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After completely disassembling my rear suspension, I not only found a number of bolts that were only finger tight, but also found NO bushing in the Driver's side rear trailing arm! The T-Arm was just flopping around on the bolt! No wonder the car was all over the place when the brakes were applied!
(Keep in mind that I just got the vehicle and that it was a complete "Frame Off" restoration with only a little over 900 miles, but leads me to believe that there may be other areas on the vehicle that need inspection!)
This answers my previous post "L to R Fender lips not even"
The passengers side is nearly as bad. The bushing is well worn indicating that it was not installed properly as well. A good clue was that there were a lot of rubber debris in the slot below the frame socket.
Anyways, I am inclined to just replace the T-Arms with Van Steel single offset trailing arms! I will be sure to get the ones with the Johnny Joints to prevent any future rubber decomposition. According to the rep at Van Steel these should work with the Sharkbite suspension provided I weld on the required brackets.
I bought a complete set of front end rubber bushings on mine a while back from a reputable vendor. After 7 years the upper control arm bushings had completely disintegrated, lower ones looked perfect. You probably got the same lot of Chinese rubber I did.
Looks like poly trailing arm bushings. Mine broke apart in less then two years. Regardless, the shims should have stayed intact if they were held in place with the large cotter pin installed by the factory. Best to rebuild with rubber. lastly, check the pair of bushings holding the rear in place by the snubber. Jerry
Poly should never have been used in that application. Those T/A arms are meant to have some freedom to twist and the rubber bushings allowed that to happen. Poly is less forgiving for such movement and ANY poly would likely be overstressed if pushed during hard handling.
Sporty drivers liked the idea of "more stable" bushings; but that comes with the cost of significantly less bushing life. The quality of the poly bushing material is/was also an issue with off-shore suppliers.
GM designers spec'd [good quality] rubber bushings. That's probably the best way to rebuild them, too. For real road course use, the stock IRS probably needs to be upgraded, anyway (more than just poly bushings).
10-17-2017, 02:12 AM
Found HUGE issue with rear suspension!!!!
