[Amc-list] Re; newer Strut Rod Bushings and more

["John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, Tom
Working from my own experiences I have rebuilt about 2 dozen front ends
of 1970 + AMC cars over the last 20 years and simply can not remember
what type of variations I have seen other than basically the one piece
unit which is squashed into place and the 2 piece unit that consists of
two rubber piece and a metal 
sleeve internally both of which are pictured in the 2 of the 3  TSM's
that I have. It is also not unusual for the aftermarket to come up with
a reverse engineered piece whether it is actually better or not and as I
have made my living out of aftermarket for half my working career I can
honestly say more often than not aftermarket does 
not produce a better piece, just one that sort of works a lot of time. 
'Specially since this part is common to at least two other makes of cars
both of which are more popular and possibly used them differently than
AMC did. Money is very rarely spent to improve low volume applications;
they generally have to make do with what is available. Since AMC has
been out of business since 1987 I can safely assume that there was not
much money spent to improve parts that were ear marked for AMC
applications. 
For example I have not had an aftermarket ball joint dust cover last
past a year which is why I personally started using aftermarket
polyurethane dust covers for ball joints and have not had one fail yet. 
The point I am trying to get across is before I start blaming the rubber
part as not being correct I would like to find out if various other
manuals cover the applications of the strut rod bushing and if they do,
what is it that they say. 
I have 3 manuals a 1970, a 1974 and a 1980. Two of those three manuals I
have the supplement for. With the exception of the one piece strut rod
bushing there is no common agreement as to what order the parts should
be assembled in between those three manuals. 
I would be curious to know from others, if they have different manuals
what it is that they exactly say. 
I know how I interpreted the information that I have and it is very
possible that I have interpreted in wrong. Despite the fact that I have
3 cars in the driveway still that I have rebuilt the front suspension
on. Plus the two that I have parts for and even they do not match except
for one thing. They are both 2 piece rubber units with the 
pregnant washers installed opposite from each other. 
That of course proves nothing. 
Nor has the instructions that have come with the parts that I have
purchased over the years enlightened the situation any. 
Other than one of my cars I rebuilt in the early 80's, one in 1999 and
have put 30,000 miles on it and one that I rebuilt a few years back and
really does not have much in the way of mileage on it non of those three
cars are in dire straights. 
But from those that I have disassembled in wrecking yards to get core
parts for they have been by in large junk and were a danger on the road
if driven in the manner that I found them in. The 74 Hornet I drove into
the drive way rattled from so much metal to metal contact with the
control arm and strut rod bushings.
The last late model AMC car I owned was a 77 Matador coupe that was
about 4 years old at the time of purchase with about 55,000 miles on it.
I drove it another 30,000 or so before the control arm bushing went
metal to metal and the strut rod bushings were still functional so I can
not even comment what they looked like. 
In fact until they were about 20 years old or so, they did not really
need too much in the way of front end work but that time has since
passed. 
My personal interest in this has become greater in the last 10 years or
so as I saw more and more damage to the AMC 70+ front suspension. The
lower control arm is a scary poor design as is the geometry it works
with. But it does work the way it was designed to work. It must flex to
be functional and flex it does. I have now learned how to weld the
things up and restore them back to functional operation, I have had too,
they flex and break with neglect and abuse. Any attempt to take some of
the flex out of the bushing area where only one side of the bushing is
press fitted into the control arm will cause binding and excessive
damage to that area with any mileage put into it and they will break
sooner and more catastrophically. 
The manuals will not address the nuances if any of an aftermarket design
but they will attempt to address what AMC wanted done to them in the
first place.
It sure might be nice to come up with some form of a common agreement as
to what that intent was, which is the basis for my request for
information. 
One accomplished, if it can be, than maybe aftermarket applications can
too be addressed. 
Food for thought 
John. 
 
 
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