Premature Brass Bushing wear Momentum 381M

[msutoad]

Hey Folks-

Posting for awareness to many/all.. My 381M is 15 months old, with about 9K miles on it. I have been diligent about keeping the wet bolts greased, as well as the wheel bearings. I noticed that 3 of my fittings stopped taking grease. I am of course out of warranty, but brought this up to GDRV. They out of warranty sent be a few wet bolts incase they were "broken". I pulled the first wet bolt only to find the brass bushing was completely shot. Thankfully I had purchased new bushings to have on-hand. I reached out to MORryde with the same picture attached here and they agreed the wear was very premature and have send me all new bushings. One challenge is that the MORde CRE3000 system has the bushings "PRESSED" in at the factory. Changing out those is a nightmare. I am not sure what the deal is there, but the bushings dont with without using a machine press to get them in. They are 2000th's smaller on the outside diameter compared to the other bushing locations. So a word of caution on the CRE3000 blue hangers. if you need to replace those bushings, you have to either press them properly, or have a machine shot lathe down the fitting on the outside diameter 2000ths roughly, which I am sure MORryde would say DONT do that, press them in.
I share all of this with you mainly so that you dont get your rig apart and find you dont have the right replacement parts on-hand, or so you dont find yourself with a worn-out suspension system on the side of the road because of premature bushing wear. Feel free to ask me questions.

Attached are 2 pics. One is the MORryde CRE3000 hanger that is where the bushing is pressed in. The other is more obvious of the worn-out bushing.

Best

Jason

[FlyStar]

Did you machine them down or use a machine press? Just curious and thanks for the post. Do you think they could be pressed in with a c clamp and a wet bolt sans the Zerk?

When I pulled my one wet bolt that wouldn’t take grease (spring hanger) there was no bushing at all or any evidence of one being there. Pressed one onto the spring with a c clamp. But I know the cre unit is a different story. I only pulled the one bolt. And was too lazy to check the others for missing bushings. They all take grease so I’m hoping for the best.

[jkwilson]

For .002 oversized, I’d probably have tried putting them in the freezer for several hours or overnight to see if it got me the clearance to insert them.

[msutoad]

Did you machine them down or use a machine press? Just curious and thanks for the post. Do you think they could be pressed in with a c clamp and a wet bolt sans the Zerk?

When I pulled my one wet bolt that wouldn’t take grease (spring hanger) there was no bushing at all or any evidence of one being there. Pressed one onto the spring with a c clamp. But I know the cre unit is a different story. I only pulled the one bolt. And was too lazy to check the others for missing bushings. They all take grease so I’m hoping for the best.

I had a machine shop turn it down .002 since I was in a pinch and needed to leave the next day, so I didnt have much time to try and press it, or as stated in the below thread freezing it. The freezing idea is a great one, but i will try and press the next one. Machine it down .002 worked perfectly, and reduced the outside diameter. It also makes it last not as long since the overall available product is reduced, but I will remove that machined one and try to press one or freeze or both. Bottom line, when the bushings are mangled its not good . I will update once I freeze or press one. I will also freeze one tonight and then attempt to take a pic of it next to a non-frozen one and see if we can see it being a tiny bit smaller. I also asked MORryde if they do anything special when they press them at the factory. I do have in writing and a screen shot that the bushings for all the suspension fittings for the MORryde system are the same size, so... It means they have a way to stuff that into the hangers clearly

[msutoad]

For .002 oversized, I’d probably have tried putting them in the freezer for several hours or overnight to see if it got me the clearance to insert them.

Great idea, I will try this too!