HELP w/ Panhard OME Poly Bushings?

Maybe I did something wrong but I highly doubt it... You be the judge.

I had a shimmy at 45 MPH which would go away at 50-55 MPH. I tracked it down
to the panhard rod being loose at the frame connection. I opted for an Old
Man Emu panhard rod poly set for a '96, Discovery, 4.0L.

Took the old ones out and installed the poly bushings onto the rod. No
sweat. When installing the rod back onto the vehicle the bushings were tight
going in. I placed a small amount of lube supplied in the kit to the outside
faces of the bushings to ease them into position.

The LR seemed to drive fine for the first 25 miles. I took the LR to 65 MPH
and experienced no trouble. This is where my woes begin...

Whilst slowing down at an intersection the LR started shimming all over the
place. I made a left turn drove for 1 mile and made a right turn. Now I
could not keep the vehicle on the road. I pulled off to the side an
inspected the undercarriage. To my chagrin, the "new and improved" poly
bushings disintegrated at both the axle and the frame. Lucky for me I was
able to crawl to my destination 1 mile further where it has sat since.

I just order LR bushings.

I have installed OME HD Springs and Dampers all around and this is my first
poor experience with OME.

Any suggestions as to why OME's bushings fell apart? I am not too happy with
them.

Jack wrote:

> Whilst slowing down at an intersection the LR started shimming all over the
> place. I made a left turn drove for 1 mile and made a right turn. Now I
> could not keep the vehicle on the road. I pulled off to the side an
> inspected the undercarriage. To my chagrin, the "new and improved" poly
> bushings disintegrated at both the axle and the frame. Lucky for me I was
> able to crawl to my destination 1 mile further where it has sat since.

The "hardness" of a urethane bush is determined by the amount of
hardener used when the bush is cast. If too much hardener is used the
bush becomes friable and exactly what you have experienced happens.
I've seen this with commercially supplied bushes on a couple of
occasions (and made the same mistake when casting my own ones for
industrial equipment). Obviously this is not acceptable so I'd suggest
you return the remains to where you purchased them and get some
replacements, preferably from a different manufacturing batch.


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EMB