LCA Bushing Replacement

Because of the deep mud/high water conditions I normally wheel in, lubricant quality is super important for my offroad use. Using the best lubricants I can find helps keep the parts on my Taco stay serviceable.

 

Yeah, you're basically saying what we were saying.

Plenty of us dunk our vehicles (and poly-fitted components) under water.

 

If you want the best grease for your Poly Bushings order this.

Energy Suspension 9.11104 8 Oz Tub Of Lubricant

$18 Energy Suspension - 9.11104 8 OZ TUB OF FORMULA 5 PRELUBE

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MW5SJ4

That will give you more to work with. Whiteline, Energy, etc provide basically this grease... which is the right grease. They just don't give you enough in my opinion.

It's specifically for Poly. It's the really sticky shit (which is what you want for them). And It's water repellent.

Don't use Super Lube. That stuff is great for other stuff. It will not last on these bushings. It will wash off the first time you run through a puddle.

 

Shit, good to hear you had good results!

I second not using Super Lube...I use that for manual hub o-rings but definitely wouldn't use it on anything exposed.

 

Yes. The ES grease supplied with their poly bushings has worked for my application. If the Strongflex grease supplied with their poly bushings is better, that would be great! The WD-40 True All Purpose (TAP) Grease has been working with all the metal parts on my Taco. But it is a calcium based grease not intended for use with poly. Super Lube Synthetic 51140 is rated very high for poly use, better than the ES poly grease. But hands-on personal experience beats ratings. My LCAs will be completely underwater for 100s of yards, sometimes over a mile at a time in order to access prime hunting areas in our swampy river bottom land. The deep mud/sandy water kills my seals/parts very quickly. It is a constant, never ending battle. But the '97 Taco has been up to the task for 1/4 century and counting. Several Jeeps and Broncos did not handle this environment nearly as well as this Taco.

 

LOL at an all purpose grease being rated higher than a Poly Specific grease... for Poly Bushings.

 

As @Kwikvette mentioned before, Superlube is great for O rings

I can't. honestly, think of anything else I would use it for on the truck.

Redline CV2 goes in my CVs
Lucas Red N Tacky goes in my Ujoints and driveline, and UBJs

Am I forgetting something that needs grease?

 

I used Redline CV2 inside the manual hubs too.

 

That is one of the biggest reasons for boards like this, to separate the BS ratings from hands-on personal experience. Never had reason to use any other grease on the ES bushings except for the ES grease.

I've been running the WD-40 TAP Gease in all the metal-to-metal parts for about 5 years now. It is working MUCH better than the drippy red Mobil 1 I used for over a decade. Damn, that stuff was a mess to deal with! The TAP grease qualifies as a Marine grease because of the excellent resistance to wash-out. Most marine greases don't handle EP well but this one does. And the DP is super high @ 650F so it stays where you put it even at high temps. Never have found out who makes it for WD-40. My only experience so far with Redline is their MT-90 in my R150F tranny which was a big thumbs up.

 

Making some progress on heavy MTX but the August heat has me slowed down to a crawl. LCAs were drilled & tapped for 90 degree zerks & are ready to install. It appears that Super Lube has an even better grease for poly bushings than the

$15 Super Lube 41150 Synthetic Multi-Purpose Grease, 400g, Translucent White Color

Super Lube 41150 synthetic I was considering. The UMI Performance Super Lube 3008 sold by Summit looks to be specifically designed for poly bushing use. If Energy Suspension Formula 5 poly bushing grease came in a grease gun tube, I would use it without hesitation. But the Super Lube 3008 looks like a very good choice for these Strongflex LCA bushings. Interestingly, Strongflex bushings were originally packaged with black Moly-Graph EP Multi-Purpose lithium-based grease. But the Moly-Graph grease stained the bushings, so Strongflex changed to their current clear/white silicone-based grease for their bushings.

 

The grease ES supplies is a silicone grease. I've got a tub of some 3m silicone paste, super thick and doesn't wash out. I put it in one of these, takes most of the mess away.

 

The ES lube is all you need. Might as well get a skin graft before trying to get it off.

 

2-year follow-up on StrongFlex (SF) bushing durability in my deep sandy mud/high water environment. Just removed both my LCAs for routine inspection/mtx after 2 years/approx. 200 days of hard off-roading in deep mud/high sandy water. I had quite a bit more cleanup than anticipated (below). The bushing sleeves were rusted but the SF bushings themselves were still very serviceable. Silicone grease did not work well for my application. I am now of the opinion that the silicone grease is just too thick to penetrate well into the bushing when pumped in with a grease gun. All traces of silicone grease have been removed from the parts in preparation for reinstalling the SF bushings and sleeves with a thinner calcium sulfonate grease containing moly. Redline CV-2 or CAT 5% moly #2 grease come to mind. That should penetrate the bushing/sleeve area a little better especially in cold weather when thick grease does not flow well. My LCA bushings will be kept completely filled with grease to help keep water out.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The current Strongflex LCA bushing kit for the 1st Gen Tacoma cost a little more but now comes with SS bushing sleeves.

LCAs, Octagons, & Bolts after 2 years/approx. 200 days of hard off-roading in deep sandy mud/high water:


Bushing sleeve cleaned on wire wheel VS the most rusted sleeve which still cleaned up nicely: