I fitted Powerflex polybushes to my lower arms. They work well but fitting them took longer than I thought as the lower arms were pattern parts and I had to do a fair bit of filing at the ends so that the bushes were correctly aligned.

 

Same here Mike pain in the arse to fit.

 

Poly bushes

If you mean the front control arm rear bushes then yes, I fitted them over a year ago without removing the control arms. Nasty job and you will probably need a two foot pipe on the end of the ring spanner to undo the bolts and then a flexi headed ratchet ring to finish removing them but the bushes are excellent and, provided that you use the grease supplied with them, should last a very long time.. The steering response is definitly sharper too.
If you Google for Powerflex you can navigate to a video showing how to fit the bushes.

 

Thanks Wuzerk - One thing I'm bothered about. These Bushes should work in harmony with the Shock Absorber. With the inner able to rotate freely (Yes?) will the Arm act to sharply? (Rubber in original Bushing would act as an arrester?)
How will you know when they will need replacing?
Am I reading too much into its activity....
cheers
John

 

Yes, the inner is free to rotate inside the outer as the control arm is deflected hence the grease supplied with the bush. The fact that the design strictly controls its action does sharpen up the steering response but did not have any effect on the ride comfort on my car. I do not expect them to need to be replaced for a long time but only time will tell (when the MOT man can find a lot of play in the bush)after over a years use there is no play whatsoever on mine.

 

I did air my concerns with the manufacturer and got the following reply:

Hi there,

The included grease is to aid in the installation of the bush into the original housing.
The purple insert does indeed rotate a small amount within the black outer bushing.

cheers

John

 

The original rubber bush simply allows for the small rotation needed at the wishbone axis. It doesn't act as a damping system. The strut road spring/shock absorber does that. Due to the nature and design of the bush, natural forces will also allow a small lateral movement of the wishbone, leading to steering shudder on some surfaces.

The concentric bearing design of the Polyflex system eliminates virtually all lateral shimmy while giving a controlled rotation on the axis. The amount of rotation needed is relatively small, only a centimetre or two on the inner bore. On the face of it, this design might well have superseded the original had the cars continued in development.

TC

 

Thank you TC...However, I now wonder how the Poly material will stand up to the accumulative effect of minor flexing to mileage and time. (time will tell) Also, with regard to your last paragraph, it would be interesting to establish how has other car manufacturers progressed ?
John