Well, I am done!
12-07-2010, 12:29 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Well, I am done!
C5Z just got:
- VB and P Poly bushings in the: CA's, lower shock mounts, sway bar bushings, upper shock mounts
- 8 new ball joints
- T1 front and rear sway bars with adjustable end links
- Pfadt camber kit
- Bilstein Sport Shocks
- New VB and P tie & toe rod end links
I never want to do another bushing project ever again.
It is a large and painful project.
She's in for corner balance & alignment tomorrow.
I am going to follow up with the lessons learned in the next week for anyone that is interested.
- VB and P Poly bushings in the: CA's, lower shock mounts, sway bar bushings, upper shock mounts
- 8 new ball joints
- T1 front and rear sway bars with adjustable end links
- Pfadt camber kit
- Bilstein Sport Shocks
- New VB and P tie & toe rod end links
I never want to do another bushing project ever again.
It is a large and painful project.
She's in for corner balance & alignment tomorrow.
I am going to follow up with the lessons learned in the next week for anyone that is interested.
12-07-2010, 01:35 AM
#2
Le Mans Master
12-07-2010, 03:01 AM
#3
Le Mans Master
Member Since: Dec 2006
Location: Phoenix Arizona
Posts: 7,251
Likes: 0
Received 14 Likes
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C5Z just got:
- VB and P Poly bushings in the: CA's, lower shock mounts, sway bar bushings, upper shock mounts
- 8 new ball joints
- T1 front and rear sway bars with adjustable end links
- Pfadt camber kit
- Bilstein Sport Shocks
- New VB and P tie & toe rod end links
I never want to do another bushing project ever again.
It is a large and painful project.
She's in for corner balance & alignment tomorrow.
I am going to follow up with the lessons learned in the next week for anyone that is interested.
- VB and P Poly bushings in the: CA's, lower shock mounts, sway bar bushings, upper shock mounts
- 8 new ball joints
- T1 front and rear sway bars with adjustable end links
- Pfadt camber kit
- Bilstein Sport Shocks
- New VB and P tie & toe rod end links
I never want to do another bushing project ever again.
It is a large and painful project.
She's in for corner balance & alignment tomorrow.
I am going to follow up with the lessons learned in the next week for anyone that is interested.
fyi- you don't need the camber kit after u put polys in. 2 degrees of camber is plenty!
gets rid of the stupid corvette wiggle!!!!!! 
12-07-2010, 07:15 AM
#5
Team Owner
Member Since: Jun 1999
Location: Miami bound
Posts: 71,447
Likes: 0
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4 Posts
CI 4-5-6-7 Veteran
Best method:
Find an alignment shop that's never done it before and get a quote up front, pull the a-arms and drop them off. They won't be happy when you pick them up.
Find an alignment shop that's never done it before and get a quote up front, pull the a-arms and drop them off. They won't be happy when you pick them up.
12-07-2010, 10:16 AM
#6
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
The only one I had to get pressed out was the rear lower shock bushing.
The hardest part in my mind was:
fitting the new bushings into the car (I had to grind down the inner sleeves slightly in some joints to accommodate the aluminum cradle).
Also the ball joints - lots of lessons learned on that one.
I plan on doing a post project write up (sorry no pics since the wife had the camera the last two weeks) with the tricks and gotcha's in the next few days. My goal is to provide some feedback so that our members can learn from my mistakes or from my education through the process. It should potentially avoid some pretty good frustration and down time.
12-08-2010, 10:19 AM
#7
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Feedback from Alignment / corner balance yesterday.
(using stock Z06 springs).
- Car settled more than I thought it would during the 6 miles two lane road over to the alignment shop.
While the front end was apart in my garage, I noticed the front lifting bolts were seized. I got them freed up and put never seize on the threads, also greased the underside of the bushing where it mates up to the lower control arm.
I set them at approx 10 threads exposed. What I should have done was turn them all away down before the alignment as it is far easier to lower the front end, then raise it.
Also: I am hearing that I should have final torqued the bushings pre-loaded with the weight of the car (I didn't).
- Need more Pfadt shim blocks for the front end.
Because we ran out of #2 notched lower shim blocks, we couldn't get to the target -1 camber on the front. Trying to get to that with more offset on the lower shim blocks results in more needed shims on the top control arm studs - but we ran out of stud length.
So I had to settle right now for -1.8 camber on the front.
