Front lower control arm inner bushing movement

["ksgrimsr" <knut.s.grimsrud@xxxx>]

Hi folks,

Over the last while I have sent in a few messages regarding 
observations and general issues I'm having with my front lower 
control arm bushings. My earlier observations included that the way 
the bushing gets squeezed between the frame members, the entire 
suspension travel gets taken up in twisting the rubber portion of 
the bushing. I also had some concerns over whether the setup would 
prevent the bushing from shifting in the lower control arm since 
there is nothing actually holding it in place other than the 
friction of the press-fit.

I had a chance to revisit my bushings the other day to check if they 
were still where I left them, and it was clear that they had indeed 
shifted, resulting in the geometry changing. The problem appears to 
be that the bushings are not captured in the control arms, and 
therefore its retention in the control arm is based solely on the 
friction fit between the bushing and the control arm. My checkup 
indicated that the bushing was in place trapped between the frame 
mounts, but the control arm had shifted slightly over the bushing.

In looking at the geometry, the setup looks extraordinarily hokey. 
When you stomp on the brake and thereby put lateral force on the 
suspension, the only thing keeping the control arm from shifting 
where it connects to the chassis is the friction between the bushing 
and the control arm and the supplemental support from the sway bar. 
I suspect that on most DeLoreans with original control arms, that 
the bushing has probably nicely attached itself to the control arm 
as a result of corrosion, but my nice new stainless control arms 
seem to have surfaces that are nice and smooth for the bushing to 
slide against.

I have been struggling with the right fix for this for some time and 
considered whether I could trap the bushing in the control arm with 
snap rings (by milling a groove on each end), but the bushing is 
unfortunately the length of the sleeve, yielding no space to mill a 
snap-ring groove.

And then I noticed at the last DMC Houston open house that one of 
the stainless control arms was on display in the showroom, and in 
that control arm was half of a two-piece bushing. A two piece 
bushing that has a flare at the outer end for each half could 
effectively trap the inner end of the control arm between the 
bushing halves.

So now to my question: Does anyone have a suggestion or lead on a 
suitable direction I might explore for trapping the inner control 
arm and does anyone have a lead on the two-piece bushings that I 
might try with my control arms?

Knut