When I talked to him on the phone, he stated that they contract out production of these.

My measurements showed the two to be VERY close, so they're doing a good job machining them to the print.

I believe them when they say there are too many combinations - I can understand a small company not wanting to keep a gazillion sizes in stock.

 

Oh, and those measurements I took are about as accurate as you're gonna get without spending a whole lot of time and money. Outside diameters were measured on two axes with a digital caliper, accurate to 0.0005", inside diameters were measured in two places with a 3 position bore gage with similar accuracy/precision.

Of course, that only matters if your idler arm is the same combination as mine...

 

I just got mine in the mail, took all of two days from the time I ordered them until they arrived & that's USPS all the way across the country (almost). I have two idler arms, I hope they fit one of them, I'd hate to have to send an idler off & wait even more to do my front end work.

 

well I checked to see if they fit the new idler arm from arm_can on e-Bay & they are way larger on the inner diameter than the rod on the idler arm's outer diameter. If they were too tight of a fit for the stock idler arms, then this arm must be tiny in comparison.....I just hope these new bronze bushings fit the arm that's on the truck right now. I just rebuilt it last spring but I can't remember how the OD of that one stacked up against this new one.

 

OK last time I post back to back as this covers it for me. The idler that was on the truck was stock & the bushings fit it but were tight, maybe a little too tight. The steering wheel doesn't snap back in turns anymore & feels a little strange. I'll either take them out & put an emery cloth to the inside or use the drill press. They felt a little tighter on the shaft than they did in the housing so they are probably spinning in the housing & sticking to the shaft which isn't good since there are no grease grooves there.

Can anyone tell me if their's loosened up from a slightly tight fit on their own?

 

well I am going the cheaper route and I ordered them from the dealer for a whopping 5.22$ a pair for what ever type they have.

after seeing all the problem some of you have had I don't have access to machining equipment and don't want to spend 60$ on it to have to send it back.

funny thing was the parts guy said in the 15 years he has been working there he has never known that you could replace the bushings.

 

got the poly bushings in and they did not fit the arm was too big I had to drill them out to fit the arm I also drilled and tapped it for a zerk so now I can add grease.

 

I had a set that were less than a year old I'd have sent you for the cost of postage if I had known you needed some. The bronze ones really weren't a big deal to make fit & should never need replaced again.....at least for a very very long time.

 

I have video of mine breaking. You can hear it snapping the head right off when the passenger-side wheel toes in...



Fortunately, I had a spare with me. Came home and ordered a Downey brace/truss. Trashing my bushings now...

 

Hey, kinda offtopic question here but I would rather not open up a new thread for this question.

I got a downey brace and almost brand new 93 Idler arm. Now the threads that the relay rod bolts to are messed. So I have my old beat up 91 idler arm for parts. I was planning on swapping the arms themselves. I no the 93 has a thicker arm but if I get the correct bushings can I use the 91 arm in the 93 housing?

The 91 arm has some rust on the shaft aswell, it had 0 grease on it when I pulled it out.

Or should I just throw the brace on the 91 idler arm and sell the 93 housing for parts?

 

IIRC it's the inside diameter of the bushings (idler arm rod diameter) that's different. The housings should be the same; the easiest way to know for sure would be to take them both apart & see if the housing from the '93 will work. I'd personally drop the money on a later model, thicker idler instead of putting the thinner '91 on it. dirtoyboy can get you one for a fair price.

 

Any one else have experience with these or this vendor?


Also... Does anyone have any experience with their 2.4->2.7L bored & stroked engines? That's the first time I've seen a stroked 22RE option...

 

hey 86Original, i just watched that jaws 1 video that you have, holy crap i guess that is why everybody wants sas over ifs.

Glad you didn't roll it.

 

You'd still be rocking over on a SAS rig. The question would be how far. The tradeoffs with SAS aren't worth the benefits, in my opinion. I'll probably buy a rock buggy before I SAS this rig. It's also my DD, and a fairly economical one as well.

Given the wheel base and the tire size, that was the (second) best line. The best line is a little more tippy and down hill from that. Goes around the bottom of the rock ridge. That's the line we took going down.

Also, I had the TJ coils on the rear at the time that made the back end too stiff. I've ditched those. Very few people do that trail with as short of tires that we did it with. In retrospect, if I were to start from scratch again, I'd regear to 4.88 when I put the lockers in and get 33x9.50x15's year around instead of the 32x11.50x15's in the summer and 235/75/15's in the winter.

 

So back to the bushings:

Has anyone put these in recently?

I have two idler arms. One is the later factory one (I think) with an 19.5mm shaft and 23.5mm opening in the body, and the other one is an after market arm (I think)(18mm shaft, 21.75mm opening) .

My nylon bushings got trashed fairly quick after I put the brace on...

 

I ended up sending them two (used) idler arms that they found were slightly bent. I gave up and had them buy me a new (NAPA?) arm and put the bushings and zerk in for me. Had to grind most of an ear off the arm to get my 1st gen Downey idler arm brace on it. It's quite tight, even after filling it with grease. Hope the combination lasts a long time. If not, the next arm will be a Chaos Fab idler...

 

Ok, this is ridiculous. My last set of bushings lasted 9 months with 31's. Brass bushing time and brace time.

Does the bushing fit the pre-1992 (skinny shaft) or the later (fatter shaft) idler arm. I'm just going to go buy the right idler arm and keep mine as a spare.

 

It fits the later fatter shaft. Mine was a snug fit with a rubber mallet on my 93. I also just put on a downey brace. My shaft was bent, heated it up and bent it back before putting the bushings and the brace on. Seems to be doing fine, still no play. Just be sure you pick a spot for the grease fitting that won't be covered by the brace.

 

hmmm, seeing this has got me wandering...

the grooves that are cut into the bushings, I believe I'm correct in assuming those are to get grease moving around...

how bad would it be if just some plane ol brass bushing that are solid were used; in other words, some with no grooves cut into them...

the reason I ask is because there's a local hardware shop that sells a whole assortment of brass bushings, am I'm almost positive I could match the sizes up, but none of them will have the grooves cut like those do...

 

I'd be willing to bet you can't find the right size. Any play is a no no.