Ridetech Rear Suspension update (installed on my 78 PC)
05-04-2015, 10:13 PM
#1
Race Director
Thread Starter
Ridetech Rear Suspension update (installed on my 78 PC)
So, I've hinted at this here and there over the last few months, but I have finally completed a really necessary project on my car.
I purchased the "rear StrongArm" kit from Ridetech along with a pair of their single adjustable coilovers.
Long story short: I'm thrilled.
Longer story, there were a few snafus along the way, but here's all the details:
* New ridetech arms (includes new differential mount crossmember, trailing arms, strut rods, strut rod bracket)
* New wheel bearings and HD Spindles from Tom's Differential, set up by tracdogg2 (thanks, Mike!!). Mike installed everything onto the Ridetech arms and sent them my way.
* Single adjustable coilover shocks with 325# springs (as configured by default when your order the kit)
I made the switch to 1/2" wheel studs for a little more peace-of-mind at this point as I'm running 18" American Racing TTII wheels.
Day 1
tsw71 and I installed the suspension a few weekends ago and overall, it went fairly well. We took longer than we thought, and one of the caliper to flex-line hoses didn't come off without casualty. So we picked a new one up from the local Corvette store, thankfully.
We started the project about 11am and finished at 1am. Long day. Thanks again, man.
Day 2
I drove the car in and out of the driveway the next morning, and had an issue with a noise that I couldn't figure out. I thought I had isolated it to the heim joints as you could easily rotate one of the shocks around on the joint and make it slap on the brackets.
Some number of days...
After posting a question and video to the Ridetech forum, we managed to figure out that what was ACTUALLY happening was the other shock wasn't rattling because it was bound up on the inlet pipe for the passenger side muffler. Oops!
How do I get the car to the shop? Let's call this Day 9
I looked at a number of different methods to do an alignment. Appointment 1 was to get the exhaust fixed, but immediately after that I had to drive the car to the alignment shop. I hadn't driven the car at all, so I didn't know how it would feel once I got it going more than 2 mph. I spent a lot of time learning how to do at-home alignments, and decided on a method where you run a string from the opposite end of a "straight" tire (in this case, front of left front for adjusting left rear toe, front of right front for adjusting right rear toe). You draw the string from that point to the furthest opposing point (rear of the rear tire you're trying to measure) and determine whether it contacts the front or the rear of the tire first. In this case, if it hits the front, the tire is toed out. If it hits the rear, it's toed in. You're not trying to get this perfect, just close to hitting both at the same time. That should get you to the shop.
I found that the left rear was pretty close to zero toe, and the right rear was really messed up (very toed out). I did one round of shim shuffling using some quick math (measure from centerline of trailing arm mounting bolt to center line of hub, get the ratio of the overall tire radius (half the diameter and determine how much the trailing arm needs to shift laterally to get the toe you want). This got it to the point where the tire looked just a little toed out. Good enough to get me from the exhaust shop to the alignment shop.
So, I set the appointments up on the same day and decided to phone a friend (AAA) for the part of the journey I couldn't safely drive (to fix the exhaust).
Let's get this car drivable
Aside from getting there with a tow truck driver who tried to intimidate traffic with his flatbed (and my baby on the back), the exhaust shop was uneventful. They rerouted the pipes and left me with a TON of clearance.
The drive from the exhaust shop to the alignment shop - also uneventful.
I picked it up the next day. My goal spec was toe in 1/16" on each side. Turns out my eyeball trick had me toed out 1/16" out on each side. Sweet! That's close enough for me. No, I won't align your C3.
So I drove the car home...
...and there was a noise, on right turns.
Diagnose and fix everything except the actual problem
* The exhaust was really close to the strut rod brackets. So I tried really hard to shake it and make it contact - I heard a noise, but couldn't see it contacting. Found out the exhaust hangers were installed loosely, and 1 nut had gone on vacation. Replaced that and the noise (from shaking) went away, but the right-turn noise was still there.
