DIY - Daizen Caster Arm Bushing Installation - lots of pics!
03-01-12, 06:17 PM
#92
03-02-12, 09:05 AM
#95
I just called JM Lexus, one of Daizen's 3 listed distributors, they said Daizen is out of business and they can no longer get those bushings. Carson has them in stock, LTuned.
03-02-12, 03:00 PM
#97
............
just got my bushings in from sewell, but I notice these are a little different...
There's no instruction to "keep the outer shell" or reuse the inner sleve,
and these looks like there's a sleeve all ready built in.. any ideas?
guess I'll just try the simplest solution first..
any ideas guys chime in.. thanks.
There's no instruction to "keep the outer shell" or reuse the inner sleve,
and these looks like there's a sleeve all ready built in.. any ideas?
guess I'll just try the simplest solution first..
any ideas guys chime in.. thanks.
Last edited by Tank; 03-02-12 at 03:10 PM.
03-03-12, 03:38 PM
#98
Advanced
Thread Starter
Well here I am almost two years after the Daizen installation I described in this how-to, and I just took them out and replaced them with Roca OEM type rubber bushings.
Why the 180? The car developed an extremely annoying clunk about a year after the Daizen installation. I looked everywhere for the clunk, except of course the caster arm, because I knew that the Daizen bushing was new
. Well, after a year of that, and about a dozen attempts to find the source, I took it to a local mechanic to see what the problem was.
Right away he said that he did not like the Daizen bushing. He spent almost two days looking at every nut and bolt, and finally asked me how I would feel about swapping out the caster arm to see if that would fix it. I agreed, he swapped in an OEM caster arm, and the clunk was gone. I could not believe it.
I was going to buy new OEM caster arms, which are now as low as $111 each, but I came across the Roca bushings, which are about $69 for the one caster arm and one lower control arm bushing set. I bought two (enough to do both sides), and today tackled the project.
First I took out the old Daizen bushings (I had to cut them in half, there was no getting them out intact):
It was VERY hard getting the Roca bushings in. I had the 12 ton press maxed out, and it barely pushed the bushings all the way in. But they did go in finally:
My clunk is completely gone, I feel like I am driving a new car. Unbelievable improvement in ride quality and smoothness.
The mechanic and I talked at length as to what could have caused this. I believe that the problem is that the Daizen's inner sleeve has too much slop around the stud, and may potentially be moving around and clunking. The Daizen inner sleeve is 0.806", larger than the OEM sleeve which is 0.751". The stud is 0.735", so the 0.806" Daizen sleeve is very loose on the stud.
Another part of the problem may be the way Daizens are mounted compared to the OEM mounting. In the OEM bushing, the rubber part is kept away from the body and the brace, and the inner sleeve is tightly clamped by the nut:
With the Daizen bushing, there is load sharing between the poly and the inner sleeve, which I suspect is what allows the inner sleeve to shift and clunk. I don't know this for sure, but I did notice that the area where the sleeve sits against the body did not look like the sleeve was tightly preloaded against the body, despite me torquing it to specs several times:
Anyway, I don't know if that was the problem with the Daizens, but the OEM bushing fixed my clunk. I was going to swap the lower control arm bushings too, but after getting one of the arms out I saw that the bushings are perfectly fine, so I put it all back together and had a beer instead
.
Why the 180? The car developed an extremely annoying clunk about a year after the Daizen installation. I looked everywhere for the clunk, except of course the caster arm, because I knew that the Daizen bushing was new
. Well, after a year of that, and about a dozen attempts to find the source, I took it to a local mechanic to see what the problem was.Right away he said that he did not like the Daizen bushing. He spent almost two days looking at every nut and bolt, and finally asked me how I would feel about swapping out the caster arm to see if that would fix it. I agreed, he swapped in an OEM caster arm, and the clunk was gone. I could not believe it.
I was going to buy new OEM caster arms, which are now as low as $111 each, but I came across the Roca bushings, which are about $69 for the one caster arm and one lower control arm bushing set. I bought two (enough to do both sides), and today tackled the project.
First I took out the old Daizen bushings (I had to cut them in half, there was no getting them out intact):
It was VERY hard getting the Roca bushings in. I had the 12 ton press maxed out, and it barely pushed the bushings all the way in. But they did go in finally:
My clunk is completely gone, I feel like I am driving a new car. Unbelievable improvement in ride quality and smoothness.
