Disintegrated Strut Bushings

[Luva65wagon]

Fred,

Tough one. Rubber does fail, and these parts do see a lot of force. I have a hard time with FP taking a hard stand on quality. There is not a lot of wrong you can do installing these, though it's not impossible either. That said, the mix-match of parts you get for strut rods bushing is all over the place. I did them on Don's car (the 61 "Grandad's car) and had to machine the bushings to make them work. The fact they machined at all gave me reason to pause and wonder.... "how long will these last?"

The purpose of the strut is to hold the lower control arm in place as it moves up and down with the rest of the front end. These stresses are significant. I've seen these mechanical pivot-style struts and I can't see how they would make the ride more or less harsh. The factory used rubber because it was cheap, but I see this similarly to the spring perches that are now made to pivot on bearings instead of rubber. The ride is much improved in my opinion. Granted, when rubber fails you may still have cushion you will lack when you have hard surfaces and things fail, but that's just an indication that it is time to change the part rather than living with it a while longer because the failure was "quieter."

I know a member, Jay, who's had a set of these mechanical struts for a while he's been wanting to sell. I had them for a while (post swap meet haul for club), but I think he still has a set. They were not cheap items new and I don't know what he wants for them, but would be happy to contact him for you. He's not active on this site and lives up the other side of Burlington as I recall. If interested, let me know and I can get you in-touch with him.

[charlescfp]

Roger -

Thx... In hindsight I could have been less critical of Falcon Parts and more to the point. They sell the stuff, not make it... but should stand behind what they sell. I was more curious if other members had experience, bad or good, with the Strut Rod bushings they sell.

I am more interested in what other members have had success with. Any feedback including manufacturer appreciated... keeping in mind I am using '63 adjustable Strut Rods (with later 62-65 LCAs) which, as you're aware, are different than original '61. Anyone have any experience with the MOOG K8122 sold for the 64-65 Falcon?

I am considering swapping to the mechanical strut rod and actually have a set that I bought some time ago from PTP Engineering. I bought the DIY Kit instead of the complete strut rod. It requires cutting the LCA end off the stock strut rod and having it machined & treaded to use the Kit... my thought was to save some money. Not sure it does in the end. Nice stuff but wanted to be sure that was what I wanted to do before proceeding.

http://www.pacificthunderperformance...ir-sr-diy-1001

Do you know if Jay actually used/tried the ones he was selling? May not be a bad idea to put me in touch with him in either case.

Fred