* Visual inspection of the suspension shows no rub marks anywhere. Or tire rub.
* Well, it does vaguely sound like a dry pump. Let's check the powersteering reservoir and see if maybe it's cavitating on right turns. Turned out it was low, but not that low. I accidentally overfilled it and made a beautiful mess. Oops. Vacuumed the overfill out and cleaned off the garage floor.
* Do a wheel shake test. LF is making a clunk. Hmm. Bad bearing causing e-brake bind? Took the caliper off and found that the bearing did make a light scraping noise. Replaced those bearings with new Timkens. Triumphant, take it for a test drive. Nope. Noise still there.
* tsw71 (and my dad, about a week before) said to check the dust shields on the trailing arms. Well, whatever. Fine, let's give that a go. I ran my finger around the left rear rotor between it and the dust shield. There were some tight spots, so I bent the dust shield back by putting weight on it with the heel of my palm. Then took my wife out with me so she could help me isolate the noise. Plan was to drop her off on a corner and drive the car in slaloms to figure out whether it was the front or rear. (Un?)fortunately I couldn't reproduce the noise anymore.
UGH. So much time spent chasing it when it was something I could fix with the car on the ground. Oh well.
Verdict
I've done a few 1-2-3 runs in the car and it plants excellently. The suspension feels a bit more responsive in the back when you bring in the throttle. The ride - I can not believe how much better this car rides with the Ridetech setup. For record, I was going from a 360# monospring with Bilstein Sports and a factory 7/16" sway bar. The car rides better than the C6 Z06 I owned before. At least, that's how I feel right now. Frankly, if you're looking at doing a rear suspension restoration, I'd take a hard look at the ridetech rear setup. It's very much worth it, IMO.
I'm hoping to do the front conversion as well, but time, money and a newborn(well, 4 months old now) will dictate when that happens. I'll certainly let the forum know when I'm done.
Please let me know if you'd like to see any pictures of the setup or have any questions. Happy to help.
Oh, and Ridetech customer support was excellent the whole way through. They are genuine enthusiasts with a genuine interest in the success of their customers. I worked with Darren Schilling on the phone and Brit on the forum and I would almost say that they were more interested in my car hitting the road than I was. Thanks again, guys.
I will make an attempt to post some of the pics I've taken along the way at some point tonight.
I purchased the "rear StrongArm" kit from Ridetech along with a pair of their single adjustable coilovers.
Long story short: I'm thrilled.
Longer story, there were a few snafus along the way, but here's all the details:
* New ridetech arms (includes new differential mount crossmember, trailing arms, strut rods, strut rod bracket)
* New wheel bearings and HD Spindles from Tom's Differential, set up by tracdogg2 (thanks, Mike!!). Mike installed everything onto the Ridetech arms and sent them my way.
* Single adjustable coilover shocks with 325# springs (as configured by default when your order the kit)
I made the switch to 1/2" wheel studs for a little more peace-of-mind at this point as I'm running 18" American Racing TTII wheels.
Day 1
tsw71 and I installed the suspension a few weekends ago and overall, it went fairly well. We took longer than we thought, and one of the caliper to flex-line hoses didn't come off without casualty. So we picked a new one up from the local Corvette store, thankfully.
We started the project about 11am and finished at 1am. Long day. Thanks again, man.
Day 2
I drove the car in and out of the driveway the next morning, and had an issue with a noise that I couldn't figure out. I thought I had isolated it to the heim joints as you could easily rotate one of the shocks around on the joint and make it slap on the brackets.
Some number of days...
After posting a question and video to the Ridetech forum, we managed to figure out that what was ACTUALLY happening was the other shock wasn't rattling because it was bound up on the inlet pipe for the passenger side muffler. Oops!
