863 bronze bushings @ Supermiata
 

Announcing our new 863 suspension bushing kit for the NA/NB. We have been working on these for quite a while. Taking orders now. First kits should ship mid February 2022

Supermiata 863 Suspension Bushing Kit 90-05 MX5 Miata

The SAE 863 "Super Oilite" bronze bushings are positioned in between the steel pin and urethane. This system eliminates the binding of rubber and friction of traditional urethane bushings.
The metal part of the kit will be available separately for those of you that already have an Energy or Prothane kit on your car and want to upgrade.

85A durometer urethane
4130 heat treated Cr-Mo pins with Ra 32 finish (shiny)
Custom cast 863 bronze bushings
Optional zerks
3 year warranty

Video goes into more detail and includes comparisons to other types of bushings.

Order placed. You really need to look into making direct deposit available from my paycheck...

:giggle:

Just when my wallet was starting to recover...

One question; I have RUCA's fitted with eccentric bolts and guides so that I can get better rear camber. The eccentrics are the same as are used on the FLCA and the diameter of the eccentric bolt shaft is bigger than the regular RUCA bolt. Is there enough "meat" on the steel insert for those bushings to be drilled out to accommodate that larger bolt?

You'll have to let us know. The bronze bits are very thin wall. I suspect it would work. FLCA sleeve ID is .500, RUCA-I is .406

Well, this makes the choice of what suspension bushings to go with a lot easier for me. Gonna be a bit before I am ready to order though.

Xids, forged front end kit, and now bushings..... Suspension by supermiata I guess.

I had that issue with my SADFAB poly/bronze. IIRC (it was a while ago) we just drilled the bore to 12mm (vs 10mm?). All good, no issues.

Been waiting for this. Pre-order placed.

Measured the bolt for the adjuster on the outside of the RUCA, and it's just shy of 0.500 inch (0.497 to be exact). I'll take the chance and drill out those two inserts to fit (unless Emilio would be kind enough to swap out two RUCA-O steel inserts for two FLCA inserts). No matter what, I'm ordering!

Link no work :(

Supermiata 863 Suspension Bushing Kit 90-05 MX5 Miata

oops. Fixed OP. Sorry!

Order placed!

:party:

Getting close to selling out the first batch.

Potentially silly question. I understand all the benefits of this setup vs everything else, and I am totally sold on it for a track car. How does maintenance look like in terms of cleaning/re-greasing for a street car though? Was about to install OEM rubber replacement bushings next week, but I now have doubts...

My SADFAB poly/bronze kit has been in over three years. No noise, no issues, just a bit of grease. Not a lot of Ks though, OTOH I have a 2km dirt road to my place, so 4km of dirt every time I use the car which should have exacerbated any wear issues but nothing apparent yet.

There may be a difference in the wear characteristics of the bronze sleeves used in the two kits, but I'd be surprised if it made any material difference to wear rates - and with replacement of the sleeves a straightforward exercise it should be no big deal anyway.

Log story short - don't hesitate, poly/bronze rocks.

I'd tend to agree. Keep them greased (once a year - "spring maintenance") and you should be good to go.

Hit the zerks with a grease gun every year or two. In 5 or 10 years depending on your use, replace the 863 bronze bits. That's it.

First batch sold out.
Now taking pre-orders for the second production batch shipping early March

For the first time EVER, I got in on the ground floor!!

"When the moon is in the 7th House, and Jupiter aligns with Mars..." (and all of that other hippie crap).

Received my kit over the weekend. And wow, this kit represents a shit-ton of work from SM.

As advised, I took the time to sort and count all the components of the kit. Packing these must be a special kind of hell, because checking the contents took quite a bit of work. Not a complaint at all, in fact, it’s a testament to the level of thought and detail that goes into these. This isn’t generic in any way: nothing cut-down from a higher-volume part, or “close enough”. It’s 100% as-designed.

A cheap pair of calipers, digital or vernier, are definitely required. Some of the markings on the bushings are really difficult to read - and there’s no way around that. I thought my kit had a screw-up in it, but it turns out I misread a 9 as an 8. Thank goodness for the measurements in the instructions. The numbers cast into the bushings are on a non-critical surface, so they’re not finished post-molding, and the depth/readability of the numbers had to be sacrificed in order to get the critical surfaces right*.

