Sway Bar Bushings

[dale farley]

When checking all the components under the bus, I noticed that the neopreme bushings in both my front and rear sway bars were worn out. This surprised me since there is only 68K miles on the bus. I was further surprised to learn that these bushings should be checked/changed about every 40K-50K miles. This may be something that anyone with the sway bars keeps an eye on.

[dalej]

What do you mean by wore out, can you post a photo?

I'm running close to 200,000 and watching the wearing of these items, but don't see it yet. They have age lines.....kind'a like me!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Dale J said what I would have said. The bushings that I have learned to check whenever I am under the coach are the ones in the shock absorbers and the stabilisators.

Post pictures please, Dale F.

[dale farley]

When I left Mississippi with my bus the day I bought it, I started hearing a noise in the front end. The rattle became increasingly worse, so I assume the neopreme actually started falling out of the worst one. I would have thought that I just had an isolated case of premature failure as a result of faulty parts or incorrect torque, although the bolts were not loose on mine. I mentioned this to another Prevost owner, and he told me that he had the same failure at around 67K miles. He said he had them replaced at a shop and was told that it was not uncommon for them to fail at 40K to 50K miles. Maybe I misunderstood what he told me, and I will verify when I can get back in touch with him.

I hope this was just two isolated cases, because I don't at all see why these should fail so early. Maybe Prevost installled some bad ones in some of the 98-99 models. I really don't know, but I think the pictures verify that mine were a "little" on the worn out side. Fortunatley, it was a very easy and inexpensive fix. Less than $45 for all bushings and less than two hours to remove, clean and re-install.

I just realized that in this first picture, I show the bottom connector for the sway bar. It appears that the steering arm above the sway bar link is part of that same bar, but it is not. You cannot see the top end of the sway bar link, but it looks just like the bottom connector.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Dale, do you have independent front suspension?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Yes he does and his set-up looks different than mine or Dale J's. Maybe that is the reason. Good call Jim.

[Orren Zook]

It looks like it would be a two piece bushing, similar to the replaceable shock absorber bushing. Does it have a 1" or smaller hole? If so there are several bushing materials used, maybe one would offer better service life.

[win42]

It looks like it would be a two piece bushing, similar to the replaceable shock absorber bushing. Does it have a 1" or smaller hole? If so there are several bushing materials used, maybe one would offer better service life.

I would guess Urethane bushings would be a good replacement for longer wear.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I have no idea of the engineering requirements, but I had the urethane bushings in the stabilisators on my coach. The shocks have rubber bushings.

The urethane bushings literally pounded themselves out of existance in a few hundred miles. It is because of the speed with which the bushings failed and were pulverized into pieces which fell out that causes me to very carefully examine them whenever I am under the coach.

[dale farley]

When I called Prevost to order the bushings, they told me there were two choices: rubber and neopreme. They said most use the neopreme because they come in two pieces where the rubber comes as a one-piece. I got the impression the neopreme/urethane costs a little more and were considered to be the best option, but I am not sure they will outlast the rubber. As Jon said, they seemed to have pounded theirselves apart. If these don't last very long, I may try the rubber ones next time.