[walkdontrunn]

I've had a set of Mad Max Control Arms for several years now, with only 20,000 miles. While doing some maintenance on the car I noticed that the rear upper poly bushing has around 1/4" of play in it when rocking the tire. I had a shop install the arms so I never noticed when they were originally installed, but the bushings themselves don't seem to fit very well. In photos of the arms online some of them have metal washers on the sides of the bushings (those weren't included in the arms I received).

Are there any off the shelf bushing replacement options available that would fit the Mad Max rod end? I've heard that the Gruven poly rod ends will thread into the Mad Max arms but I'm not positive about that and I would ideally only replace the bushings that actually fit and not the entire assembly. However, it looks like the metal sleeve itself is too narrow as well? Would a Superpro bushing for the stock arms fit? 20,000 seems like an unusually short lifespan.

 

[TheDeckMan]

The poly bushing rod ends Max used were from Summit or Jeggs if I recall. 5/8-18 thread. Cant remember who made them but they were not super pricey.

 

[walkdontrunn]

Is Max still around or is anyone else still making these arms? I think all that needs to be done is replace the bushings themselves and source the washers that some of the arms are shown with that mine didn’t come with.

 

[walkdontrunn]

Anyone know if poly control arm replacement bushings for the stock control arms fit into the Madmax bushing shell?

 

[mdjenkins]

Does this count as me being helpful?

MadMax rear control arms:

The bushings are marked with the numbers: 2273 and 60324

The sleeve is ~37mm in height

and ~41mm in diameter

The bolt hole is ~12.5 mm (1/2 inch)

And the center peg is ~53.5mm long

With an ~19mm outer diameter

I don't have any stock rear control arms lying around.
OTOH: Stock front control arm bushings:

~45 mm in diameter

~40mm in height

 

[walkdontrunn]

Does this count as me being helpful?

YES! Thank you. Very helpful. Hopefully I can find a cross reference for the bushing numbers online.

 

[tt92103]

According to this link from a place that sells the Madmax control arms, the bushings are custom designed and made.

MEAN STREET Rear Control Arms : USRT, Usually Sideways Rally Team

USRT MEAN STREET Rear Control Arms - Got a street-tuned Mk1 TT or a Mk4 R32 and push it hard through the corners? You lean on the suspension and feel the rear wiggle? Or, maybe you feel nothing at all. That's because of the numb rubber bushings (and sometimes lack of suspension travel). The car...

usrallyteam.com

"Several off-the-shelf poly bushings were tested before reaching the decision to have proprietary polyurethane bushings made for the application."

 

[walkdontrunn]

According to this link from a place that sells the Madmax control arms, the bushings are custom designed and made.

"Several off-the-shelf poly bushings were tested before reaching the decision to have proprietary polyurethane bushings made for the application."

Hopefully that's just marketing speak and they're available somewhere. What confuses me is the variations in the bushings. The black bushings in the link above have spacers/washers on the side of the poly bushing which it looks like I need.

I'll know more when I finally take the rear suspension apart and see what's going on. I have a feeling that the bushing is an off the shelf SAE size with a 1/2" inner diameter sleeve instead of 12mm. Hopefully I'm wrong about that. Ideally I think I'd find a chromoly bushing shell for the stock size bushings so that I can use easily sourced poly bushings like the black Powerflex and then weld a threaded stud to it.

 

[mdjenkins]

I'm not sure of how much weight that word "proprietary" is carrying.

After searching for flanged polyurethane bushings, I found a company with many different store fronts selling very similar bushings. Their bushings are molded with 4 digit identifiers in what seems to be the same font as on the MadMax. They offer a similar relief pattern on the inner hole and their red even matches. I didn't see the specific number on MadMax in their universal's, but it may match one of the car specific bushings they offer. It might be worth giving Energy Suspension a call.

As for the washers. I only see those on the pictures for the black FWD arms. I also do not have them with my red AWD arms. Nor do I see any pictures of the red with washers.

 

[Badgerfetus]

Does this play pose a genuine concern? I have 50k+ miles on mine and they also look similar but haven't noticed any odd driving characteristics. Purchased brand new direct from Max, no bushings were sent.

 

[walkdontrunn]

Does this play pose a genuine concern? I have 50k+ miles on mine and they also look similar but haven't noticed any odd driving characteristics. Purchased brand new direct from Max, no bushings were sent.

Probably not going to break and catastrophically fail while driving, but jacking the car up and pushing/pulling on the wheel and tire the top of the tire does move in and out 1/4" so I can't imagine it helps handling.

What do you mean "no bushings were sent"?