Energy Suspension Rack bushing questions

Got my new rack busings in the rack and trying to reassemble...

First question, the new center sleeve leaves alot of room for slop on the bolt, is this right? I did notice there was plenty of room for slop on the old sleeve as well.

I am having a hell of a time getting the top nut onto the bolt of the bracket for the D shaped bushing...have tried using a quick grip clamp but can't get enough of the bolt out to show threads...what a horrible design, top uses a nut and the bottom is a bolt!

 

I figured out what I was doing wrong with the "D" bracket, didn't realize there was a top and bottom..the top fitting is a little shorter!

Now my only question is...do I have the right size sleeve for the center with that much slop in it??

 

The sleeve that is supplies is the one that is supposed to be used, although when I replaced my rack and bushings, I replaced it with a spacer from a motorcycle that happened to be the right dimensions, and fit the bolt tight.

 

I didn't use Energy suspension bushing. But the ones I got had two sleeves for the center bushing. One was too narrow and the other was too wide and left slop. I drilled out the narrow one. The bolt was really close to going to going through the smaller one so I figured no harm in shaving just a bit.

I would find a sleeve that has a snug fit to the bolt or you leave movement in the rack and that affects steering. Also, the D busing will be trying to hold while the center busing is letting a little bit of side-to-side movement. That would wear the D bushing faster, I would think.

 

Probably a little late...but here's a writeup I did on my 96 rack bushing replacement.

http://www.lieblweb.com/steeringbush.html

 

I'll probably call Energy this morning and see what they have to say...put everything back together already. Like I said the orginal sleeve in the factory bushing had the same amount of slop in it was well.