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

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..