Heres some serious bs.... Energy Suspension bushings

[stomis]

So I got a master kit of energy suspension poly bushings for the 442. I took the entire front and rear suspension out, the rear out, wire wheeled the entire frame and under side. I por15'd the frame and undercoated the entire car.

So today I finally went to put the suspension back in. And low and behold the metal sleeves for the bolts in the energy suspension kit are for a standard american 1/2in bolt and not a 12mm like my car has throughout. This is a serious oversight by someone at energy suspension. I can only image the amount of people driving around with that 1/16th of an inch of wiggle at every bushing that dont even realize theyre missing some serious performance.

I already considered reaming all the brackets and switching to 1/2 hardware but its much simpler to wait and find the correct sleeves from mcmaster or grainger....

 

[gbodydude]

thanks,for the heads up.

 

[stomis]

thanks,for the heads up.

Yep and so far I've had 0 luck finding something generic to use as a sleeve. I've struck out at both grainger and mcmaster-carr...

 

[bawazir]

huh? there good as a fox buddy

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Glad I went with Prothane bushings. Mine fitted in no problem, had to re-use the spacer that is used on the center body mount bushings.

 

[stomis]

Glad I went with Prothane bushings. Mine fitted in no problem, had to re-use the spacer that is used on the center body mount bushings.

Yeah well thats the kick in the *ss. I toasted my bushings out at work and tossed them...

 

[83hurst-olds]

Is this just because of the F41 suspension, or are they all wrong anyway?

 

[79elky454ss]

So I got a master kit of energy suspension poly bushings for the 442. I took the entire front and rear suspension out, the rear out, wire wheeled the entire frame and under side. I por15'd the frame and undercoated the entire car.

So today I finally went to put the suspension back in. And low and behold the metal sleeves for the bolts in the energy suspension kit are for a standard american 1/2in bolt and not a 12mm like my car has throughout. This is a serious oversight by someone at energy suspension. I can only image the amount of people driving around with that 1/16th of an inch of wiggle at every bushing that dont even realize theyre missing some serious performance.

I already considered reaming all the brackets and switching to 1/2 hardware but its much simpler to wait and find the correct sleeves from mcmaster or grainger....

I am in the middle of the same type of project with my elCamino, and after reading your post,I went out to compare my remaining Hyperflex bushings with the stock bushings. At least the rear end bushings have the same i.d. as stock bushings. My control arm bushings are already installed and bolted up on the chassis, so I cant measure them.I suspect if your fasteners are the same dia. as the bushings you may run into another set of issues with installation. You may want to compare your old bushings if you still have them. Also call Energy's customer service people, they couldn't have been nicer to me when I was missing a body mount from my body kit, and promptly mailed me one no charge.

 

[pontiacgp]

So I got a master kit of energy suspension poly bushings for the 442. I took the entire front and rear suspension out, the rear out, wire wheeled the entire frame and under side. I por15'd the frame and undercoated the entire car.

So today I finally went to put the suspension back in. And low and behold the metal sleeves for the bolts in the energy suspension kit are for a standard american 1/2in bolt and not a 12mm like my car has throughout. This is a serious oversight by someone at energy suspension. I can only image the amount of people driving around with that 1/16th of an inch of wiggle at every bushing that dont even realize theyre missing some serious performance.

I already considered reaming all the brackets and switching to 1/2 hardware but its much simpler to wait and find the correct sleeves from mcmaster or grainger....

I like the fact that I was able to upgrade to 1/2" bolts to use the energy suspension. I don't believe it is an oversight as those who use the poly bushings are probably more demanding of their vehicle so a larger diameter bolt is stronger.

 

[stomis]

So I got a master kit of energy suspension poly bushings for the 442. I took the entire front and rear suspension out, the rear out, wire wheeled the entire frame and under side. I por15'd the frame and undercoated the entire car.

So today I finally went to put the suspension back in. And low and behold the metal sleeves for the bolts in the energy suspension kit are for a standard american 1/2in bolt and not a 12mm like my car has throughout. This is a serious oversight by someone at energy suspension. I can only image the amount of people driving around with that 1/16th of an inch of wiggle at every bushing that dont even realize theyre missing some serious performance.

I already considered reaming all the brackets and switching to 1/2 hardware but its much simpler to wait and find the correct sleeves from mcmaster or grainger....

I like the fact that I was able to upgrade to 1/2" bolts to use the energy suspension. I don't believe it is an oversight as those who use the poly bushings are probably more demanding of their vehicle so a larger diameter bolt is stronger.

While this may be a good point about it being a chance to upgrade the kit is advertised as a direct replacement.

After I struck out finding sleeves I had no desire to call them up and wait for a week so I just reamed the holes and got 1/2 hardware. It was another $40 it shouldnt have cost though.

Perhaps it was a bad part number I pulled from summit. IDK.