Polyurethane Radiator Support Mounts (Cab Also)

That would be me. Today.
I had to get my trusty long crowbar to nudge the subframe "tower" into alignment with driver's side core support bolt.

If you closely at the pic, to the left of the "tower" and the right of the lower radiator mount bolt, is a folded over piece of sheet metal where a full hole used to be. That was the fulcrum point of my crowbar.

 

The universal ones.

 

Nice pulling the doc. Yeah give them a call.

I'm definitely a fan of the universal harder bushing. The effects were dramatic on my truck. With stock rubber, front end was mushy when pulling into sloped driveways at an angle. It was all I ever knew, so normal for Tacoma. When I put the es universal ones in there I was blown away. The front end felt planted, sure footed, solid, so much more confidence inspiring.

Right on target. lol

The core support is so soft. I did something similar by tapping with a piece of wood. I only succeeded in deforming the core support.

Glad you got them in! +1 For wrenching in NY in winter!

 

Yup. It's cold outside. Also on the tail end of a wicked bout of bronchitis. Been indoors for a week now. Couldn't stand it any longer. Had a parabolic heater pointed at me the entire time. LOL.

 

I remember you saying that and seeing all the torn crapped out OEM bushings here jives with that. What I don't have a good feeling for is stiffer better and how stiff as far as keeping things from failing. On the one hand stiffer keeps certain things from moving relative to each other potentially reducing the load and fatigue cycles on certain supports and components. Flip side stiffer means more shock and higher frequencies and displacements transferred to the core and its supports. Certainly I don't want to replace the bushing with a metal blank

Since I've never really looked at these components and am not by my truck I can't really form a good mental picture of what is going on. Even if I could form said picture I really don't have the experience or expertise to draw practical conclusions one way or another!

I'm pretty comfortable concluding the OEM bushings fit into "not right, at least for off-road" category of things. But beyond that I'm sort of at a loss. I'll of course post any response I get from ES on my question!

 

Man.. Im all confused now. Lol

I finished mine tonight and put the smaller bushings on top for BOTH my Body Mounts and Radiator Support. I used the Universal bushings for the radiator.

I used this combination...

Large washer > small bushing > large bushing > small washer.

 

Honestly anything ES, is going to be better than stock,

Back in October, I found out that Toyota thinks so highly of their s*** factory radiator bushings they used them in the 2016 trucks!

I also read a report of dealer having to swap out worn radiator bushings on a truck with only 7,060 miles on it.

"BODY BUSHING ON RF OF VEHICLE FOR CORE SUPPORT RUBBED
THROUGH RUBBER CUSHION AND WAS METAL ON METAL
REPLACE CORE SUPPORT BODY MOUNT"​

Also @Airdog reported in 2015 that one of the racing outfits replaced the Tacoma radiator bushings with a hunk of aluminum! I wouldn't do that to my truck! lol

I guess bottom line for me, is if I had mine apart today, I'd keep the kit specific radiator Bushings because they fit the core support best.

Your cab mounts sound right. Id flip the universal around, bigger on top.

Es cab mount vs. stock cab mount

 

Just like the needle bearing that made sweet gentle love to raped over your CV. I was worried I might have waited too long to get rid of my bearing puller but lo and behold all the lifted 2016 folks are showing up in the 2nd gen ECGS thread these days. And no TSB for the 3rd gens of course...

Thanks Nick. Unless ES comes back with a strong recommendation the other way I'll go with your advice!

 

Even if the body bushings are set up that way? I wanted to keep everything the same and be consistent. Flipping it will yield more height.. and that's it, right? just trying to figure out if I want to mess with it again. haha.

 

You know... I forgot something... The full kit radiator bushings fit better. If you have them in hand run those,

See this post for pics..

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-mounts-cab-also.361346/page-46#post-12509567

Some guys had hood alignment issues with the universal ones. I never did though..

 

I do have them. I thought you did too, but switched back to the universal ones.

I honestly couldn't figure out how they sat better. The tappered end didnt sit anywhere. I actually had no issues with the universal ones. They centered fine and seem to be ok. I'd honestly prefer the stiffer poly of the universal ones too.

All my bolts (including the body mounts) came out stupid easy. No hammer needed. Not siezed. They all went back in straight and easy. The radiator ones lined up and went together smoothly.

The only thing im contemplating changing is switching the radiator bushings around. But, only if its really needed.

 

Gotcha. Okay.

I have the kit Bushings in my truck right now...

For universal, yes I'd flip it around, bigger on top. IMO, the smaller is too short, shorter than stock!

 

thats what I felt too. alright, looks like I'll tear em down again today and flip em.

I could of swore you said you put the universal ones back in, or wanted to..

appreciate the input Sir.

 

Well no reply from ES to my question via email.

So @Crom - which would you recommend at this point assuming I had access to both and didn't care about cost?

 

I would recommend the kit bushings for the reasons stated above.

 

Thanks for the clarification, that's what I thought but wanted to be sure!

Just ordered the kit for the radiator bushings but will not do the cab mounts. I'll just keep the cab mounts on the shelf in case I decide to do that in a decade or so. Better still I could send them to @scocar to put on his shelf... (and while you're here scocar, check out this confusing 54 page thread to add to your "must do" mods).

 

Lol! I still need to do this. I had the Kit bushings lined up to buy, but the deal fell through. I have new OEM Rad bushing Nuts and Bolts waiting on the shelf. Looks like I'll be purchasing the complete Kit soon. Again thanks for the input!

 

Pick these up for the install Ken.


2x- 90177-A0010

 

Ugh, been trying to order kit bushings to replace the universal one I have on, but Amazon does not ship to Hawaii

 

I swapped over to the universal bushings today. OEM were toast with a little over 110,000 miles on my 05.