I’m a non-mechanic who’s received minor road racing instruction and enjoys putting my ‘81 Vette (automatic) through its paces at Lime Rock and other northeastern tracks. The car is slightly warmed over engine/suspension/brake-wise. I want to continue improving the performance while keeping it comfortable for daily street driving. I don’t have deep pockets for this project.

The once nice handling car has 84K miles, and is getting a bit saggy and sloppy in the rear. I’m going to have the factory rear monospring replaced with a slightly stiffer (330lb.) VB&P unit. While the shop is doing this, I’m also going to have them install slightly stiffer front coils (460lb.). I had KYB gas shocks and a rear 5/8” anti-sway bar installed 1.5 years (12K miles) ago. The car has newish 255/15 BF Goodrich radials and a fairly recent, factory setting alignment.

My question to you fine gentlemen is, when the shop is replacing the front and rear springs, what else would you recommend either replacing or looking at? If nothing looks bad, is there anything preventative that should be done while the suspension is disassembled?

What is the range of time I would expect a mechanic to take replacing the springs, and your other suggestions (separately, please)? Will I need another alignment immediately after this work?

Thanks in advance for your responses. Experts like you have saved me a lot of money over my four year Vette ownership.

Sincerest Regards,

Runner

P.S. What’s with the other generation Vetters who fail to return waves? Where I live (25 miles north of NYC), almost no C-5ers return my waves (I’ve stopped trying), and less than half of the C-2 and C-4ers. Of the few solid axles I see, most of the drivers wave. Is this geography (NYC-area snobs), or do you men get similar results?

Are sharks considered the ugly step children of the Corvette family?

 

Suggest you replace OEM rubber suspension bushings with new Poly bushings for front upper and lower control arms, and sway bar, and install new Poly bushings in rear strut rod ends. Also good idea to check rear trailing arm bushings for excessive wear.

 

Definitely do the rear strut bushings. I removed the rear spring
to clean up the area and found out that those bushings were the
worst of the entire set on the car.

Look at the rear differential bushings while you are down there too.
Someone was looking at coilover shocks - anyone remember the results of
this changeout?

 

Other items that would make an improvement that you can feel:
- new tie rod ends
- tighten up the steering box
and
- new HD Idler arm

Before I began, a fellow forum member had me read the VIP (Vette Improvement Project)- a white paper that goes over a lot of ideas that will improve handling and maintain the ride. Some items are quick and cheap but make a big difference. After playing on this forum, I think you've seen that most members would agree that the single best upgrade is a move to 17" wheels/tires. I did a lot of suspension work (new parts, new mounting points, new geometry etc) but it didn't come alive until the new wheels and (especially) tires.

 

A lot depends on the current condition of the car. When I started taking mine apart one thing led to another. I also just finished some additional work. http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=316597

While in there, I would check:

Suspension bushing
Tie Rods
Ball Joints
Calipers
Brake Pads
Brake Lines
Rear Trailing Arm bushings
Differential Mount
Strut Rod Bushings
Shocks
Power Steering Hoses and Control Unit
And check the frame good for rust or cracks