I won’t be putting these on for a couple months so I can’t review the results, but I can tell the engineering and quality are exactly what I expect from SM.

*my assumption, based on limited tangential experience.

Thanks for the kind words! It is definitely a ton of work to sort and pack. We are careful as we pack them but with so many different pieces we want to make sure you got what we think we packed :)

​​​​​

If I order now, is there still availability for the 2nd batch shipping early March?

Yes. The product page will show when the estimated ship date changes, still a few kits left in second batch.

I got my kit on Saturday and like thebeerbaron, I spent Sunday sorting, measuring, labeling and zip-tying the individual components together. There were a couple occasion were I thought, "Dammit! I'm missing a piece" when I ad just mislabeled a part, or something rolled under the sofa!

Anyway, mine is going on this upcoming weekend. So wish me luck!

I sat in front of the TV for a couple hours this week organizing the kit into the 22 different “sets” that fit in each bushing bore. I’ll have to take the sleeves out before I stuff the poly into the arms, but this will speed up “production” once I get my arms ready. It also gave me a chance to double-check my kit and verify my understanding of where everything goes.

Also, the team at SM have been updating the instructions as this first batch reaches customers. There are vendors who regularly get dinged for providing bad, incomplete, or outdated instructions. SM has done a great job making these directions clear.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1c7ffe1fb.jpeg

If you think I’m a shill or kissing SM butt cheeks, feel free. But as a slightly-OCD engineer, I really want people to understand the amount of work that went into these kits. They’re the bees knees.

But not quite OCD-enough to use orange string instead of yellow. :)

--Ian

I believe the preferred term is '949 sackrider' :party:

Thanks again for the kind words!

Correct. The orange string was 2x the price of the yellow. I'm neurotic, but also cheap.

It's been refreshing to get so much quick and accurate feedback on the instructions from a handful of customers but no one tearing us a new one, although we may have deserved it. Typos, confusing details, clarifications, BOM errors. Mostly little things but for such a complex kit, that instruction sheet is everything.
Everyone here worked on those instructions, double checking everything and there were still errors. Argh, sorry! The printed sheet has a QR code that links to the latest version on the website.

So, thanks to all those that provided the invaluable feedback to tweak the instructions. The Miataverse at its best.

^
That's the way it SHOULD be!

I'm a software engineer by trade and have written a lot of associated documentation.
Authors tend to miss what they think is obvious or things they've done so many times and no longer even think about when doing a task.
There are often "gotchas" too that need to be pointed out and tips on how to avoid them or do something the easiest way (which often involves removing "everything" instead of trying to get at a bolt that's nearly impossible to reach with "everything" in place).

Independent user feedback is the best way to get any documentation "correct".
If a reader doesn't understand something, and they're not incompetent, then the document needs to be updated to make it absolutely clear.

If users don't provide feedback, the authors will never know the deficiencies.
If authors don't update documentation based on feedback, their product gets a bad reputation.
If users are happy with the documentation and installed the product with no issues, they're likely to recommend it to others and won't hesitate to buy again if needed.

"I have but one poscat to give!"

I got the rears in yesterday. Sorting everything out beforehand was a REAL lifesaver (I STONGLY recommend doing that before installation - you won't regret the time spent).

One note from my personal installation; My RUCA has "rails" welded on to accommodate eccentrics that are typically on the inside of the RLCA (to aid in gaining more camber in the rear without affecting the toe-in/out). The diameter of the eccentric bolts is bigger than normal bolts, so I had to drill out the steel sleeve to match. A bench-mount drill press (and I use that description loosely) from Horror-Freight helped to make that happen. That added time to the install, which was otherwise trouble-free. Another thing I had to do was to swap the 64413 and 64410 on the RLCA's. The flair on the two 64410's wouldn't clear the bottom of the rear upright, but the skinnier flair on the 64413's fit perfectly. I don't know if that's an anomaly on my car...but just a note.

Next week...the front's

Question, because I'm an over-analyzer.

The directions state to lube the steel sleeves with motor oil before sliding them into the bronze bushings. This interface between the bronze and steel is, as I understand it, the bearing surface that allows the control arm to rotate. I'm thinking that the bronze bushings are self-lubricating, mostly.

