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[Lazydocker]

My feelings on Lemforders are well known

IMO, wishbones are a service item and the cheap ones I got lasted me 18 months (30+k) on the old car, although I did have a second set that were starting to fail after about 24k

I reckon the next ones will be cheap(ish) ones with polys in the front to start with

[Nick W]

I'm used to Capris, where even using genuine Ford TCAs meant that they were an yearly MOT requirement. Although I was doing 30,000 miles a year at that point.

On a big heavy car like an Omega, I would still consider them consumable, and again 30K miles isn't too bad. It's not limited to these cars; E34 and E39 BMWs suffer from lower arm bushes, and they have 2 £50 arms per side. Consider a Galant, they're known for the bushes to wear, and for the balljoints to actually break. £150 a side if you're lucky!

My main reason for using poly bushes in anything is not for any handling improvement, as I 've never noticed much difference, but simply for durability.

Personally, I found removing the front bushes much worse than changing the rears which took a couple of minutes total. That's using a 10 tonne press, and only one pair of hands.  Unfortunately, it's too small framed to be able to press the front ones out(poly bushes a simple push fit). So it was a matter of drilling the rubber and hacksawing the sleeves. I wish I'd thought of using a hole saw as somebody here mentioned.

[VXL V6]

Originally I would have said that fitting Lemforders and then swapping the bushes for Pollys when the originals failed was the best plan but when you price in the Geo costs X 2 and the fact mine have lasted less than a year then I think your best to polly them from new.

Strangely the set put on Mrs VXL's estate two years ago (again Lemforders) are still fine now, so either they were better quality back then or my slightly more 'pressing on' driving style in my car has done them no favours.

The question I would like answered is how long did the factory fitted OEM wishbones last on the vehicle? Did their failings not get picked up because of the fleet ownership of the cars back then or are they genuinely much much better than Lemforders 'sell to end user' product?

 

[feeutfo]

All fair points, but as said, very few people have access to a press.

The most active members on here are quite handy with spanners and confident they understand and are capable with the finer points of refurbing.
This thread is not for them, they aren't going to ask me or anyone else what to do.

It's for less confident members who just want to bang on a set of bones via the guide, and have them last an amount of time comparable to their price.
Now, with the history of "lesser" makes such as first line, Delphi, and suppliers such as buypartsby that have caused major Argo to members in the past how can anyone possibly recommend anything else other than Lemforder...?

Not to mention the pic above? Colin did well fitting them, all was correct,he did nothing wrong yet his time effort and money was a total waste. He'd had had enough...

Are we really saying members should risk the scene in the pic above after a days graft under the car? How ridiculous.



As said elsewhere. Lemforders are now date stamped, thereby guaranteeing the age already on the bushes and getting a pair, rather than being supplied odd parts from one store or another of who knows what age, which might account for some of the early failures after a year or two.

Should the front bush fail there is always the polly route, or the two year warranty. Date stamped remember.

If you've had early failure, can you say when the items where made? They could be much older than the time actually fitted to the car.

[razzo]

I have some poly bar sitting around here gathering dust left over from when i polly'd the rear bush on mine, so was wondering if someone has a pair of wishbones with shot bushes & want to go for an all poly set up i could donate a pair of bushes for someone to evaluate & see what they think? will post a pic later if that helps

[tunnie]

Lemforder wishbones on the 3.2, so far no complaints 

[Elite Pete]

Personally I would buy the cheap wishbones off Ebay for £50, polybush the front and fit Vauxhall bushes to the rear. All in cost about £120, ok its a little more work but well worth it

[Marks DTM Calib]

Again, as many know, I am not a Lemforder fan, for me, there not worth the money.

I to would buy ebay ones and poly the fronts.

I have managed to change the rear bushes in a good bench vice using a socket as a drift and the outer sleeve of the old front bush before without to much trouble.

Clearly the picture shown is a manufacturing quality issue (not one I have seen before either)

[feeutfo]

Again, as said, refurbing is a different story altogether.

But as we seem to insist on taking the thread that way, I have now seen 3 sets of refurbed wishbones, all 3 on their second set of rear bushes, and all three have exhibited some quite severe ball joint play that I'm sure was not present when refurbed by myself and others capable on here.

Seems to me the ball joint life is not capable of out lasting two sets of rearward bushes!
Therefor, refurbing is arguably not suitable for all members anyway, even if they have a press or whatever else is needed.

Mark your more then capable of coming up with many a way to get a job done, as most prominant members are on here.
With respect to newer members, how much of this refurbing advice is of relevance to them on a DIY basis...?
Yes we'll help out where possible, but you've said yourself you wouldn't fit £50 wb's with stock bushes. Bugger that.

