Bronze Bushing Wear

[Jlawles2]

Cate&Rob Rob, the "soft" plastic washers would help with the motion not unscrewing the bolt as it will deform and form fit the area. May need to sand them down a touch if too thick. Likewise the bolts should be knurled on the head end so the bolt moves with the strap not the spring to help combat the unscrewing of the nut.

[Dave27]

Cate&Rob Not that Rob needs confirmation, but here is my bushing story. I installed Morryde CRE3000 suspension May 25, 2019. After 24,500 miles, this is what the left rear bushing looks like: It is literally half gone. I would not have looked at this, if Rob had not raised the issue. I'm glad he did. Thanks Rob. I will look at the others in the coming days.
Dave

[TucsonJim]

Cate&Rob Not that Rob needs confirmation, but here is my bushing story. I installed Morryde CRE3000 suspension May 25, 2019. After 24,500 miles, this is what the left rear bushing looks like: It is literally half gone. I would not have looked at this, if Rob had not raised the issue. I'm glad he did. Thanks Rob. I will look at the others in the coming days.
Dave

Dave, that is so disheartening. Did you have any trouble getting the remnants out?

Jim

[Guest]

Can a member provide the ID and OD and length of the bushing used? It would be interesting to call these folks to see if a proper bushing can be purchased to fit the springs and pins. Notice the grease trapping pockets built into the bushing.

https://www.truckspring.com/products...__OGB-RNK.aspx

Jim

[gbkims]

Can a member provide the ID and OD and length of the bushing used?[/url]

Jim

I think the CRE-3000 bushings might have been pressed in.

Some MORryde HD Shackle bushing measurements I had..
The bushings have some slack and slide on/off the bolts easily.

1.7415" L
0.5790" I.D.
0.6935" O.D.

Bolt 0.5575" O.D.

[Dave27]

Can a member provide the ID and OD and length of the bushing used? It would be interesting to call these folks to see if a proper bushing can be purchased to fit the springs and pins. Notice the grease trapping pockets built into the bushing.

https://www.truckspring.com/products...__OGB-RNK.aspx

Jim

I think the Dexter bushings will work 1 3/4" L, 9/16" ID, and 11/16" OD.

Dave

[Dave27]

Dave, that is so disheartening. Did you have any trouble getting the remnants out?

Jim

This is the rest of the report: The right rear was in worse shape than the one in the photo (less than half of it was left). The rear bushings both came out easily, I just pushed them out with a wad of paper towel and a screwdriver. The front two show wear on the edge. I was debating whether to replace them or not. I tried to knock one out, and it did not want to budge. So I left them both in place. I agree it is very disheartening, I thought the bronze bushings would last for many years.

Dave

[Guest]

This is the rest of the report: The right rear was in worse shape than the one in the photo (less than half of it was left). The rear bushings both came out easily, I just pushed them out with a wad of paper towel and a screwdriver. The front two show wear on the edge. I was debating whether to replace them or not. I tried to knock one out, and it did not want to budge. So I left them both in place. I agree it is very disheartening, I thought the bronze bushings would last for many years.

Dave

Dave,

There are no spiral pockets or dimples in the bearing and as a result, any motion will push all the grease away from the areas of highest load concentrations. By having some reliefs to hold grease, motion moves the grease from one spot to the next and will hold grease over a longer duration.

Smooth bushings are typically bathed in oil where open bushings must be designed to retain some grease. Solid bronze also deforms easily where a steel backed bushing will retain its shape though will still suffer from an egg shaped spring eye. Lippert and Dexter could easily specify a better spring eye and bushing design but that may cost a few dollars more.

Jim

[Cate&Rob]

The relatively thin walled soft bronze bushing easily deforms into the gap where the end of the spring wraps back around on itself to form the eye. A steel backed bushing would be stronger, but there is not room for this between the ID of the spring eye and the OD of the bolt. Unless we can find springs with a larger eye diameter . . . there is not going to be a way to create a more durable assembly.

Rob

[fowlergk]

2020 375RES-R Solitude with 6,800 miles. Changed out the LCI for MORryde CRE3000 plus wet bolt kit installed. The Bronze bushings for the spring eyelets were worn through and split.

[Jlawles2]

I wonder if plain steel bushings would be a better option than the bronze if used in conjunction with wet bolts?

[flyfshrockies]

Here is a thought, maybe, maybe not. Could the end of the spring eye be filled with JB Weld or something, filling in rough and uneven spots, drilled to size then bushings and bolts be inserted into the much more uniform shape? It seems that the regular shape might help prevent the pounding these bushings take and encourage some rotation and spreading of the lube? From evidence provided through out this thread it seems that a lot of money and effort is expended for little overall improvement in service life. I am certainly not an engineer but wonder if there is not some over looked solution that is just too simple to see.

Dave

[Jlawles2]

flyfshrockies Dave, I don't think the JB weld will hold up. Also, the eye of a spring is probably flexing (opening up during bumps) which will cause the JB to to experience tension which will most likely result in failure.

[Cate&Rob]

I wonder if plain steel bushings would be a better option than the bronze if used in conjunction with wet bolts?

I agree that a steel bushing would be better. But, with the relatively thin wall space available, I don’t think that even these would last very long. What we need (to start with) are springs with bigger eyes to allow thicker bushings.

Rob

[flyfshrockies]

JB weld is tough stuff but probably not tough enough as said. I have fixed chain saws, lawn mowers and even an hydraulic ram one time though. It would be fun to see a video of the bushing locations run in a test stand just to see what is really going on. It must be brutal to cause the extreme wear everyone is experiencing.

Dave