- Rear lower control arm camber bolt is a b*tch to get in and out of the car with the pfadt shim blocks (even with unbolting most of the gas tank heat shields). This is with the head of the bolt facing the front of the car. Not sure if it's safe (but suspect not a good practice) to turn the bolt around so that it is facing the rear of the car.
- Overall from memory we ended up with:
FRONT:
-1.8 camber
6.8 caster
0 toe
REAR:
-0.6 camber
0 toe
Ride height:
I'll fill this in tonight
Rake
I'll fill this in tonight.
Corner balanced 50%.
Overall impressions after a 30 mile commute to Seattle in the rain this morning.
- Very tight handling left/right.
- Doesn't dart left/right in a spot on I-5 where there is a 1.5" or so gap in the poured concrete slabs where it used to
- Nice easy smooth controlled drop at a bump on I-5 where the car used to be a little unsettled. Very confidence inspiring. Reminds me of how the E36 M3 suspension performs on this bump (which is saying a lot!).
- Overall 1st impression: Very very nice improvement. As mentioned previously, it was a big project, but I think its going to be worth it.
More to come in the next week with a bigger lessons learned project review.
(using stock Z06 springs).
- Car settled more than I thought it would during the 6 miles two lane road over to the alignment shop.
While the front end was apart in my garage, I noticed the front lifting bolts were seized. I got them freed up and put never seize on the threads, also greased the underside of the bushing where it mates up to the lower control arm.
I set them at approx 10 threads exposed. What I should have done was turn them all away down before the alignment as it is far easier to lower the front end, then raise it.
Also: I am hearing that I should have final torqued the bushings pre-loaded with the weight of the car (I didn't).
- Need more Pfadt shim blocks for the front end.
Because we ran out of #2 notched lower shim blocks, we couldn't get to the target -1 camber on the front. Trying to get to that with more offset on the lower shim blocks results in more needed shims on the top control arm studs - but we ran out of stud length.
So I had to settle right now for -1.8 camber on the front.
- Rear lower control arm camber bolt is a b*tch to get in and out of the car with the pfadt shim blocks (even with unbolting most of the gas tank heat shields). This is with the head of the bolt facing the front of the car. Not sure if it's safe (but suspect not a good practice) to turn the bolt around so that it is facing the rear of the car.
- Overall from memory we ended up with:
FRONT:
-1.8 camber
6.8 caster
0 toe
REAR:
-0.6 camber
0 toe
Ride height:
I'll fill this in tonight
Rake
I'll fill this in tonight.
Corner balanced 50%.
Overall impressions after a 30 mile commute to Seattle in the rain this morning.
- Very tight handling left/right.
- Doesn't dart left/right in a spot on I-5 where there is a 1.5" or so gap in the poured concrete slabs where it used to
- Nice easy smooth controlled drop at a bump on I-5 where the car used to be a little unsettled. Very confidence inspiring. Reminds me of how the E36 M3 suspension performs on this bump (which is saying a lot!).
- Overall 1st impression: Very very nice improvement. As mentioned previously, it was a big project, but I think its going to be worth it.
More to come in the next week with a bigger lessons learned project review.
Last edited by andrewdonald1; 12-08-2010 at 11:46 AM.
12-09-2010, 10:41 PM
#11
Race Director
yep it is a hell of a project for sure, but is worth it the 1st time on the track, using a press makes getting old ones out easy but still a pain to get some of the new ones in could do it alot quicker now after having done 2 complete sets of them on c6z's
12-10-2010, 12:51 AM
#12
Le Mans Master
- Rear lower control arm camber bolt is a b*tch to get in and out of the car with the pfadt shim blocks (even with unbolting most of the gas tank heat shields). This is with the head of the bolt facing the front of the car. Not sure if it's safe (but suspect not a good practice) to turn the bolt around so that it is facing the rear of the car.
- Overall from memory we ended up with:
FRONT:
-1.8 camber
6.8 caster
0 toe
REAR:
-0.6 camber
0 toe
- Overall from memory we ended up with:
FRONT:
-1.8 camber
6.8 caster
0 toe
REAR:
-0.6 camber
0 toe
The lower control arm doesn't care which side the bolt is installed from. Mine are installed from the rear.
12-10-2010, 01:16 AM
#13
Le Mans Master
I worked on a customer's car a couple of weeks ago where a couple of the eccentrics had slipped and caused massive driveablility issues. When I say massive - I mean massive. I could hardly drive it around the block and this guy ran a whole friggin race that way.
Now he'll never have to worry about it slipping again.
