DriveV8Faster

Looking into getting rubber bushings made up locally since only polyurethane can be found nowadays. Where would be the best place the find exact sizes/specs on these(what originally came on the c4's)?

I think there are the 84-88 and 89-96 specs if I remember correctly. Need info for both styles. Any help would be highly appreciated.

DriveV8Faster

Bump in case anyone can point me in the right direction

hcbph

You don't mention what bushings you're planning on having made up so it's a little harder to guess what you're looking for. It may be useful to also mention the year of your car.

I got rid of most of the rears on mine when I put on the Banski suspension kit so it's no longer an issue for me in these areas. In my case it got rid of the poly or rubber bushings with heim joints so it's more solid than loose.

Just a comment.

DriveV8Faster

I meant all the bushings. Guess I was hoping for a shot in the dark that some database exists for this kinda info.

Anyone know the exact grade of rubber at least?

hcbph

I suppose you could buy a whole set of poly bushings and use them as a pattern to make rubber ones.

Klondike

You could do that, but the cost of machining just a couple of rubber ones would probably pay for a whole set of poly bushings, if you could find a source and the right durometer rated rubber.

Most people that have had bad luck with poly bushings have installed them with regular petroleum grease. Petroleum grease dissolves polyurethane and they destroy themselves in less than a year. You MUST use synthetic grease on them to keep them pliable and squeak free.

Tcheairs38655

I've got a VBS front and rear suspension system with a composite leaf spring front and rear on my 66 Vintage racer car. I'm no longer interested in the track stuff and would like a softer ride as the VBS system is beating my 73 yr old as. to death. Anyone gone through this and switched to a coil over system? Since my upper A arms are original I guess I could put the front end back stock for less than the cost of a custom coil over system, but I'm looking for other ideas about this. There is no shock which is going to soften the ride of this front leaf spring system. Thanks for ideas and input.

1Hotrodz

Before you start this wild goose chase you need to know the durometer rating of the rubber that the factory specified. Basically it's the density of the rubber used to make the bushings. Also, the bushings are molded not machined.

MatthewMiller

So the original posts in this thread are almost two years old. But yeah, we can't machine rubber bushings, and we can't really give accurate dimensions of the OE bushings because they are bigger than the holes they are stuffed into. I just removed some OE upper A-arm bushings, but they are deformed by the removal and probably not a good way to measure. To the OP, nowadays I'd suggest replacing bushings with the SuperPro brand of urethane. They appear to be a much softer durometer material than normal poly, and so would be closer to a factory ride quality.


You've posted in the C4 section, whereas I think you'd get a lot better answers in the C2 section. Since your car came stock with front coil springs, I would assume you'll need to go back to OE coil fitments to find softer front springs. If your only goal is to get back to a stock ride quality, I don't know why you'd consider anything else. Going back to stock is the easy button solution. That said, I think you'll be surprised how little front spring rate really contributes to ride harshness, especially in a Corvette where the occupants sit much closer to the rear axle than the front. IME, damping rates are easily the #1 factor in ride harshness, and especially the rear dampers. So you might try just switching to softer shocks and see if that works for you. I have no idea what shocks are available for a C2, but in the C4 world Konis and Ridetechs set toward the soft end of their adjustment range seem to provide the least harsh ride quality. Like I said, you might be surprised.