sleeve and wearing on the housing.

I'm thinking it is a combination of too thick of flanges on the bushings and the sleeves being a tad short because of that. Measuring the width of the spindle housing I get about 135 mm. Now measuring the LCA at the width of the bushings I get about 133.5, so even after filing down the spindle housing it's still a press fit.

I think I might have taken 1mm off by filing. That shouldn't effect how the sleeve works in regards to the urethane bushing. Not sure if that small amount will pinch the LCA mounting points or not.

I have ordered a new bushing set and see how that does