Poly or rubber and why?

[65cpe69mach1]

Will be replacing the upper/lower control arms shortly and was wondering about the upper coil insulators and strut rod bushings.
What are the pros and cons of rubber and poly bushings?

Will also be putting on a 1" front swaybar and will be using poly bushings on it.

The car is a daily driver.

 

[NorCal66]

Rubber gives a bit more, poly is pretty dense stuff. From what I've heard, use poly everywhere BUT the strut rods. This will give you a stiffer ride, but it will handle a bit better. Poly can cause the strut rods to snap I believe.

 

[D.Hearne]

There's several members here that have had strut rods break with poly bushings. I'd never recommend them.

 

[Fostang]

Never once had a strut rod break with poly bushings and I've driven some of them HARD.

 

[bnickel]

you can also do a combination of poly and rubber on the strut rods. if i remember right you use the poly bushing on the outside of the frame mount and the rubber busing on the inside, the reason is that on braking the rubber bushing is the one doing the work if you put poly in this location you run a greater risk of breaking the strut rod during hard braking but you still get the advantage of the poly bushing during cornering, etc. however unless this is going to be a track car i'd just go with rubber in the strut rod location. better yet if you can aford it get some global west or TCP strut rods, street or track is another great option but i'm not sure they have the 67-up strut rods in production yet

 

[gt/cs]

better yet if you can aford it get some global west or TCP strut rods, street or track is another great option but i'm not sure they have the 67-up strut rods in production yet

TCP does, I know because I have the whole coilover setup, including strut rods, on my '68. Can you buy TCP hardware at this point though? I know they went under then got bought out and all kinds of weird stuff is going on now.

 

[streetmod]

I used a PST polygraphite rebuild kit on my entire front end and the car is VERY responsive except for the sloppy steering of course. As for the breaking strut rods, how many were the original, 30+ year old rods?

Also look into the midolyne bushings. I haven't used them but I think they are some where in between rubber and poly for performance.

Another thing I should add about my experience with the PST bushings is that the front end is so tight that after it has been up on jacks, it needs to be driven and abruptly stopped a few times to get it back down to the ride stance.

And also remember that today's (synthetic) rubber bushings are far superior to the vintage stock ones, so either route you take will be better than what you have now.

 

[Platonic Solid]

No personal experience yet, but in a thread some time ago, some complained about poly bushings squeaking.

 

[65cpe69mach1]

OK, rubber on the strut rod bushings.

What else would you guys recommend tu upgrade to poly bushings?
Figured I'd put them on the 1" front swaybar and upper coil spring insulators.

 

[65fastback2+2]

american pony sells "midolyene" its like poly but it lasts and doesnt have a hard ride, they even give it a lifetime warranty, check it out.

 

[DarkBuddha]

I can also vouch for and heartily endorse PST's polygraphite bushings. I rebuilt my suspension in 1990 with a PST kit, including using poly at the strut rods, and proceeded to drive the car daily for the next 5 years, 300+ miles or hard driving every week. The suspension was responsive, taut, no squeaks, and never a problem. A couple years ago, when we decided to rebuild the car, I was going to redo the suspension with PST again. But after pulling everything apart, the original PST bushings were still in such excellent shape that we just reused them. They weren't cracked and were really only worn at the sway bar endlinks.

Hope this helps...

 

[rmrfstar]

My car 'creaks' a lot and most of the sounds I attribute to the ploy bushings in rear springs and sway bar. It handles well though!

 

[xj220]

We have poly and it's stiff. In the beginning it was real noisy but with a loud enough engine (not screaming, but not silent either) and the radio on you didn't notice a thing. Now I don't hear anything (been a year or two).