The urethane bits get a bit of grease on the OD, which I assume is to help them slide into place, plus some grease on the thrust faces to keep things moving.

If I'm supposed to hit the zerks with a grease gun every year or so - what's that doing/replacing? Is it making up for the displacement or contamination of the motor oil on the pins? There's very little grease in the initial install, so I'm a bit confused.

One could lube with motor oil as well. Grease is there to reduce squeaks and as you mentioned, lube thrust faces. Ostensibly, the whole thing could be put together dry and still work fine. Motor oil is the choice for our shop cars when they need some love in a few years.

FWIW - I used some synthetic grease on the steel sleeves instead of motor oil. That on the assumption that an annual "Hit 'O Grease" on the zerks will be more of the same. I didn't have a problem with locating the RLCA zerk fittings, but the RUCA zerk locations seemed to be a little problematic (so I didn't put them in - will I regret that decision?).

The bronze bushings are listed as "super-oilite" which means they are sintered self-lubricating bearings.
After the bronze is powdered and pressed it is "vacuum infused" with oil, commonly 30w engine oil.
The bushing itself has tiny pores in it, you can see them usually, the "speckled" look is what I'm referring too here.

The L-series Nissan engine (early Z cars) had a sintered bronze bushing as the pilot bushing...
You are supposed to be able to install them dry and they should work.
One tip I was taught back when I worked for Corky Bell (Pre-Begi almost 4 decades ago now) by a crusty old tech was to oil those BEFORE install.
You held one end closed with your thumb and filled the bushing up with your oil of choice till it was completely full and then used your other thumb to "pressurize" the bushing.
After a few seconds you will see the entire outer diameter "sweat" oil. It's bad assed to see and I've often won lunch off of this phenomena.
"Wanna bet I can push oil through this bearing using ONLY my hands?"
Someone always bites...

If you actually go through this process the bushing will not fail.
These were a bit tricky to get right and were a common source of failure for other techs that didn't know the oiling trick.
I once cracked one of these by creating too much pressure and these bushings are thick; better to use less pressure and more time for the oiling procedure IMO.

Enter 2022: I would use a ZDDP additive like this to pre-lube the bushings.

The amount is wrong in that listing, it's really only 12 oz like the bottle shows...
The SM bushings are very thin; I will be CAREFUL when I slime mine up.

This bushing kit will end up on my MSM, sadly It needs multiple SM products (coolant re-route, radiator, BBK) before the suspension is done.
And SM needs to release the "Tecna" coil over setups, hint, hint...

Thanks Baron, you made me look into "how would I lube these" before I ordered them. I will not order the zerks as I now believe the proper way to service these is to take them apart every few years.

I could not find a YouTube video showing this trick, so many of the really old school ways are being lost as our elders pass way...

One final exception to this is sintered bushings that use graphite instead of oil. Those go in dry; any oiling will screw them up.
This doesn't apply to the SM bushings as they are listed "oilite"
The graphite impregnated bushings are more expensive as well.

The fact that the bushings are made out of what they are only increases the value of this kit for me.

Our 863 is impregnated with an SAE 90w

So, in 9 months we get slippery "baby bushings"?

(I'm here all month, and if you tip your waitress don't forget to stand her upright before you leave!)

I used gear oil as well when I did the Z pilots.
When synthetics became available, I used them.
After 40+ years of experience I want heavy ZDDP in any "scuff" application.
That Lunati additive has the thickness of honey. It's far closer to 90w than 30w and it's chock full of ZDDP.
It's my choice for this application but probably any lubricant thin enough to wick through the pores is fine.
The thicker the lubricant the more likely you are to crack the bearing so I will use a very light touch.

That time I cracked that bushing I had 3+ guys watching "the trick". All of us were SHOCKED when it snapped. I still won lunch but had to wait on the clutch job while a new bushing was procured.
And much kidding from my work mates.
"Yep, Rick can destroy a bushing, before installation, no tools required at all..."

After several production runs trying to catch up with orders on this popular kit, we finally have a good supply in stock and ready to ship for new orders.

https://supermiata.com/Supermiata-86...90-05-MX5.aspx

I was hearing reports of these breaking down after a few track days. Is this factual? was there an issue with a bad batch?

