I am wondering if anyone who's rebuilt their suspension would recommend using one of the Corvette-specific vendors (including VB&P or Vansteel) as a source for bushings. Or is a product like Energy Suspensions better for any reason? It looks like they offer kits that are available through Jegs or Summit and they may be cheaper.

My plan is to go in and spruce things up and make the suspension more sound and hopefully have it perform better in the process. Near as I can tell, this will involve bushings all around (I've decided on poly), shocks, a new leaf spring, ball joints, and new coils. Can anyone make any recommendations on any of these and where to order them from? My goal is to restore safety to the car without spending a HUGE fortune on it. You can tell me it'll handle like crap without Bilsteins but its still a Corvette, it has to handle SOMEWHAT well...

 

If you go with Poly make sure everything is well greased. They will squeak something fierce if installed dry.

 

 

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Energy suspension is good stuff. The kits VBP and Van Steel supply are good too as long as its not Prothane. I got the Prothane kit this time around and it worked ok, but I had to monkey with some of it and shouldn't have had to.
The Poly is good stuff pretty much no matter what vendor, but the details are where the issues happen, like the TA Bushings and how they fit and flaire, the crossmember bushings and how well they fit.
Just my .02

 

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I would buy Moog or Dana ball joints. Just confirm that they are US made. I used Poly control arm bushings from VBP and would not/will not do it again. Nothing against VBP they are ok, its the material - you have use red loctite on the control arm bolts or they can walk back out. One of mine did - not fun. Fortunately nothing (including me) was damaged. Now a year and a half later the bushings are starting to squeak a little. I also used Poly on my spring bolt cushions. One of the lowers just crumbled and fell apart for no reason. I replaced them with OEM rubber and no problems. There is a reason that GM engineers designed the suspension with rubber and not polyurethane.

If you need to replace the steering coupler (rag joint) use a genuine OEM replacement. They are readily available and not all that expensive when you take into consideration what is depending on it. Do a forum search and you will learn why not to buy cheap aftermarket on this part.

I used KYB shocks on mine. A lot cheaper than Bilstein but they work just fine for the 3,500 miles or so a year I put on the car.

With respect to your comment on the posts on this forum (or any other forum for that matter) it is a public forum. You are going to get all kinds of replies and yes, some are worthless. You are wasting your time complaining about it. I would imagine that there may be 12 year old kids sitting at keyboards somewhere giving advice on how to rebuild an engine or whatever. You just have to separate the wheat from the chaff as best you can.

This is still a great forum.

 

1) Energy suspension makes good bushings, as does VB&P. I've seen both, and they're both good quality. I personally used ES in my car, but I wouldn't hesitate to use either one. Van Steel's bushings may be from VB&P, but I'm not sure.

2) Stay away from Prothane, they have a bad reputation for fit.

3) Torque the control arm shaft bolts properly and use plenty of Loctite. Keep an eye on them - but I'd recommend the same with rubber. Blue Loctite should be sufficient (it's what I used), but I will be monitoring them once the car is on the road. If I see any trouble, I'll switch to the red Loctite.

4) I'd recommend dropping the attitude - especially since the post that you seem to be irritated about made a good point about poly bushings, and the poster in question knows quite a bit about Corvettes.

 

CarQuest also carries MOOG chassis parts in CarQuest-branded boxes. They might not be quite as cheap as some online sources, but it's convenient.

It means that there is more than one person who vouches for that bit of advice. If one person says something, who knows if they're right or not (unless it came from one of a small handful of people who seem to be encyclopedias of automotive repair knowledge) - but if three or more agree on it (or if one of those aforementioned human encyclopedias agrees), then at that point I feel confident that the advice is good.

 

I am a rubber bushing fan and used them on rebuilding the rear suspension. I feel there are more problems with poly, my.02.

 

Good point - the forward rear T/A bushings are one place that poly doesn't work well, as doesn't move well in a 3D arc.

 

Prothane bad! Energy Suspension Good!!

 

Ok I went with poly on another project and they would squeak and I did use the lube I would not use poly again that is my experience.
Excuse me for my laziness

 

Summit had a full Poly kit for $171. I got that kit, installed all the bushings, then decided I wanted to be able to lube them as I wanted to. I went back and drilled all the shells and bushings, cut grooves in the bushings, installed zerks, and away we go. Works great. Even the "not recommended" T/A bushings work very well IMHO. Improved the handling a noticeable amount.

 

Thanks TIM, that's exactly the kit I am NOW looking at going with. I was thinking rubber but I like the durability (especially) of the poly parts and getting all of them in a single kit is also a plus.

BTW, were there any additional parts that you needed to purchase to complete the job? I know I will need longer bolts for the rear spring...probably including poly bushings to match. Any other common parts missing from the kit?

 

I also got Poly motor mounts- and I wasn't happy with the way the rear spring mounts fit so I went with the rubber (stock) ones for now. The Poly rear spring mount bushings came in the kit. I replaced both rear spring bolts, but the original ones were fine.

Whatever you decide to do get the S/S trailing arm bolts and shims. If your car has seen rain the stock T/A bolts may be rusted in the bushings and you'll have to cut them out. I put the S/S bolts in with a heavy coating of anti-seize.

 

If you're looking at the Energy Suspension "Hyperflex" kit, it has everything except the motor mounts (and I don't think it has the sway bar mount bushings, but the link kit is included), including both sizes of strut rod bushings. The rear spring cushions are in the kit. For a full inventory, check the Energy Suspension web site, they have a nice listing of what's included in each of their kits.

I can vouch for the "Hyperflex" kit being a good setup (it's how I bought my bushings), but you might want to buy some extra grease. Summit has it available, as does AutoZone.

 

Batman is correct (I forgot) the sway bar mounts DON'T come with the kit- measure your bars and order them to fit. I ended up with rear mounts that were too small. A proper size drill bit fixed that.

the end bushings for the rear sway bars were a PITA to install. Used lots of bad words, lots of grease, a vise, and a screwdriver to get them in.