I’m pretty pissed!!

[bucket]

I do not want energy suspension to make better Suzy Qs. WTF is wrong with you?

Lots of things are wrong with me. You should know that by now

 

[Matt69olds]

Cant help with the bushing issues but...If you have to turn up the torsion bars any....beyond the 4" of lift....to clear a 36" tire- I would go ahead and get the Rough Country upper control arms to fix the upper ball joint angle. Otherwise it'll probably eat upper ball joints like mine did. The lowers don't seem to have as bad of an angle so you're good there.
Dont let whoever does the alignment use factory specs that call for positive camber. With a bigger tire it wears the outer edge quickly. Zero to a little negative works best.

Interesting! Ill look into that before fooling with junkyard parts.

 

[Matt69olds]

Rough country said with the relocation brackets, the ball joint geometry is basically as it was stock, just everything is moved down 4 inches. No need for new control arms.

My son and I spent all morning at our local salvage yard. We removed 11 control arms from wrecked trucks before finding enough decent parts to use on his truck.

And big surprise, no reply from energy suspension.

 

[Rustisbest]

Rough country said with the relocation brackets, the ball joint geometry is basically as it was stock, just everything is moved down 4 inches. No need for new control arms.

If the tires clear without adding any more lift by cranking the bars it will be. I had to crank it up a couple inches, trim the bottom of the flares and hammer the lower lips of the fender back to clear 35's without rubbing while turning though. Same lift. Might get lucky with a narrow wheel and/or different backspacing.

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[Matt69olds]

Well crap! I thought we really lucked out on finding a couple of very clean sleeves/washers from our junkyard trip. Turns out the reason they were so clean is they were aftermarket replacements, the same style aftermarket replacements with the same dimensions as the aftermarket replacements I bought to cut apart!!

However, I’m pleased to report that we were able to find enough clean rust free junkyard sleeves/washers to assemble his control arms. Hopefully, we can get the front end done this weekend and get the truck back on the ground.


This has been a far bigger headache than it should have been!

 

[edgephoto]

Glad to hear you got it sorted. Did the suspension place you got the bushings from, not offer sleeves to purchase?

I feel your frustration. I bought leaf springs locally for the front of my truck. Spring shop said he could not get me the shackles as their supplier had them on back order. Called an online vendor who said he had them. Bought them and they were wrong. Called and was told I must have got the wrong springs, I didn't know what I was doing, etc. I could ship them back and if they were in sale-able condition they would issue a credit minus 15% restocking fee and of course I have to pay return shipping. The bushings were 1/4" too big in diameter. Original eye on the spring and replacement spring were the same. GM part number bushing fit no problem. I did not bother to send them back but I will never use that place again.

So aggravating that some simple thing will bog you down. I can only imagine how mad you are.

 

[Matt69olds]

Nope, as a cost cutting move, energy suspension expects the customer to use 35 year old sleeves. Who would them have thought that after 35 years, a consumable WEAR item would have too much WEAR to reuse?? And nobody makes replacements. Or if someone does, I’m not aware of it.

As I mentioned, i made several calls to their tech department , with no answers. After a few days of frustration, I sent energy suspension a nasty email venting on the problem their penny pinching caused. After 3 days, no reply. Who knows if I’ll hear from them? They got my money, unless their business practices changes they won’t get any more.

 

[edgephoto]

That is how I feel about the spring place I used. The money is gone and I guess I could dispute with my CC company but it is not worth it. I was able to use half of the shackle. I wonder if the sleeves I have left over would work for you.

 

[Camar068]

My son and I have been finishing up some of the winter upgrades to his 92 Yukon. Some of the upgrades include:

Rebuilt transmission

Rebuilt differentials with 4.56 gears

4 inch lift kit to go with the 36 inch tires.

New dashboard to replace the crumbing original.

Heated rear glass, heated mirrors

New carpet with lots of sound deadener

And rebuilt suspension, which is the source of my frustration.

The last few Suspension rebuilds I have been involved with I used energy suspension polyurethane bushings. I got the new bushings, I was surprised to find the instructions say to reuse the original outer shells and inner sleeves. All of my inner sleeves are either too rusty to reuse, or too damaged from wear. I called Energy Suspension, they told me they stopped including those parts in an attempt to meet a certain price break. To me, it seems stupid to expect a customer to reuse a wear item for a replacement part. That’s kinda like buying a crankshaft kit, and being told to reuse the bearings. I have no clue how much more the sleeves/washers would add to the cost, but more than likely I would have just spent the money to have everything I needed.

After exhausting all my spare parts looking for useful sleeves, I finally decided to just buy cheap stock replacement bushings to get the sleeves and washers. Only then did I find the aftermarket replacement parts have different diameter inner sleeves!!

My next move: I’m going to my local savalge yard to see if some of the later model wrecked trucks have useable parts. The salvage yard will give me the parts as long as the were damaged and not useable from collision damage. If I strike out there, I’m not sure what to do next.

It just pisses me off that the penny pinching todays manufacturing does has left me with a problem that can’t be solved. They expect you to reuse a consumable wear item, nobody offers the parts, aftermarket replacement aren’t compatible, and it seems nobody cares. Why would they? I have already made the purchase, they have my money, and won’t refund it because the parts have been installed.

Added insult to injury: I found out Dorman offers new control arms that are about 75 bucks more than what I have spent on ball joints and useless bushings. If I can’t find parts, that’s probably what I’m going to have to do.

outer shells I understand, but the last set I got came with inner sleeves.