Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 1:51 am
Time to spill. I got the genuines from IPTOC. He was great to deal with. Also, I have no doubt whatsoever that they're genuine parts.
Here's my report. This all applies to the driver's side (since both kinds of passenger mount were fine). The bush fit snug against the rack itself, where the superpro's did not (superpro's were too narrow for the rack itself). However, the crevasse in the middle for the retaining bracket was too wide! Or, my retaining bracket too narrow (on a sidenote, the superpro's sat flush with the retaining bracket).
This leads me to believe that, internationally speaking, there were the following variants with the driver's side mount. The bushes available are as follows:
-Wider steering rack crevasse, with a wider retaining bracket to match (IPTOC Isuzu NOS)
-Narrower steering rack crevasse, with a narrower retaining bracket (Superpro Australian replacement bushes)
However my car had the wider steering rack crevasse, and narrower retaining bracket. Whether this was a variant too, or if my car's just retarded/mismatched, I don't know. What I do know, is that Gemini bits don't interchange, and I'm buggered if I knew where to get anything else.
So, I used the (wider) OEM rubber, which sat flush with the rack itself, and cut and shut the retaining bracket to be wider, thus sitting firmly inside the recess in the bush itself, and eliminating excessive rack play. I can post pictures, it looks a bit of a butchery, but I got a ton of heat in it and I have no doubt of its strength. I'd have loved to do something like this and use nolathane, but this will have to do. When the time comes, in years' time, I'll probably just cut/lathe something up out of polyurethane.
Here's my report. This all applies to the driver's side (since both kinds of passenger mount were fine). The bush fit snug against the rack itself, where the superpro's did not (superpro's were too narrow for the rack itself). However, the crevasse in the middle for the retaining bracket was too wide! Or, my retaining bracket too narrow (on a sidenote, the superpro's sat flush with the retaining bracket).
This leads me to believe that, internationally speaking, there were the following variants with the driver's side mount. The bushes available are as follows:
-Wider steering rack crevasse, with a wider retaining bracket to match (IPTOC Isuzu NOS)
-Narrower steering rack crevasse, with a narrower retaining bracket (Superpro Australian replacement bushes)
However my car had the wider steering rack crevasse, and narrower retaining bracket. Whether this was a variant too, or if my car's just retarded/mismatched, I don't know. What I do know, is that Gemini bits don't interchange, and I'm buggered if I knew where to get anything else.
So, I used the (wider) OEM rubber, which sat flush with the rack itself, and cut and shut the retaining bracket to be wider, thus sitting firmly inside the recess in the bush itself, and eliminating excessive rack play. I can post pictures, it looks a bit of a butchery, but I got a ton of heat in it and I have no doubt of its strength. I'd have loved to do something like this and use nolathane, but this will have to do. When the time comes, in years' time, I'll probably just cut/lathe something up out of polyurethane.