Urethane bushings?

[smokinjoe]

I searched but cant find. Is there a bushing kit available to swap front end bushings to urethane? If so what bushings would I do?

Just saw this mod on a car show & wondered if anyone had done it to their astro

[Phantom]

Urethane bushings are very common upgrade for sway bar frame mounts and end link kits as it will help stiffen the sway bar and give a better steering response , providing a better handling vehicle ,,, there are several brands available , but I prefer the Moog graphite impregnated bushings as they have a graphite lubricant permanently in them so you never have to use a grease gun on them.
Other brands need to use a grease fitting to lube them as they will squeak if they are not lubed ..you can get the bushings at Advance auto for about 20 dollars for both sides , they are on their website the Moog are a blue color

This is about as far as you would really need to go for a street driven vehicle because when you change the control arm bushings to Urethane bushings it will stiffen up the ride quality so much that it can make for a rough ride which may make it too stiff to enjoy , but that depends on what you prefer, this extent is more for vehicles that are driven off road a lot or carry very extreme heavy loads and need that extra stiffness for control

[smokinjoe]

Cool Phantom thnanks.

[smokinjoe]

So when trying to buy them I have a choice of 2 sizes, 1 5/8 or 1 1/4 (I think) Shouldnt there be just one size on a 95 2wd astro?

[kennyj]

So when trying to buy them I have a choice of 2 sizes, 1 5/8 or 1 1/4 (I think) Shouldnt there be just one size on a 95 2wd astro?

I ran into the same thing buying bushings for my 98. It seems it could be either for any year, maybe some vans had a suspension upgrade with a fatter bar.
Just measure the bar to see what you have. It should be easy to see, the difference of 3/8" should be somewhat obvious.

[Phantom]

You can probably call your local GM dealer and ask for the parts dept and give them the VIN number and they can tell you which bar was installed when van was built ,, providing it is the same bar on there now

[Chevymankevin]

Poly graphite is the way to go!

I used energy suspensions polyurethane bushings in the front control arms of my 83 monte carlo and I cant get the damn thing to stop squeeking/creaking!

[smokinjoe]

But isn't that control arms vs sway bar? Did you grease them?

[Chevymankevin]

I did grease my bushings when I installed the control arms. But that only quieted the squeeking down for the first week. And from what Ive seen there isnt any kits avalible for greaseable poly bushings with zerks. If there was it would be a really tight fit to try to lube the uppers. Also for the bushing to be greasable they have to have a spiraled pattern cut into the polyurethane to distibute the grease evenly.

I do have polyurethane bushings for my sway bar on the monte carlo but I bought the greasable bushings which have the spiraled design and all i had to do was drill a hole in the center of the bracket to install a grease zerk. The sway bar bushings work great for me.

[tireboy]

I'm looking to replace the leaf spring bushings with the urethane type in my '65 Futura. Any body have a lead on where to find them? Most of the sources I've found only carry the rubber units.
thanks

Urethane bushings are very common upgrade for sway bar frame mounts and end link kits as it will help stiffen the sway bar and give a better steering response , providing a better handling vehicle ,,, there are several brands available , but I prefer the Moog graphite impregnated bushings as they have a graphite lubricant permanently in them so you never have to use a grease gun on them.
Other brands need to use a grease fitting to lube them as they will squeak if they are not lubed ..you can get the bushings at Advance auto for about 20 dollars for both sides , they are on their website the Moog are a blue color

This is about as far as you would really need to go for a street driven vehicle because when you change the control arm bushings to Urethane bushings it will stiffen up the ride quality so much that it can make for a rough ride which may make it too stiff to enjoy , but that depends on what you prefer, this extent is more for vehicles that are driven off road a lot or carry very extreme heavy loads and need that extra stiffness for control

that's cool