How do I get the car to the shop? Let's call this Day 9
I looked at a number of different methods to do an alignment. Appointment 1 was to get the exhaust fixed, but immediately after that I had to drive the car to the alignment shop. I hadn't driven the car at all, so I didn't know how it would feel once I got it going more than 2 mph. I spent a lot of time learning how to do at-home alignments, and decided on a method where you run a string from the opposite end of a "straight" tire (in this case, front of left front for adjusting left rear toe, front of right front for adjusting right rear toe). You draw the string from that point to the furthest opposing point (rear of the rear tire you're trying to measure) and determine whether it contacts the front or the rear of the tire first. In this case, if it hits the front, the tire is toed out. If it hits the rear, it's toed in. You're not trying to get this perfect, just close to hitting both at the same time. That should get you to the shop.
I found that the left rear was pretty close to zero toe, and the right rear was really messed up (very toed out). I did one round of shim shuffling using some quick math (measure from centerline of trailing arm mounting bolt to center line of hub, get the ratio of the overall tire radius (half the diameter and determine how much the trailing arm needs to shift laterally to get the toe you want). This got it to the point where the tire looked just a little toed out. Good enough to get me from the exhaust shop to the alignment shop.
So, I set the appointments up on the same day and decided to phone a friend (AAA) for the part of the journey I couldn't safely drive (to fix the exhaust).
Let's get this car drivable
Aside from getting there with a tow truck driver who tried to intimidate traffic with his flatbed (and my baby on the back), the exhaust shop was uneventful. They rerouted the pipes and left me with a TON of clearance.
The drive from the exhaust shop to the alignment shop - also uneventful.
I picked it up the next day. My goal spec was toe in 1/16" on each side. Turns out my eyeball trick had me toed out 1/16" out on each side. Sweet! That's close enough for me. No, I won't align your C3.
So I drove the car home...
...and there was a noise, on right turns.
Diagnose and fix everything except the actual problem
* The exhaust was really close to the strut rod brackets. So I tried really hard to shake it and make it contact - I heard a noise, but couldn't see it contacting. Found out the exhaust hangers were installed loosely, and 1 nut had gone on vacation. Replaced that and the noise (from shaking) went away, but the right-turn noise was still there.
* Visual inspection of the suspension shows no rub marks anywhere. Or tire rub.
* Well, it does vaguely sound like a dry pump. Let's check the powersteering reservoir and see if maybe it's cavitating on right turns. Turned out it was low, but not that low. I accidentally overfilled it and made a beautiful mess. Oops. Vacuumed the overfill out and cleaned off the garage floor.
* Do a wheel shake test. LF is making a clunk. Hmm. Bad bearing causing e-brake bind? Took the caliper off and found that the bearing did make a light scraping noise. Replaced those bearings with new Timkens. Triumphant, take it for a test drive. Nope. Noise still there.
* tsw71 (and my dad, about a week before) said to check the dust shields on the trailing arms. Well, whatever. Fine, let's give that a go. I ran my finger around the left rear rotor between it and the dust shield. There were some tight spots, so I bent the dust shield back by putting weight on it with the heel of my palm. Then took my wife out with me so she could help me isolate the noise. Plan was to drop her off on a corner and drive the car in slaloms to figure out whether it was the front or rear. (Un?)fortunately I couldn't reproduce the noise anymore.
UGH. So much time spent chasing it when it was something I could fix with the car on the ground. Oh well.
Verdict
I've done a few 1-2-3 runs in the car and it plants excellently. The suspension feels a bit more responsive in the back when you bring in the throttle. The ride - I can not believe how much better this car rides with the Ridetech setup. For record, I was going from a 360# monospring with Bilstein Sports and a factory 7/16" sway bar. The car rides better than the C6 Z06 I owned before. At least, that's how I feel right now. Frankly, if you're looking at doing a rear suspension restoration, I'd take a hard look at the ridetech rear setup. It's very much worth it, IMO.