Thanks for posting. We have been planning an announcement, but since you asked...

The last few weeks have been full of research and development for us. We received 4 reports of the front lower control arm bushings having the flanges cookie-cuttered off. Turns out, this has been a problem with polyurethane bushings from the get go - when this was posted on Facebook several people piped in saying they'd seen normal poly kits from all brands that had done the same thing. It does seem that eliminating the friction in the sleeves exacerbates this issue, as does greasing the outer bore of the bushing when installing them in the control arms. Our instructions now explicitly state *NOT* to grease the outer bore of the polyurethane when installing. That should solve the problem for most people.

When the last batch of poly ran out we decided to make some tweaks to solve this problem. We think we have it sorted but we will share details of the revision once we know it fully resolves the problem. This is the reason you can't buy the full kit on the site right now.

Once the new bushings are ready we will begin offering the full kits again. Retrofit kits are still available on the site if you want to run them with an existing Energy kit, as we have yet to receive a report of the cookie cutter issue happening there with our kit.

All original purchasers of the 863 kit who have any issues are encouraged to contact us via email at info@949racing.com.

Anyone with failed bushings will receive the revised bushings at no cost.

Thanks for acknowledging and responding to the issue! I wouldn't have expected anything less from you guys.

Ed - I still have a set from the 2nd batch sitting in a box that will be getting installed within the next couple weeks. I ordered them with the zerk fittings. Should I ditch the zerks?

Zerks are still fine. Yeah they'll put a little grease into the bore but not bad. We previously instructed greasing the outer bore to avoid squeaks. That was a mistake.

Great to see you guys standing behind your product like this!

Regarding grease and zerks, as commented here before, I really do not understand the purpose. Since all relative movement should occur between the sintered and the steel sleeve, it would not do much. I will be skipping zerks when installing mine.

The purpose of the zerks is to essentially clean the bearings. Pushes a lil grease through to push dust and grit out. Definitely not necessary, that's why they're optional. Occasionally pushing some grease through them should extend the life of the 863 bits.

Thanks for the clarification Ed

This looks like a nice kit! Would you also need to bore out the front upper control arm bushings like sadfab's kit? I might en up getting them later when since sadfab has apparently a really long waiting list

Our upgrade kits include new FUCA bushings so you don't have to bore yours out. So you reuse all pieces of your current poly kit but swap those out with ours.

I guess it's mainly answered on the website too, if i were to use V8R control arms, the bearings would only work for my upper inner bushings since I only replaced the RUCA arms and the V8R arms have an alignment bolt in the knuckle point making it bigger than the standard M8 bolts,correct?

While you wouldn't be able to use the bushings intended for that position, you could probably use two additional sets of alignment bolt location bushings but you may have to sortof sand down the OD for them to fit (the normal RUCA-O bushings are 38.6mm OD where the alignment locations are 40mm).

Ok, just saw this update. My install is not complete yet, are you going to “fix” the kit customers have already bought . And is the problem only one location (flca) or is this a complete redo. Not panicking , but this install is fairly time consuming. I have not completed the fronts yet , rear is done . Again , thanks for standing behind your product

To clarify, the install was time consuming because everything that could be rusted in place, was. Rlca long bolts took much longer than expected. So if I could finish this while still on the rack ,it would be great.

Email us please.

Would delrin in those locations solve the cookie cutter issue?
Thanks

You cannot use acetal nylon POM (Delrin) in those locations without the suspension binding. We cover that in more detail in the video. As Ed mentioned, we are updating the kit to improve fit and durability.

^ This. We are using this opportunity to optimize several areas of the kit, so stay tuned :)

2 months on, any updates on how the optimization process is going?

I understand your normal answer to this type of question is “it’s ready when it’s ready” but I need to do something before early next year, so wanting to get an idea if it’s a few months away or two years away. If the latter then I’ll need to look into other options ..

Well, we got our latest set of prototypes today. The supplier included one of our drawings in a bag of the bushings... But the bushings don't match the drawing :crx:

Today was Friday but it felt a lot more like a Monday.

Hopefully we can get this last proto set corrected and tested, then back to production.

Awesome. Thanks for the info..
looking forward to seeing them back in production..:)