I've got about 5 years and 3500 miles on the 55 since installing the Super Ride II front end. Lower and upper control arm rubber bushings are deteriorating and falling out. I noticed the bottom's 1st and thought the cause may have been oil saturation because of front crank seal leak, but the uppers are bad also, with no oil present on them.

Anyone else have that issue? Is there an alternative bushing that will work. If not, maybe I should modify to take steel heim joints?

 

Have you asked Heidt's about it? They usually do a pretty good job with customer service. I'd be curious to know if there might have been a bad batch of rubber parts, or something like that. If you ask nice, they may warranty it, or help you in some way with replacements.

 

No. Just noticed it. I will call after the weekend, though.

 

Not the vendor that you mention specifically, but IMO much of the rubber coming from across the oceans is inferior. Every tractor tire inner tube I put on my Jubilee restoration had a slow leak, were porous. Various imported hoses and lines appear to be showing early deterioration. Remember the warning about Chinese valve stems. I had about ten bad ones.

 

You could use Urethane bushings, but get the softest ones you can find. DON'T use heim ends they will jar your teeth out and beat themselves to death very quickly, those pivots need some resiliency to absorb road shocks. Best: Heidts should be able to tell you the "donor" source for those bushings, then buy high quality replacements like Moog or OEM.
5 years isn't an unusual lifespan for rubber parts, especially given your local.

 

Called Heidts today. They are sending me a new set of polyurethane bushings for free. No questions asked.

Kudo's to Heidts!

 

That's great news!

 

Good guys!

 

I have a 56 and flipping back and forth between Superride II and Flat Out Engineering set-up using C4 vette components. How do you like the heidts and would you use it again?

 

That's great!. I'm starting to wish I had used them instead of TCI. All of my TCI rubber parts have dry rotted in less than 3 years. Their service was so poor to begin with that I didn't even bother to call them.

 

I like the Superide II and haven't had any other issues. Easy to align. Easy to change bushings Obviously, they stand behind their products. I would buy another one.