I'm hoping to do the front conversion as well, but time, money and a newborn(well, 4 months old now) will dictate when that happens. I'll certainly let the forum know when I'm done.
Please let me know if you'd like to see any pictures of the setup or have any questions. Happy to help.
Oh, and Ridetech customer support was excellent the whole way through. They are genuine enthusiasts with a genuine interest in the success of their customers. I worked with Darren Schilling on the phone and Brit on the forum and I would almost say that they were more interested in my car hitting the road than I was. Thanks again, guys.
I will make an attempt to post some of the pics I've taken along the way at some point tonight.
Last edited by Shark Racer; 05-04-2015 at 11:50 PM.
05-04-2015, 11:22 PM
#3
Nam Labrat
Member Since: Sep 2013
Location: New Orleans Loo-z-anna
Posts: 33,892
Received 4,173 Likes
on
2,735 Posts
Thanks for the detailed write-up. Make sure the pics are in color...LOL!
05-04-2015, 11:55 PM
#4
Race Director
Thread Starter
Some pictures of the old parts...
These bushings look a bit worn:
Hmmmm...
More old parts:
Of course, it's really not fair to compare bushings that were that shot to a brand new setup. That said, they were quiet and the car still planted really well with them.
These bushings look a bit worn:
Hmmmm...
More old parts:
Of course, it's really not fair to compare bushings that were that shot to a brand new setup. That said, they were quiet and the car still planted really well with them.
05-05-2015, 12:23 AM
#7
Le Mans Master
Member Since: May 2003
Location: Fernandina Beach FL
Posts: 8,480
Received 3,219 Likes
on
1,731 Posts
2023 Restomod of the Year finalist
2020 C3 of the Year Winner - Modified
Great- work and write-up...But we want pics!!!!
The pricing is not that bad- several c-notes more than the Vansteel rear coilovers- but the differential mount crossmember makes the difference worthwhile.
Definitely not out of the ball park for what you get- heck it's just a little bit more than the -cough - cough- sharkbites- and with those you don't get the trailing arms.
I went w/ the Vansteels- front and rear- next time I might have a better option.
Richard
The pricing is not that bad- several c-notes more than the Vansteel rear coilovers- but the differential mount crossmember makes the difference worthwhile.
Definitely not out of the ball park for what you get- heck it's just a little bit more than the -cough - cough- sharkbites- and with those you don't get the trailing arms.
I went w/ the Vansteels- front and rear- next time I might have a better option.
Richard
05-05-2015, 12:58 AM
#8
Race Director
Thread Starter
Here's some pics of the new stuff:
Arm, showing trellis-work:
Showing clearance of wheel with arm (factory 15x8 aluminum, also, see Ridetech branding):
Clearance on driver's side (note how easy it is to adjust rebound):
Passenger side (a LITTLE tight):
String alignment (before):
After:
View from the ground, you can just barely see the kit when the car is back in stock-looking configuration:
It's a shame to hide it, but to some extent I'm trying to keep the car subtle. It looks great with the spare tire dropped, though, and definitely worth showing off if that's what you want.
Some of the business end of the suspension, while the exhaust was being worked on:
Arm, showing trellis-work:
Showing clearance of wheel with arm (factory 15x8 aluminum, also, see Ridetech branding):
Clearance on driver's side (note how easy it is to adjust rebound):
Passenger side (a LITTLE tight):
String alignment (before):
After:
View from the ground, you can just barely see the kit when the car is back in stock-looking configuration:
It's a shame to hide it, but to some extent I'm trying to keep the car subtle. It looks great with the spare tire dropped, though, and definitely worth showing off if that's what you want.
Some of the business end of the suspension, while the exhaust was being worked on:
05-07-2015, 09:32 AM
#10
Beautiful setup! I have a rear sway bar that came with a suspension kit. Embarrassed to say I am not sure which direction is top or bottom. It fits either way. How do I know the best position? PS going on a 73. Help!
05-12-2015, 08:50 AM
#11