Reviews for Old Man Emu OMESB57 Leaf Spring Bushing Kit for 87-95 Jeep Wrangler YJ

Great customer service

It’s smooth and no squeak, make sure you use grease.

fit perfect, top notch quality

I combined these with OME CS037R rear springs and OME CS014F front springs to replace my original equipment springs and bushings in my 95 Jeep YJ at 200,000 miles. Ride went from internal organ damaging jarring to better than new. They have only been on for a few days and time will tell how they perform and hold up. Quadratec had them at the lowest price and got them to me in 6 days with free shipping (along with the springs.) This was my first time of installing leaf springs and the biggest downside was there are no instructions included and Quadratec help line couldn't provide the answers I needed. If OME had included a few key instructions, installation would have gone much faster. The things I had to discover:

The main original equipment (OE) bushing (in the spring eye that attaches to the frame) is a standard rubber bushing with an outer metal sleeve. The two OE shackle bushings are the same type configurations as these OME bushings (2 halves that press into the eye by hand easily.) The sleeve or spacer in the main bushing is adhered to the rubber and would be tough to separate from the old bushing to reuse whereas the sleeves in the shackle bushings slide out "fairly" easily and could be reused. So the kit has just the 1 sleeve or spacer which is used for the main eye. You are expected to either reuse the sleeves/spacers for the 2 shackle bushings or buy new as I did (ordered Crown 52002553 but on backorder, so ordered OMIX-ADA 18272.01 – all from Quadratec). Note 2 sleeves per shackle so 8 total if you are doing all 4 wheels.

Torque: There is a lot of conflicting information available with VERY strong opinions regarding torque specs. Quadratec couldn’t or wouldn’t provide specs. The factory specs for my 95 YJ are 105 ft-lb for the main bushing and 95 ft-lb for the two shackle bushings. But there is a lot of discussion that the way the polyurethane bushings make your ride so much better is by being able to flex and that this is achieved with about half that much torque. I put mine on with 60 ft-lb at the main and 45 ft-lb at the shackles. I used thread locker and I’ll be checking routinely that they don’t come loose– at least for a while.

Grease: Old Man Emu’s 2002 catalog had some installation instructions (removed from later versions I found) and they said this: “OME Splined Polyurethane Bushings: Install bushing into spring eye and chassis mount ensuring shackle pin slides freely. Remove shackle pin, liberally grease the bushing bore and outer flange with Molybdenum based grease. IMPORTANT: DO NOT GREASE BETWEEN BUSHING AND SPRING EYE. Install shackle insuring free movement between shackle and spring bushing – this is to ensure the shackle will not seize to the spring bushing under heavy usage which can result in spring failure due to bushing bonding to shackle pin. POLYURETHANE BUSHING MAINTENANCE: The polyurethane bushing principle requires the shackle pin to rotate in the bushing which therefore requires regular lubrication. Greasing intervals depend on vehicle operational conditions. Heavy usage (eg. Sand, water, constant corrugations and heavy loads) require more servicing. An obvious sign greasing is urgently required is when the bushing squeaks.”

Note that the OME springs are shipped with the insides of the eyes greased (presumably to prevent rust prior to installation.) Per the instructions from the OME document above, I removed that grease before installing the bushings.

Perfect fit for OME springs

They look great but are overpriced in my opinion. However, stock YJ bushings will not work in the frame mount spring eye so your stuck paying for these

As others have said, these are very high quality bushings. However, it seems pretty cheap to only include one of the three sleeves needed for each spring. Even so, I wouldn't hesitate to buy these again.