BuckeyeROC

I found out why my driver's side LCA has been making noise today. The mount that the LCA bolts into on the frame of the car is bent and it messed up the poly bushing. I have the poly/spherical combo LCA's, I had the poly side attached to the frame of the car and the spherical attached to the rearend. The poly bushing is kind of twisted and I think it needs replaced. Should I just switch the driver's and passenger's side LCA's so the spherical is now attached to the frame and the poly is attached to the rearend? I think that would keep it from messing up another poly bushing. I'll go take some pics, post them on my website and link them to this thread.

BuckeyeROC

Here are the pics. The right side of the mount is bent in the pics. Any suggetions on fixing the mount? I tried a hammer before I took the pics and it worked a little, but I don't want it to bend again.

www.geocities.com/buckeyeroc/LCATrouble.html

DAVECS1

iTrader: (2)

Your mount looks fine. What did the spherical end look like? Is it bound up? It should not matter what the spherical bering is mounted to, either the axle or the car should be fine. Is your Panhard bar bound up? The spherical bearings should allow the axle to rotate about the driveshaft with less resistance than rubber, and more control. It looks like the control arm got bound and was trying to flex the poly bushing. The poly bushings do not flex well and will do what is shown in the picture. If the rod end is not bound putting it in the car mount side will be easier on the mount. If the problem persists I would try a pair of 1LE control arms. They have a higher durometer rubber bushing in them, than the normal stock factory LC arms. Most autocross enthusiast perfer them. Hope this helps.

BuckeyeROC

It might not look bent in the pic, but the right side of the body mount is bent. The spherical end is fine and moves very freely. My stock panhard bar was bent, so I put in a new Spohn one today and decided to check out the noise coming from that LCA. Since it doesn't matter what side the rod ends are on, I think I'll try mounting them the other way. Do you think I need a new bushing or can I do something with that one?

Z28Express

Right there is your answer. Now that you have a properly functioning panhard bar, you should be back to things working like they should!!!

BuckeyeROC

Ok, I have the new Spohn panhard bar in, so that should not be a factor anymore. I took the LCA off completely, took out the smashed poly bushing, and took 2 4x4 pieces of wood and a hammer and some wide mouth plyers and got the bushing in near perfect shape. I put it back in the LCA. Then I bent the mount back so it is now straight again. I put the LCA back in the way it was and bolted everything back together and went for a test drive. No more noise and it seems to be working fine. If it happens again, I think I might try swapping the LCA's to different sides and putting the spherial end on the body. But I think the problem was when the stock panhard bent, the mount bent with it.

DAVECS1

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like you got it under control. If you got your bushing back in shape and there is minimal play in it. The bushing should be fine. There is no Voodoo to bushing they just keep the pin joint tight and help reduced vibration transmission through the chassis. Try not to cold work that mount to much. One or two flexes might actually strengthen it but after that it will reach its yeild strength and becme very weak very quickly. Good luck.