47-55.1 Premature rubber wear/cracking

[73kay]

Hey all, my 53 is so close to running but I have noticed on my rack and pinion visable cracking and movement on the two
Bolts that mount the r/p. I bought all moog parts off rockauto and installed it maybe 1-2 years at the most. I am using the industrial chassis dodge Dakota kit which has a custom crossmember but all dodge Dakota suspension parts. I have seen similar issues with my 73-87 weather stripping on my vent windows just fall apart. Anyone else facing issues like this?

[73kay]

Pix

[73kay]

The worst part of all of this is that I have to remove the engine to remove the cross member to remove the rack and pinion. So I definitely want to fix this the right way.

[Rickysnickers]

Originally Posted by 73kay

The worst part of all of this is that I have to remove the engine to remove the cross member to remove the rack and pinion. So I definitely want to fix this the right way.

Oh crap, that bites!!! If I may ask, how was it designed that way? Seems odd that you have to remove the engine to change out a couple of rack bushings. Anyway, my suggestion would be to find some urethane bushings and they will last a long time.

[73kay]

The crossmember version that I have I believe it is setup that way. As you can see the bolts are tight to the original engine crossmember.

[MiraclePieCo]

The brand new rubber on my R&P mounts did the same thing.

[73kay]

So generally it sounds like try to buy polyurethane if possible I wonder if there is any prep or “spray”? To help “treat” the rubber?
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[bosco]

I have a R+P from CPP and it has done the same thing in less than 6 months. Didn't quite understand either, but as soon as we torqued down the R+P to specs the rubber started to crack immediately. Go figure.

[Tempest67]

Can you cut the head of the bolt off with a sawzall?, and feed a replacement bolt up from underneath and put the nut at the top?

[cru_zn_29]

It is called planed Obsolescence.

[mr48chev]

Years of doing front end work proved to me that over tightened bolts in rubber bushings cause the rubber to split like that be it shock bushings, Control arm bushings or something like that rack. It's more cosmetic than anything because the bolt should be holding the metal inner bushing tight to the crossmember.

As for bolt clearance on the front most guys who do MII swap trim the stock front crossmember and remove the section that held the stock motor mount leaving the part for the core support. The Welded in MII crossmember or even bolted in one adds plenty of strength back to keep the frame square.

[dsraven]

ok, here is my 2 cents.
rubber bushing may have been designed to have a steel dowel inside to limit the amount of squash down allowed. if not it is the nature of the beast. most MOOG stuff I have installed over the years is better quality than that but these days alot of stuff needs to be built as cheaply and offshorely (?) as possible in order to keep the doors open. who knows when the parts were actually made and if they were actually made to design specs. quality control isn't what it used to be.

a light coat of synthetic grease on the rubber MAY have helped but who knows. sun rays deteriorate stuff quick if it is outside.
polyurethane would be my first choice for a replacement. there are also kits that can be bought where you mix your own product if need be. poly usually has a metal insert to disallow over squashing the product. have you checked energy suspension for a set of poly bushings? always use synthetic grease to assemble those poly parts.
https://www.energysuspensionparts.com/5.10104

"C" notch and trim the original crossmember to access the bolts and allow the rack to be removed. you can likely do that with everything assembled but with the engine out you would get a waay better job. nobody wants to fix a set up like that after the fact and steering parts are a big service item. make it easy. another idea would be to fab a support for the original crossmember to tie in the rack bolts. possibly some DOM tubing or pipe sliced in half with a "washer like" end welded in to support the through bolt for the rack. or possibly just do the sliced pipe idea and leave it at that with new bushings in the rack. I guess you could also remove the original cross member and fab a new one closer to the bumper but that would mean a bunch more work to support other stuff.

[dsraven]

doyou have a pic from a bit further away to put it into perspective?

[mr48chev]

I'd say that dsraven has the right suggestion. A few cuts with what ever tool works best to get the job done and you have access to the bolts.

[73kay]

I will try to get some more pix. I guess my main concern of preventing this from happening again more or less. I actually do not think it was torqued down to much but I could be wrong. I appreciate the feedback and think I found some
Poly bushings.
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[1project2many]

Real rubber is very expensive. Companies are substituting synthetic rubber which isn't as durable. Synthetic rubber usually looks and feels different but even if you detect it, you may find no other option available for a "rubber" part. Polyurethane may be the only solution for this situation.

[nvrdone]

just be aware that poly bushings have a habit of transfering noise and vibrations more that rubber. so its a trade off.

[1project2many]

In all honesty I find myself scouring the 'net for NOS parts. Stuff made in the '50s for my truck and my '36 Plymouth is better than many of today's products.