Upper lateral link bushings

[NorthernVTGT]

After a long hiatus, I returned to the garage last weekend for spate of projects on the GT. With 68k on the clock, she has been laid up for several months with a bad CV (torn boot under the turbo).

 

[i drive a Fit back and forth to work now, so the GT is now relieved of daily duty. As the stock suspension dies, I plan to upgrade.]

 

I replaced the right front axle and also went around the car with 4 new rotors and pads. The rust on the cast pieces was significant. The shaft of the flange bolt retaining the ball joint in the knuckle was about 30% eaten away where it sat exposed under the flange slit. I also managed to shear off the lower bolt attaching the left front caliper support to the knuckle--the last bolt to come out (or not).

 

Anyway...while doing the rear brakes I noticed something odd with the outer bushings on the upper lateral links (the arms with the contact points for the bump stops). On the left link, the rubber bushing was exposed on the shaft of the pin. On the right-side link, the rubber bushing was inside the outer barrel of the link (where I would expect it to be).

 

Do I have a problem here? The outer pins over which the outer link ends connect are about 2x the width of the "barrels" themselves. So perhaps some forward-backward sliding is part of the design? Why would I see exposed rubber on one and brown metal on the other? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.