Just had new rear leaf spring bushings and rear strut bushings put in my 69 using the poly energy suspension products in a vette brake parts dual mount mono leaf and smart rod set up and had the car aligned. It was riding fine for about 3 weeks or so and now when I shift the rear kicks out to to the right even when shifting normal. I tool a quick look under the car and everything looked ok. The trailing arm bushings didn’t appear to have been bad and had been replaced by the previous owner a while back but the other ones were shot and in hindsight the TA ones should have been replaced too. The car wasn’t doing this before I had the work and alignment done.

 

Did you replace the "snubber" bushing? (at the front of the differential)

 

nope it looked like it had been done too

 

Take a look at the trailing arm bushings, If the alignment shop didn't torque the bolts, you might have lost some shims. {IF} they reset the toe on the rear. Lot's of shops will do an alignment, but won't touch the rear toe because they might open a can of worms with the shims and bolts being rusted, They tell you they did, but.....

 

thanks I will check it out

 

Pics always helpful

 

Recently I had the same problem.
You need new trailing arm bushings.
The good news is that your 2/3 of the way there.
The bad news is you have to take everything apart again.

 

IN my experience,

if it jumps to the side when you hit a bump its the rear alignment,

if it feels like it slides to the side then its bushings,, I had issues with my strut rod bushings and had to get them replaced and new spacers for them. I had the mount fail for the differential snubber and that cause all sorts of problems behind it. I would check all the bolts in the rear end an make sure they didnt forget to tighten something, and inspect the bushings everywhere back there.

 

double check everything back their as stated. it does sound like you lost a shim though.
a bit off track here when I did this setup on mine the first alignment shop I went to did the factory alignment and the car felt like a wet noodle on the highway. I went to a performance shop that does custom alignments and they set the front and rear for what was a street competition alignment from VBP it worked great for me.

 

Thanks guys

It didn't happen when going over bumps but it is a problem when shifting and the harder the shift the worse it kicked to the right. I looked at the front TA bushing and in addition to the shims that were there before they worked on it, it looks like they jammed something else in there that wasn't a shim. It also looks like the bushing may have cracks and probably were the same defective poly bushings from VBP that were in my spring bushings and strut rods. So they probably need to go too

I had them do the alignment for the VBP street setting all was good for a few weeks until I started shifting harder so I think it is related to the shims and front bushing and something just got knocked out of wack

I will see if i can get in to take a picture

 

Here are some pics

Per original post problem didn’t occur until a few weeks after having Strut rod and leaf spring bushings replaced and car aligned. Rear only kicks out when shifting, Differential bushing looks good, TA bushings are still there but going, suspect problem is shim that came loose. Are the TA arms themselves good for life or do they need to be replaced? They seem solid but do have some wear and surface rust

 

Looks like the poly bushings are gone on one side and broken on the other, the arm will move with the shims in place but they look shifted too. You need to pull the arms replace the bushings and get it aligned all over again. I don't know if you rebuilt the arms but you should check the bearing play as well. If it were mine I would be breaking them both down and rebuilding them.

 

yea I just noticed the one was shot when seeing the picture on my PC instead of the phone

Just took it back to the shop and took the tech for a ride and it really didn't do it with two of us in the car, strange, but it sure did when I was driving it there so I told him to take it out for a ride alone

Didnt do the anything to the TA's yet, but looks like I will be having them done

Do you mean the rear wheel bearings? haven't checked them yet

Man this thing is like a boat $$$

 

anybody else notice that the cotter pins missing g to keep the shims from falling out?

 

69's didn't use the cotter pin, may be late in production but many don't have the hole in the frame as they use 2 hole shims not slotted.

Don't drive the car in that condition, yes you should check the bearings, & condition of the arms.

Rebuilding any old car is expensive. Corvettes even more so with the IRS and the fact everyone now wants to put in engines with 500-900hp and otherwise expect the drivetrain to hold up even though it was designed for 400hp give or take.

 

rooky mistake I thought they did.

 

its actually a late 1968 production 69

the car is at the shop Now and I can’t check bearings myself, previous owner Did brakes calipers, rotors and lines and hopefully did the bearings, if not I will do them when the arms come out,

owner before him did the VBP suspension and there are hardly any miles on it since the guy I bought it off of couldn’t drive it the last few years

I can’t believe how those VBP poly bushings fell apart

 

Believe it, I was telling guys to forget poly in TA's years ago and I wasn't the only one but typically many jump on the band wagon with the lastest upgrade, whether or not they are really needed for the application. If you are driving in competitive events where you basically have a road race car and will maintain it then that's different but for a common street car rubber bushings were and are still the way to go- imo. Now 10+ years later many poly bushings are falling apart, yours is not the exception by any means.

One suggestion is to learn as much as you can about this car, forget what the previous owner said they did- learn about it and check it yourself. I can't tell you how my different units from these cars I repaired and rebuilt that were "done" by a previous owner. Hopefully they were done and done correctly but the due diligence is yours to find out, one way or the other.\

Another note, if a deal sound too good to be true then more then likely it is suspect. Many local shops are very good repairing your 10 year car but when it comes to a 50 year old specialty car are lost- just watch some of the crap Car shows on TV today. I don't know every old car but I do know the old vettes and when I see some of the work on Tv or you tube - buyer beware. Since you are going to check the rear bearings I suggest that is where you should start your homework, unless you have a large bank account.

Good luck to you, once the car is properly setup it can be a daily driver if you want it to be.

 

I noticed that immediately. Whether correct for this car or not, those look like slotted shims. I'd add the cotter pin, since it looks like you already lost a few shims. You may have to drill the holes yourself.

There was a bad batch of poly bushings going around 10-20 years ago. The current production Energy Suspension bushings seem to be doing much better. That said, after a complete suspension rebuild, the ONLY rubber bushings in my 80 are the two trailing arm bushings.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions I planned on doing rubber for the TA based on previous forum user input

but looking at the TAs they look kind or ratty and was thinking about just getting powder coated ones with the bushing installed

how does the cotter pin go in do you drill a hole in the TA and put it through the shim opening into the hole?

t