Hey guys, what do yall run on your front beam ? Do you use the needle bearing or replace them with the urethane. Some of what I find says the urethane isn't for street use and will need to be replaced every few months. With all this info available on the internet I'm still confused.
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If your beam is tight, leave it alone. The stock needle bearings are good, and the inners don't tend to wear out.
But if you need to replace: White Delrin.
I discovered all this a couple months after getting my Spyder titled and registered: the inner micarta bushings apparently disintegrated—this is apparently a common thing for mid-late 2000s beams. Replacing the inners with original bronze was not possible, as the carriers are NLA. The outer needle bearings were fine, btw, but I replaced them anyway since you gotta pull them to get to the inners, and I wanted to get the whole thing consistent.
Delrin what Carey Hines uses and recommended. I did not need to ream them. They work nice.
Gordon Nichols will tell you the red urethane sleeves are just fine; he installed his circa 2002 and they're still in there.
Yup, and I was just looking at them the other day and they still look fine and are tight. No cracks or decaying going on so it may be just which resin was used or who made them when they were made, but many people have had the red ones fail so even I will try to steer you to the Delrin versions.
Forgive my ignorance, but how can you see the inner bushings when they're installed?
You can tell if they're not worn due to lack of play, but how can you physically look at them without disassembly?
You can’t - they’re in there too deep.
But if there is no visible cracking or missing chunks on the bushing collars and there is no play at the trailing arm pivot point even when using a pry bar, then I’m OK with that. I’m not about to pull the front end apart every Winter just for the hell of it.
Stock VW inner bushings, in my opinion, are junk. They are made from pressed paper and I see them break and wear out more times than not. Maybe back int he day they were better, but we got away from them many years ago because event he OEM replacements were garbage. We use full Delrin inserts and I wouldn't go back personally. If you do an insert, go Delrin not urethane. My $0.02
Do you have a recommended source for those Delran inserts?
Our front beams are made by Airkewld and I use theirs, not sure if they fit a stock beam. If they do, then that's who I'd use. If not, go with SACO performance. Their Delrin bushings (for all over the car) are top notch.
I'm not sure, they might be...
A quick Google search shows their website as just a landing page with address and phone which isn't a good sign. Several vendors still show stock of the bushings and a few show them as "closeout, limited stock" so that may be the case.
In 7-8 years I have yet to have a Delrin insert need replaced, so I'd be comfortable buying a discontinued part
