Top Shock bushing

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

digithead

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 24, 2016
Messages
264
Reaction score
2
Location
UPSTATE NY
My Car
1973 Mustang 351C-4V 4BBL 4 SPEED CONVERTIBLE White
Need some suspension help. Not my specialty for sure. Usually I have shop put them on and drive off. So this picture show top of passenger side. The drivers looks just as bad. The shocks themselves look like new. They supposed had all been replaced by PO when I bought car. But these rubber bushings on top are trashed. Maybe its just dry rotted from age and since the car has never been driven in rain etc etc the body itself looks good. Either way I have to do something. Can I get just 2 of these new rubber tops? I asked my local Auto parts and they were dazed. Of course they hire 20 years olds that dont appear to have ever worked on a car. They can cash you out if they scan barcode thats about it.

shockbushing.JPG

 
This is a common problem. If you jack up the front of the car at all it crushes these bushings to oblivion.
Thanks Jason, so is there a better solution like a better neoprene one to replace it?

 
Your local parts house should have them. http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web/PartSearchCmd?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&pageId=partTypeList&suggestion=&actionSrc=Form&langId=-1&vehicleIdSearch=-1&searchTerm=1973+mustang+shock+absorber+bushing&searchedFrom=header

Sometimes they are on the HELP rack on the floor. If they cannot help you I would look for a different store. You can probably find online like Amazon or eBay. You will need to know the diameters and thickness along with the model of vehicle. Some are sold to fit multiple models and may not be exactly the same. Going to a harder urethane might help some I have not seen them but probably out there.

They are easy to change just remove the nuts on the shock, hold the center rod to screw them off. Take the cap off the shock tower and replace the damaged rubber.

 
Maybe its just dry rotted from age and since the car has never been driven in rain.
There must be something you can apply at intervals to keep the rubber supple.

Petroleum jelly? or something else. Other owners must have same problem that only drive them to shows and rest of the time the car is in dry storage.

 
Just had to redo mine although they were on new shocks. The rubber bushings will (should) have 2 different diameter shoulders on them. Make sure you use the correct shoulder mounted into the top plate. You should replace both top and bottom bushings together on each side. Once the top lock nuts and bottom nuts are removed, you can remove the three nuts holding the cap / top plate. The shock rod will extend upward, but the use of a jack will lift the body back to were you can put tit all back together.

In my case, the new shock rod was longer than was removed, meaning that with the nuts tighten all the way down, the bushing could and did move around. I fixed this by using large washers under the caps, top and bottom, to take up the difference. Also, the mechanic who changed my complete suspension did not pay attention to the shoulder diameters and this also cause the bushings to move. Total time to "fix" the problem was about an hour, easy job!

Hope that helps,

Geoff.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Your local parts house should have them. http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web/PartSearchCmd?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&pageId=partTypeList&suggestion=&actionSrc=Form&langId=-1&vehicleIdSearch=-1&searchTerm=1973+mustang+shock+absorber+bushing&searchedFrom=header

Sometimes they are on the HELP rack on the floor. If they cannot help you I would look for a different store. You can probably find online like Amazon or eBay. You will need to know the diameters and thickness along with the model of vehicle. Some are sold to fit multiple models and may not be exactly the same. Going to a harder urethane might help some I have not seen them but probably out there.

They are easy to change just remove the nuts on the shock, hold the center rod to screw them off. Take the cap off the shock tower and replace the damaged rubber.
Thanks! I had better luck online then with bozos that work at my local store LOL. I got some new harder urethane ones coming.

 
Just had to redo mine although they were on new shocks. The rubber bushings will (should) have 2 different diameter shoulders on them. Make sure you use the correct shoulder mounted into the top plate. You should replace both top and bottom bushings together on each side. Once the top lock nuts and bottom nuts are removed, you can remove the three nuts holding the cap / top plate. The shock rod will extend upward, but the use of a jack will lift the body back to were you can put tit all back together.

In my case, the new shock rod was longer than was removed, meaning that with the nuts tighten all the way down, the bushing could and did move around. I fixed this by using large washers under the caps, top and bottom, to take up the difference. Also, the mechanic who changed my complete suspension did not pay attention to the shoulder diameters and this also cause the bushings to move. Total time to "fix" the problem was about an hour, easy job!

Hope that helps,

Geoff.
Thanks Geoff that does help. I think mine may have been longer as well. YOu cannot tighten the nuts down FAR enough to snug it up, instead it slops around a bit. I will replace and do the thicker washer thing as well

 
THank you all for helping, you guys are awesome. Learn a lot here every day.

 
I dare you to say out loud three times fast in a row: "Top Shock Bushing"

 
I'm recalling this subject came up not so long ago. Whatever Advance / Autozone is selling for an upper shock bushing is not rubber and in my experience would only last for a couple hundred miles at best. I had the same issue with the bushings crumbling into tiny little pieces within a couple weeks of installing them.

So I tried these: https://www.summitracing.com/search/product-line/energy-suspension-shock-bushings

$5. They've lasted 2 years and 1K+ miles and I expect them to keep working for a long time.....and work just fine.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just had to redo mine although they were on new shocks. The rubber bushings will (should) have 2 different diameter shoulders on them. Make sure you use the correct shoulder mounted into the top plate. You should replace both top and bottom bushings together on each side. Once the top lock nuts and bottom nuts are removed, you can remove the three nuts holding the cap / top plate. The shock rod will extend upward, but the use of a jack will lift the body back to were you can put tit all back together.

In my case, the new shock rod was longer than was removed, meaning that with the nuts tighten all the way down, the bushing could and did move around. I fixed this by using large washers under the caps, top and bottom, to take up the difference. Also, the mechanic who changed my complete suspension did not pay attention to the shoulder diameters and this also cause the bushings to move. Total time to "fix" the problem was about an hour, easy job!

Hope that helps,

Geoff.
Thanks Geoff that does help. I think mine may have been longer as well. YOu cannot tighten the nuts down FAR enough to snug it up, instead it slops around a bit. I will replace and do the thicker washer thing as well
Yeah, that did fix my issue. Put about 500 miles on it since without any movement or problems. Just make sure that the washers you choose actually fit inside the flat area of the cups. They need to be a good fit or they too will slip around. I'll take a pic of mine and post it so you can see how much squeeze I have on the rubbers. Too much will cause them to fail for sure. My shocks by the way are KYB Adjust-a-shock 4504.

 
Unfortunately I would gamble that the majority of these bushings are made from the worst possible material at the cheapest cost. Probably the most expensive option here is the best one.

 
I'm recalling this subject came up not so long ago. Whatever Advance / Autozone is selling for an upper shock bushing is not rubber and in my experience would only last for a couple hundred miles at best. I had the same issue with the bushings crumbling into tiny little pieces within a couple weeks of installing them.

So I tried these: https://www.summitracing.com/search/product-line/energy-suspension-shock-bushings

$5. They've lasted 2 years and 1K+ miles.....and work just fine.
THANKS! I just researched on my own and decided to order a pair of those before your post came up. So I will report back how they work as well, maybe it'll help the next guy.

 
Thank you all. Heres what I bought and put on. Supposed to be a harder material. Time will tell. Only about $4 so its no huge thing if they dont work, but it was a easy job. I added 3 metal washers below my top anodized one.

shocktop.JPG

 
Thank you all. Heres what I bought and put on. Supposed to be a harder material. Time will tell. Only about $4 so its no huge thing if they dont work, but it was a easy job. I added 3 metal washers below my top anodized one.
Sounds good. Glad you got it fixed.

Geoff.

 
Back
Top