C5Dobie

When I first purchased my Z it was a very low mileage car - 12,600 miles in excellent condition in terms of underhood/paint/interior/wheels - however the car was placed in storage for extended periods of time in a garage by an owner living on the ocean near the cape in MA - as a result the undercarriage/suspension components were all heavily oxidized. Most of the AL bits can be prettied up again w/ some elbow grease and the proper chemicals/cleaning "tools" - I worked on the throttle body/alternator to start with as far as that goes. See original thread here - https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...rts-c5z06.html

The car handled fine, but definitely felt a little "looser" than I would expect for a Z, also exhibited some creaking over speed bumps/inclines/declines @ angles, some rattling over speed bumps/low speed potholes. After throwing the car up on a lift a couple of times & poking around w/ some fellow gearheads & my mechanic I begin identifying what I could replace piece by piece that would have a positive impact as far as being a "performance upgrade" while simultaneously being something I could check off as far as a future maintenance item that would need to be done inevitably anyhow. As much as it pains me - I am taking a pragmatic approach toward modding this car rather than throwing parts at it for the sake of it, or putting all my available "mod money" into go-fast performance parts before some of the more "boring" aspects of modifying/upgrading the car I decided to get the car "tight and right" first.

Last year I replaced the shifter w/ MGW, installed Nitto NT05's, and bilstein sport shocks. B/C of what I described above, I decided to tackle the rest of the suspension - replaced both F/R swaybars (stockers were starting to rust & endlinks were all toast) w/ steinjagers - poly bushings, extreme duty adjustable heim links in front & moog links in the rear, - I also replaced the inner/outer tie rods (moog in the front, OEM in rear) all four corners - finishing it all off w/ a proper alignment. I installed the rear swaybar/bushings/links myself the rest of the work was handled by a shop. The parts in total ran me about $700 shipped, the install/alignment ran $400 - while $1100 seems like alot keep in mind you could spend more than 1/2 that on sways alone.

The end result is my C5Z - which now has $24800 miles on the clock - effectively feels like a "new car" in every aspect of driving, in fact it feels "tighter" than other Z cars I have driven including C6Zs - it turns in more aggressively, handles/absorbs bumps w/o "crashing" - just absorbs them and translates what is going on beneath you w/ good communication. I'm very happy w/ the results - the combo of the new tierods/sways/bilsteins etc. woke the car up and from an aesthetic standpoint dressed it up a bit if you're looking at from under a lift lol!

One concern is that the front Steinjager sway bar seems to be resting right on the front control arms, I can't seem to adjust it in any way that can fix it. I don't "feel" or "hear" any rubbing/issues when driving down the road and cornering, but backing up into my garage w/ the wheel straight going up a slight incline I did hear the front groan/creak from what I assume is that control arm and sway bar making contact. This does concern me & I will be contacting Steinjager - if they don't have a replacement/solution and/or won't take it back I may mark the areas that rub, remove the bar & have a metal shop cut out notches & weld it all up in order to provide the clearance needed while keeping the strength/rigidity of the bar itself.

Will show some before/after pics this evening.

EDIT - pics of all the old suspension parts off the car now attached, new harware to follows

95wht6spd

Wow...lots of words, no pics?

C5Dobie

Added the original old suspension components to the first post, attached you can see all the new Steinjager/moog/OEM harware & poly bushings - note the rubbing - this is only after 40-50 miles.

Again - did not feel/hear anything really when in motion driving down the road, even cornering, but did feel it going up/down inclines/declines very uneven pavement etc. @ slow speeds or backing at full lock

Hope that's enough pics for ya!!!!

I didn't have the time/energy to put it up on ramps/stands to get these front pics when I first posted. I am contacting steinjager today. As you can see there are still threads left on the front adjustable links, but if I were to put them @ the "tightest" setting I imagine it'd really put some torque upward on the bar, pulling it up and away from the bushing and probably creating a gap (I believe another member tried this) - I may still do it in the meantime rather than have it rub. I also imagine putting the links that tight would also result in very eager turn in and an extremely "taut"/firm ride

95wht6spd

See post 49
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ay-bars-3.html

I am surprised how worn the bushings were, and rust. Live near the coast?
Let us know the fix. I wouldn't drive it until corrected.

C5Dobie

Stock bushings are crappy soft rubber, the car was owned previously by a an older gentleman who lived on the water in MA. I bought the car from a Vette dealer but they gave me the original owners contact info. I don't think the salty air had much to do w/ the bushings wearing (the tie rod bushings were dry rotted somewhat the swaybar bushings not as much) and it only has 24,900 miles on it now- I think they are just old junky soft and dry rotted all combined to get them like that.

The bushings in the control arms seem to be in decent shape- more "supple" to the touch and not cracking, may eventually replace those down the road w/ poly as well but that's a big time consuming job.

I called steinjager and emailed them the photos they said the bar must be defective and they're sending me a replacement today. Great customer service, so I can't knock them really yet, they said the fitment would be tight but that some of the earlier manufactured bars were worse and they have since corrected it.

Will advise once I actually receive the replacement.

C5Dobie

Did not receive a replacement bar (yet), but I did go @ it myself and realized two things- 1st sometimes you're better off just doing something yourself if you're particular about it, and it's your car, and 2nd there was nothing off about the bar it seems to have been installed incorrectly and you NEED adjustable endlinks for the steinjager front bar to be installed properly.

I jacked the car up and loosened both endlinks taking them off, I decided to set them to the "max" length setting I was comfortable with, leaving just under a 1/2" of threads locked in place. This gave me an additional 1.5" of length give or take vs. the length of stock links or similar non-adjustable aftermarket replacement.

They bar wouldn't budge, seemed it have been "frozen" in place (pRobably from the friction against the lower control arms) so I opted to put some upward pressure on it from below using a floor jack- that freed it up easily so I could rotate it upward and off the control arm to the correct position that would allow the lengthened heim links to be reinstalled.

No noises, no rubbing, same tight feeling and reduced body roll....although it does not exhibit the same eagerness to turn in as it did when the bar was seated right in the control arms, but that's not the correct way anyhow!!

Will post pics this evening, I will have to spray some black rustoleum or something on the bar to prevent it from rusting in the future where the powder coat was worn off.

darnold

I just sent you a PM. Sorry that I've been away for a while. A lot of family health issues to attend to. Anyway, back in August or Sept I had the muffler job that I did inspected. During the inspection it occurred to me that we could fix this front sway bar issue also simply by adjusting the end links to be longer because it would raise the swaybar up, and in doing so it would move it away from the control arm. Praise the Lord: problem solved, and case closed. In addition to getting rid of the rubbing against the control arm I also picked up mega traction that allowed me to go around corners noticeably faster to boot. I'll try to get some pic's but I can't promise right now as I'm still running around like crazy (mom is finally able to speak again after her stroke and is home from the rehab/nursing facility).
In fact, I just remembered that I still have to upload the audio files from last summer to my thread for the exhuast that I put on. Boy am I behind. LOL, LOL, LOL.