We are talking about complete wishbone units here, old one off, new one on!

[feeutfo]

Also, I've just remembered, (der) Colin's failed the the Mot on...

...worn steering knuckle ball joint. So couldn't have refurbed the originals if he'd wanted to. Which he didn't.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Again, as said, refurbing is a different story altogether.

But as we seem to insist on taking the thread that way, I have now seen 3 sets of refurbed wishbones, all 3 on their second set of rear bushes, and all three have exhibited some quite severe ball joint play that I'm sure was not present when refurbed by myself and others capable on here.

Seems to me the ball joint life is not capable of out lasting two sets of rearward bushes!
Therefor, refurbing is arguably not suitable for all members anyway, even if they have a press or whatever else is needed.

Mark your more then capable of coming up with many a way to get a job done, as most prominant members are on here.
With respect to newer members, how much of this refurbing advice is of relevance to them on a DIY basis...?
Yes we'll help out where possible, but you've said yourself you wouldn't fit £50 wb's with stock bushes. Bugger that.

 

The problem is were not as we know very well that the lemforder front bushes are as rubbish as the cheap ones 

[feeutfo]

Again, as said, refurbing is a different story altogether.

But as we seem to insist on taking the thread that way, I have now seen 3 sets of refurbed wishbones, all 3 on their second set of rear bushes, and all three have exhibited some quite severe ball joint play that I'm sure was not present when refurbed by myself and others capable on here.

Seems to me the ball joint life is not capable of out lasting two sets of rearward bushes!
Therefor, refurbing is arguably not suitable for all members anyway, even if they have a press or whatever else is needed.

Mark your more then capable of coming up with many a way to get a job done, as most prominant members are on here.
With respect to newer members, how much of this refurbing advice is of relevance to them on a DIY basis...?
Yes we'll help out where possible, but you've said yourself you wouldn't fit £50 wb's with stock bushes. Bugger that.

 

The problem is were not as we know very well that the lemforder front bushes are as rubbish as the cheap ones 

I'm gob smacked your saying that at all. Yours lasted two years...? A shorter life than expected true enough.
But I see it that yours lasted less than the average for Lemforder. We will get a longer average life from Lemforder than cheapo's.
Can i ask, where did you get your Lemforders? Betting on euro car parts..? But wherever, would 6 to 9 months on the shelf account for early failure?

[YZ250]

Also, I've just remembered, (der) Colin's failed the the Mot on...

...worn steering knuckle ball joint. So couldn't have refurbed the originals if he'd wanted to. Which he didn't.

What about the bolt on replacement balljoint. Strictly speaking, the whole wishbone is 'repairable' with GM parts. I suppose it's down to quick exchange though to minimise time off road, unless you have some spare one's to rebuild. All down to available facilities as already mentioned. Just a thought.

Regards
Alan

[Kevin Wood]

The ball joint issue makes me wonder how many get mullered in the process of removing them from the car, TBH.

I know that my course of action next time would be to press in new rear bushes from a trusted source.

Front bush is poly anyway, so easy to swap (can't see any reason to go back to rubber, given the improvement in feel), so with replacement wishbones, I'd be cutting that out and binning it anyway.

Rear bush? Well, IIRC, it's the easier of the two to replace. I'd rather take it to a local garage or a mate with a press and exchange a few beer tokens to get a new bush pressed in than suffer the total scrambling of the suspension setup that's inevitable with fitting pattern wishbones, plus the cost of a WIM session to get it right again.

I'd probably do that now, even though I have a spare set of rebushed wishbones in the garage, because it's less hassle.

[feeutfo]

Also, I've just remembered, (der) Colin's failed the the Mot on...

...worn steering knuckle ball joint. So couldn't have refurbed the originals if he'd wanted to. Which he didn't.

What about the bolt on replacement balljoint. Strictly speaking, the whole wishbone is 'repairable' with GM parts. I suppose it's down to quick exchange though to minimise time off road, unless you have some spare one's to rebuild. All down to available facilities as already mentioned. Just a thought.

Regards
Alan

Yes the ball joints can be bolted on. Although I won't be trusting them personally. Nylocs and all that lateral load... Nah ta. They'll probably be fine tbh, but not for me.

But can we consider poor Colin for a minute? From what I gather it took a good portion of the day to fit both sides. We all know what it's like first time we do wishbones. It's awkward enough without rather about with cutting,  pressing, fitting, bushes. Grinding rivets off, fitting ball joints.
Yes only the ball joint failed, but does he trust the tester to spot a failed wishbone bush? No. And rightly so. If the ball joints gone, then so are the bushes. The tester just missed them.


So we have fubar ball joints and bushes. What do we do?