The mechanic and I talked at length as to what could have caused this. I believe that the problem is that the Daizen's inner sleeve has too much slop around the stud, and may potentially be moving around and clunking. The Daizen inner sleeve is 0.806", larger than the OEM sleeve which is 0.751". The stud is 0.735", so the 0.806" Daizen sleeve is very loose on the stud.
Another part of the problem may be the way Daizens are mounted compared to the OEM mounting. In the OEM bushing, the rubber part is kept away from the body and the brace, and the inner sleeve is tightly clamped by the nut:
With the Daizen bushing, there is load sharing between the poly and the inner sleeve, which I suspect is what allows the inner sleeve to shift and clunk. I don't know this for sure, but I did notice that the area where the sleeve sits against the body did not look like the sleeve was tightly preloaded against the body, despite me torquing it to specs several times:
Anyway, I don't know if that was the problem with the Daizens, but the OEM bushing fixed my clunk. I was going to swap the lower control arm bushings too, but after getting one of the arms out I saw that the bushings are perfectly fine, so I put it all back together and had a beer instead
.
Last edited by lyonkster; 05-21-17 at 04:58 PM.
03-04-12, 04:46 PM
#99
...............
Well reading the previous posts I decided to measure the inside of the Sewell (PSB) bushings and they look like there up to OEM spec on the inside measurments in reference to where the stud goes, keep in mind guys that there is all ready a built in metal sleeve so hopefully it wont clunk like with the Daizens.. only one way to find out..
03-05-12, 02:48 AM
#100
Update:
sorry to hijack this thread, but since bushings are the topic I figured it couldn't hurt to throw this info in..
as seen in the pictures previously posted the NEW PSB bushings (avail. @ sewell) allready come with metal sleeves installed but there is also another plastic sleeve with in the metal one (see pictures) HOWEVER I believe the sleeves are installed the wrong way on the bushings if you are going to use PS Bushings you have to take the metal sleeve out and reverse install it back in.. this way the wide part of the inside of the sleeve will fit over the wide end part of the arm stud (attached to car body). REMINDER, even thou there are no instructions ( I didn't get any) on how to install the bushings that came with version 1 bushings, you MUST use the inner METAL shell of the OEM bushing, that means you have to BURN, DREMEL or CUT out all the rubber that is bonded to the metal shell. DO NOT REMOVE the inner metal shell. if you do you will have about a centimeter's worth of play between the bushing and the arm.
sorry to hijack this thread, but since bushings are the topic I figured it couldn't hurt to throw this info in..
as seen in the pictures previously posted the NEW PSB bushings (avail. @ sewell) allready come with metal sleeves installed but there is also another plastic sleeve with in the metal one (see pictures) HOWEVER I believe the sleeves are installed the wrong way on the bushings if you are going to use PS Bushings you have to take the metal sleeve out and reverse install it back in.. this way the wide part of the inside of the sleeve will fit over the wide end part of the arm stud (attached to car body). REMINDER, even thou there are no instructions ( I didn't get any) on how to install the bushings that came with version 1 bushings, you MUST use the inner METAL shell of the OEM bushing, that means you have to BURN, DREMEL or CUT out all the rubber that is bonded to the metal shell. DO NOT REMOVE the inner metal shell. if you do you will have about a centimeter's worth of play between the bushing and the arm.
03-05-12, 06:19 AM
#103
Advanced
Thread Starter
Well reading the previous posts I decided to measure the inside of the Sewell (PSB) bushings and they look like there up to OEM spec on the inside measurments in reference to where the stud goes, keep in mind guys that there is all ready a built in metal sleeve so hopefully it wont clunk like with the Daizens.. only one way to find out..
03-05-12, 11:11 AM
#104
Thanks for the update Leon, TM Engineering sent me a tracking number 4 days after I asked them to cancel my order, the package arrived today and I refused it, I also sent TM Engineering a link to this thread. I wound up ordering my bushings from Carson Toyota, I asked Carson who makes them and they told me a company called Armstrong makes them. I'll be sure to put the calipers on them when they arrive. Anyone have any feedback on these?
03-05-12, 11:16 AM
#105
he swapped in an OEM caster arm, and the clunk was gone. I could not believe it.
I was going to buy new OEM caster arms, which are now as low as $111 each, but I came across the Roca bushings, which are about $69 for the one caster arm and one lower control arm bushing set. I bought two (enough to do both sides), and today tackled the project.
I was going to buy new OEM caster arms, which are now as low as $111 each, but I came across the Roca bushings, which are about $69 for the one caster arm and one lower control arm bushing set. I bought two (enough to do both sides), and today tackled the project.