Long Travel BS Thread

How common is it for people to run delrin LCA bushings? Sounds fairly common in the steering, but seems like for the suspension pivots that would lead to a hard ride/lot of feedback.

 

Very common, some of the manuf's use them oe. SOme manuf's even use all uniball pivots. Yes, they are a little harsher but far more durable and delrin is " self lubricating ". IMO durability outweighs a little harsher ride...just let a few more PSI out of your tires to compensate.

 

As far as I know that’s all dirtking uses for LCA pivots. I don’t believe it produces any harshness in my experience. Delrin is an amazing material. It machines like butter and provides very rigid mounting. It’s also pretty inexpensive.

 

The LSK “race kit” I’m getting ready to install has delrin bushings also. The JDfab kit I currently have uses uniball in the lowers and I was really happy with them.

 

It took a while to get my Solo LCA's to a point where they didn't eat bushings, but I was previously considering doing delrin. Not sure if the Solo bushings are poly or what grade, but they're pretty damn stiff. Noticeably more stiff than any of the TC poly bushings I have for my steering or UCAs.
It also took a while to find what was the best grease to use to where they didn't start squeaking after 5k miles. Couldn't get anything to work other than the expensive prothane grease.

Understand that delrin is self-lubricating, but is it self lubricating enough to where you can just use them completely dry in the lower pivots?

 

yes, a lot of lubes will actually degrade delrin, i believe teflon spray is the only safe thing

 

interesting. well maybe I'll mess with that if I run into more issues on the lower pivots. Hopefully not

 

My camburg kit and Tundra steering is fully uniball/heim with aluminum “bushings” for the steering rack.
I like the responsiveness and feedback, even for highway and daily driving. I don’t find it “harsh” per se, but connected feeling. In a LT truck that sees high speed I love it, but my daily 4Runner that I will be mildly upgrading I wouldn’t think of any hard mounted stuff, I’d like to keep that one plush and soft for a more slow “overland” and daily driving vehicle.

 

Delrin can be greased perfectly fine. Poly is the one that will degrade with a conventional grease. The wife’s truck has DK arms and I hit them with standard grease every oil change. Delrin will get louder than shit if it’s not lubed. On my swingset I use tri flow and that keeps noise at bay.

 

that’s so funny, i had a DK mid travel kit for years with delrin never greased and never made a sound. My next kit was Solo +2 w/ urethane and those things squeaked if you looked at them wrong or the humidity was low or if it rained or if it didn’t rain or if it was hot or if it was cold …if they were quiet they were shredded and needed to be replaced

 

Hard to say why it happens but it does. Grease definitely makes it not. Poly just all around is one of the shittiest bushings you can use on a vehicle. People use it for engine mounts and just the vapors under the hood eat it alive. Delrin on the other hand has insane chemical resistance, however it is as close to a solid pivot as you can get without going uniball. The only real and true downfall I’ve found from delrin is it does increase NVH.

 

Link arms I built for a car a couple of years ago. He insisted on wanting bushings and not heims. So I gave him what he wanted. 5k miles later I built him heim arms and haven’t heard anything since aside from “I can hear my diff by my left ear now”.

If you use your truck. Delrin or uniballs are the only option. Run from anything that comes standard with poly for front end parts.

<end rant on my hate for polyurethane>

 

For those of you with all uniball suspension, how often do you change joints? And what do you do to care for them between if anything?

I'm ~18 months in no more than 7k miles and they squeak sometimes but idk if there is any specific time I should just swap them. No salted roads etc. but they see a lot of mud, granted I try to wash them out pretty consistently and use tri flow or a ptfe spray

Uniballs on LCA pivots and ubj then heims on UCA pivots and inner tie rod.

 

I'm 3 years into the all uniball JDfab setup. I changed the outer upper and lower uniballs about 6-8 months ago from the original EMF balljoints but I greased them and adjusted them as needed over the time I had them. They had some pretty good wear but still servicable. I have yet to touch the uniballs at the inner pivot points. I'll be pulling that suspension off next week and will be able to get a good idea of how they have handled 3 years of absolute abuse. Ive done nothing to maintain them other than to hose it off after desert trips. My truck makes too much noise for me to even worry about squeaky uniballs...never notice it to be honest. I'll give an update next wednesday on how the inners look and feel after then are removed.

 

All depends on maintenance and how you use it. I do mine annual because I can’t make it 2 full years. But I just don’t like working on it mid summer so I get it out of the way. I would say 10-12k miles for me.

 

For my Camberg kit, it was mostly out of ignorance, but also partly due to me not feeling any slop in them either, but I ran all of my original uniballs for about 55,000 miles…
The outers had noticeable play by the end, I could feel it when the wheel was off, and you pulled up on the Wheel hub or spindle.

When I took them out, a few Of the lower control arm Pivot Had sized in the cup. Took a lot of force to get them out.
My truck saw About 10 desert trips each year with most of the miles being daily driving.

I also would scrub with a toothbrush and power wash out the bearings about every month and lube them with tri flow.

Probably wouldn’t do that again though. I would inspect them for play every 5k to 10,000 miles. Pretty much average oil change.

When I put all new bearings in about a year and a half ago, I have since driven about 15,000 miles But decided to not touch them with any lube. So far, mine have not made a squeak. I think I may have been putting too much lube Previously, because I would often see it pooling up around the perimeter of the sphere And end up mixing in with dust and dirt

Not sure if any of that is proper, but that is what I’ve been doing.
I also live in SoCal, and my truck never sees salt or really much mud.

Apologies for the typos and long winded, using voice to text on my way home

 

Thank you for the suggestions.

So pretty much any play or heavy resistance means it’s time for a swap, but until then it’s fair game?

On the fence if it’s worth a swap before hunting season to quiet it down so I don’t blow my cover haha

 

That’s how I’d view it for a daily driver truck that in reality sees mostly street.
Seems like it’s pretty dependent on the conditions (mud, salt, wet, dry, dusty) and how much hard hits from speed the bearings see.
I will probably swap mine out again around 30k whether it’s got play or not, as that’s when I’d like to do shocks again.

 

it just sits till I wheel it or want to go on a run to the beer store and disturb the peace by jumping it in some parking lot.

unfortunately I don’t care enough to truly prep it, I just break stuff instead. But a uniball would suck to try and limp home.

Might feel motivated enough to do it this winter but I won’t get in a rush before then.

 

Sounds kinda silly but i like to keep my eye out for those spots on the highway where the pavement has sunk in the tire paths of the lane, and then drive so my tires are at the edge. If all my joints are in good shape my truck can ride the edge of those spots quite a bit because the tires are so wide. If i try it and get sucked into the dip then it usually means something is loose. Obviously it doesn't tell me exactly what but it's a good indicator that something may be starting to go before i notice it when taking normal turns or from poor handling n shit like that