M.O.R.E. Lubeable Bushing/Bolt Kit!

By James Hasler

 

When I installed Rubicon Express' 2.5" lift kit on my 94 YJ, the kit only came with new polyurethane bushings for the two spring ends...It did not come with bushings for the frame end of the shackle.

With the amount of four wheeling I do, those rubber bushings were getting severly deteriorated.

So, in anticipation of replacing my stock shackles with Metal Made Rite's Extreme Travel Shackles, I thought I'd replace those 4 bushings.

I looked to Mountain Off-Road Enterprises for their Lubeable Bushing/Bolt Kit. The kits comes with 4 pairs of fluted, polyurethane bushings, 4 bushing sleeves that have a hole drilled through the center of them, 4 Grade 5 bolts that are rifle drilled down the center and come with a zerk fitting, 4 washers and 4 locking nuts.

We all know that polyurethane squeaks but lasts much longer than rubber. Being able to lube the bushings without disassembling them means you get the long life of polyuretahne but without the squeaks.

Installation is pretty straight forward. You put one end of the truck on jackstands, remove the tires and lower the axle until the jack is barely supporting it. Then you can remove all 4 shackle bolts.

Note, on the rear of a YJ, the bolts are put in such that they hit the gas tank when you try and remove them. The lower shackle bolt will still come out with a little persuasion. The frame end, however, requires either lowering the gas tank about 2 inches or cutting off the bolts. In this case, since the kit came with new bolts, I cut the original bolts off.

Getting the old bushings out can be a real bear if the truck is really old, but in my case, all that was required was to slip a flat head screwdriver under the lip of the bushings and work it back and forth until there was enough room to get the claw of a hammer behind it. Then it was simply a matter of prying out one side of the bushing, hammering out the center sleave and then prying out the other half of the bushing.

Now we just assemble the new bushing. I like to use Permatex Anti-Seize on the bushings so that they don't squeak and will be easy to remove if I ever need to. The easiest way to assemble them is to grease up the bushings, insert the two halves into the frame and then hammer the sleave into the bushings.

All that is left is to put the shackle back on and lightly torque up the bolts. Once the Jeep is back on the ground, you can torque the bolts up tighter...personally, I like to use Lock-Tite on the threads and keep the bolts fairly loose...it's amazing how much better the ride and articulation is when the shackle isn't tightened down too tight.

The ride has improved and no more squeaks! If you want your spring bushings to be lubeable as well, you can simple order an additional kit for the lower shackle bushings and one of MORE's Main Eye Bushing Kits for the fixed end of the spring. The Main Eye Kit comes with larger diameter Grade 8 bolts that match the original hardware.

Now, when the bushings start to squeak, you simply hit the bolt with your grease gun!!