Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

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itchyfeet
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Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

Having read that the standard replacement ones are rubbish I'm thinking of fitting these.

Blue for 2WD and more flexible yellow for 4WD

Anybody fitted yellow to 2WD?

I guess they would be more like the standard rubber and give the articulation VW deemed necessary?

I'm also guessing the front bush locating part is aluminium? or is it plated steel?
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by 937carrera »

I'll kick of with a reply for you.

I have not used Powerflex on the T25, but have used them on other cars. They are a good solution, easier to fit and longer lasting. I have not noticed an NVH impact
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by slowcoach »

If you mean the sleeve tube that goes around the rod through the bushings, it's stainless steel I believe .

Also keen to do this job, mainly to reveal/discover what shape the chassis hole is in and treat 'any' rust [WINKING FACE] the brickwerks page says somewhere they're nearly always in bad shape :-\

Great video by James akers on this on YouTube. (Though his is a late T3, different radius rods to early.)
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

early write up here and the video of late

early van
http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=116198" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
late van
https://vwt25.blog/2018/02/27/radius-ro ... placement/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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itchyfeet
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

slowcoach wrote:If you mean the sleeve tube that goes around the rod through the bushings, it's stainless steel I believe .

no I mean the large part shown in the middle of this pic, Aluminium or steel, perhaps you can guess where this is going?

Image
Last edited by itchyfeet on 04 Aug 2019, 08:23, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

937carrera wrote:I'll kick of with a reply for you.

I have not used Powerflex on the T25, but have used them on other cars. They are a good solution, easier to fit and longer lasting. I have not noticed an NVH impact

Thanks , my empty tin top sits quite high 50mm higher than my camper with the same springs and this bush is always at an angle and it's a noisy van anyway so I'm wondering if I want blue or if yellow may be better.
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by 937carrera »

It seems you want to go for yellow and that would seem to be a sensible choice. You're not doing this to enhance handling, beyond fixing what's broken. A bit of extra compliance won't harm which is why they are specified for syncro (and why having a broken ARB isn't an issue when doing off road work, linking into another recent thread)

A couple of links, recognising most people thinking of going Powerflex are looking for a handling improvement

Something for free ?

https://www.powerflex.co.uk/product-det ... 11710.html

Nice graphs

https://www.cliosport.net/threads/yello ... nt.786186/

The blue are actually purple by the way and I fitted a pair of purple to solve a subframe knocking problem on a car just this past week.
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

Thanks for the links, I guess without knowing the shore hardness of the original bushes you can't compare.
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by T25Convert »

Well I can't comment on the yellow's performnace, but I have just fitted the purple to an empty (late) tin top caravelle.

I'm wasn't looking for 'performance', it was more a case that I'm so fed up with the quality of black rubber products and the speed they deteriorate that I'd give these a go.

They firm up the fornt end and seem to work well. However, given how soft and worn the old ones were I suspect that the yellow ones would have made a similar difference.

I suspect that the yellow will still be stiffer (certainly middle to long term) than any of the black rubber ones that are available.

Mr Brickwerks I think claims full development of these was by them, so it might be worth getting his take on the issue.
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

Thanks,

did you happen to notice the material of the large metal part?
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by T25Convert »

itchyfeet wrote:Thanks,

did you happen to notice the material of the large metal part?

Very light, wouldn't like to say what it is. Assembly manual is also vague, referring to it as an 'alloy cup'.

Could be aluminium. Will crawl under when I get a minute and see if a magnet offers any clues either way.
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by T25Convert »

T25Convert wrote:
itchyfeet wrote:Thanks,

did you happen to notice the material of the large metal part?

Very light, wouldn't like to say what it is. Assembly manual is also vague, referring to it as an 'alloy cup'.

Could be aluminium. Will crawl under when I get a minute and see if a magnet offers any clues either way.

Turns out there was an easier way - email Powerflex.

They say:

POWERFLEX wrote: Hi Alex,

Many thanks for the enquiry.

I can confirm that these are machined from aluminium.

With some of our aluminium components we anodise them to prevent corrosion.

However, with this particular part, we have found no need to take this precaution.

Should you have any issues with the components, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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itchyfeet
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

Thanks very much. My gut feeling was aluminium in the video you can just tell when something is light by the way it's handled.

I was first worried about corrosion with salt water and next to steel but then I thought maybe if they were steel and you had a really worn hole you could weld that in as a replacement but no.

I guess they will corrode in time and should not be considered fit and forget, somebody needs to make some stainless ones :idea
Last edited by itchyfeet on 05 Aug 2019, 18:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

got the tools out tonight, not as bad as I'd feared, the washer on the near side was toughing the cross member :shock: , off side was several mm away.

remember this van has no pay load so sits very high, the camper has much more clearance

Top pics are near side and sleeve with almost through ( you can just see a hole breaking through + about 3mm of elongation of the chassis hole gave the drop, looks like a little weld and dress back is needed as sleeves are aluminium and need full support or they will have point load and wear fast.

Image

Image

Image

other side hole is almost perfect condition and minimal loss of sleeve, the outer bush still had most of the the thin sheet support.

Image
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Re: Powerflex Radius arm bushes?

Post by itchyfeet »

some white paint on whats left of the insert from the good side and the damage is much easier to see

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