63 Classic strut rod bushings HELP!

Hmmm... that's relatively new. I've cut a late model poly bushing down to fit and that works, but you feel every pot hole or other hard bump in the floor right at your left foot. Not a good feeling! I used a rubber half on the back as two poly hard poly halves (all poly is harder than the rubber pieces, even that newer, softer poly some companies advertise) will bind sooner and limit as well as slow suspension reaction. The softer rubber back doesn't totally alleviate the situation, but does loosen it up more than two polys would. If you use the APD bushing you might want to buy a single late model AMC rubber bushing and use each half (halves are identical) as the back halves with the APD front bushing.

My ultimate fix was to cut my strut rods in half and get a pair of Concord rods, cut to length, and weld the two. A good welder (person and machine!) can do this with no issues. Been running mine for 13 years/70K miles now, welded myself while I was at the USAF welding school as an instructor. You don't need a set of Concord strut rods though. You can get a hardened steel threaded stud the correct diameter (I forget what that is right now...) about 6" long. Cut the original strut rod off ~6" and weld the stud to the end the same as if welding the two strut rods. Steel studs can be purchased through most industrial fastener supplies, like Fastenal.

The stud and strut rod (or two strut rod halves) need to be ground to a taper with about a 1/8" flat in the center. Space the 1/8" flats about 1/8" apart and weld the center first. I used a 6010 1/8" welding rod, stick welder. A piece of angle iron works well to keep the rod straight. Make that first center weld, clean, then weld one bead around with the 6010. I made 4-6 welds (can't remember exact number). One good tack, clean, rotate 90 degrees, make opposite good tack, clean, rotate to weld to one side of the previous weld, tack, clean, rotate until circled. Then fill in with a 7011 the same way until the outside diameter is a bit larger than the rods. Then grind down to uniform size. The Concord rods I used (80-83, not sure which specific year) are a bit oval so they have a flat on the sides, I believe so they can be held with a wrench when adjusting the nuts. The 63 Classic rods are more round, I just blended the two. Let the strut rod cool between the 6010 and 7011 welds. I let it cool completely to room temp. If you need more than one 7011 pass (I think I did...) let it cool completely between passes. Might take all day due to the cooling, but you don't want to get it too hot. Letting it cool between passes will allow it to maintain strength.


Edited by farna - Aug/02/2016 at 6:27am

Well I was driving past a Volvo tractor and saw what I thought would work (if nothing else available) for these strut bushings. It had a long triangle brace of about 3/4" rod to the upper portion of the exhaust stack. Down at the bottom were two rubber bushings sandwiched between large (2 1/2" or 3") washers and nuts.