I'm sure it was probably my bad, but, can you all help me with the fix for this bad? I had to trim down this bushing and all the other stud mount, mounting point bushings to keep from over compressing(to the point of failure, upon assembly).I thought I had trimmed the upper front shock bushings enough, but it seems even a slight amount of compression, may have made this mess? Should they have no compression in such a configuration?
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I have other photos in my gallery of this set of bushings that can help clarify the location and app., but this kind of failure seems only evident in the upper shock mounts. I had to shorten all the stud mount bushings on upper rears and inner, manufacturer supplied, stabilizer stud mounts as well and they don't seem to have the same demolition going on(yet)?

 

Seems like either the wrong durometer poly used by the manuf or minute cracks that occured when you trimmed them that spread as they got abused. I don't like the fact that you have to cut them to fit. The stabilizer and rear shocks probably don't have as much abuse as there is less shock load on the stabs, and the front of the truck is much worse on shocks than the rear.

 

Thanks Chris, I hope the new trimmed fronts hold up alot longer. I was way slower at the grind this time, and never produced the melting effect I saw in some early grinds. All the early (4wks ago) trimming was abit fast but smooth and well finished sides before install, but as you mention, I'm sure they do get micro cracks and such. I thought the things would hold up to that though, being that they see only the dirty side of the rig and get gritted all the time? I was lucky to get a couple spare bushings from my vendor. One set did seem to be of a different durometer as you put it. It took grinding differently and didn't(wet) sand or file(at all) the same as the others. I don't know where to find the specific item again though. It seemed less opaque than the others, was a darker red, and did seem a bit more resistant. I also haven't found the 30mm length in a premolded form. Any ideas as to a poly vendor that list durometer ? All the supplied units where said to be Energy suspension pieces.
Strange though, in my search for a back up set, I found 2 piece eyelet bushings. The combined length still not anywhere near 30mm(still to long for studs), but I wonder if they would alleviate some tearing tendency?

 

You could make your own. A friend of mine dabbles in polyurethane casting. You could take one of the right ones and try different durometer poly and see if you can make something that will last better. Shouldn't have to go through that kind of effort but it could be a fun little experiment. Then you could make all sorts of stuff out of poly.

 

I searched the net for a long time today and couldn't find pre-manufactured bushings for the dimensions I get off of the upper mounting stud(on truck) or the now, uncompressed OE rubber upper shock eyelet bushing. Seems strange that no one has run into this problem before. I searched here(FTE) as well and came up zero. After 04 the coil fronts use shock attached stud mount(no eyelet) so I guess the problem has fell of the radar, so to speak? do the newer rigs still use a stud mount (on truck) upper rear shock mount? Even the rear upper stud, using the stock washered nut compressed the poly bushings to the point of fracture on my rig. I did find a company on line that would manufacture the bushing for me. One or many. I am thinking about modifying another readily available bushing and sending it to them. At least at that rate I could ask that it be produced using a higher durometer urethane polymer and non tapered outer ends(to resist fracturing). I did find loads of info on polyurethane bushings and sheeting that I had never heard of. Seems that poly is workable as steel in many cases. Drill able,grind able, is supposed to be compressible but resist deformation and lots more, but temperature restrictions seem to apply to its placement options. I noticed when applying my Excursion (or PSD) inner fender liners that the V10 comes with a heat shield attached to the pass side inside surface. I managed to retain mine with some innovation, but wonder if the upper shock bushing may be taking to much heat soak after parking the rig, I just don't know? I'll have to barrow the infrared temp gun. At any rate 200 or so degrees seams to be a common limit for some poly items. Not sure how trans and motor mounts hold up yet, may be a poly chemical mix thing.

 

Just for claification I thought I'd include this:[/IMG]

Thanks again.

 

Had another bushing fail in the upper drivers side location. Didn't take 4wks this time(all highway miles). Found a thread on the net, that mentioned skyjacker had told another owner about a bad batch of bushings ( in his case they replaced them free ). While surfing I found a company, Daystar, that does reportedly have higher tensile strength , firmer durometer bushings than some other manufacturers.
My latest failure seams to have powderized the inner lower center of the bushing and created a wedge that would no longer slip. Or it created enough of a mass to continue a disintegration of area around it. It had several cracks in the outer edges (inner and outer) and had split radially into inner and outer halves, almost clean aside from the mass in the lower, always compressed area.
Ive ordered new poly bushings of two different configs to try and hope to have them before snow flys (days here). One set is of the same hour glass style ( lower mounts are all fine but may be diff. poly mix units, with inner collars. No cracks?) but from different manufacturer(rancho). The second set is a two piece design ( conical on both sides of each piece.) that may reduce torsional shearing. They are prothane units.
In order to save the mount from shock eyelet contact I replaced the latest bad unit with a rubber(split 2pc hourglass design) replacement found at the local parts store help section (only available w/replacement mount. Arg! Ten $ ) for the time being. The mounting nuts being self locking units should probably be thrown out at this point. They have seen about 200 some thousand miles of shock changes now?

 

Sorry to relive such a bad thread here, but hey, I replaced the last two eyelet bushings on my year old shocks today. The back set of bushings held-up(sorta) till this summer. The top bushing on the pass side went first, it was all but dust (literally). So I pulled both rears and replaced the two upper eyelet bushings. I thought maybe heat from the exhaust or?. But the top drivers side had some cracks so it I replaced it to. Both lowers seamed to be just fine. No cracks. 3 weeks later I start hearing a clunk in the rear, and dreadfully I went to look today. Both lower rears had exploded. one was missing a entire lower circumference, and the other was fragged into 20 some pieces. Well I had one set of prothane units left from a set, and had to go get a rubber set from local parts place, because no replacement poly units are available in my little town. Not just to stop the clunk mind you but to get the shock bodies off the mount ears (twin tube don't fit between em lol).
I really would like to make( or plead with) Skyjacker to send me all new mounting hardware( factory crimpnuts w/attached washers 8x)I wouldn't trust any bushings from them now. I spent hours painting and now mounting and unmounting the shocks as well. I think a new set of shocks is out of the question as well though. Just had to rant guys and hope this saves someone the same pain. Thanks

 

Skyjacker shocks? Had the same thing happen to me.... took them into the store i bought them at, they called skyjacker and they verified that a bad batch of bushings was produced. Replaced them for free

 

Glad to here it. The shop I picked up the shocks from gave me a few bushings free, but not a complete set for all. This really just caused more probs because I didn't redo them all at the same time. If I missed one I'll know about it for sure, lol.