Hello everyone. This is my first post to this forum, because I am a newish ower of a 1984 with 50k miles. One of the projects I want to tackle this Spring is replacing all the rubber bushings in the suspension. I'm a novice car repair guy but eager to learn. Alternators, water pumps and brake jobs are the extent of my experience. One of the reasons I bought the C4 was to give me something to tinker and learn on.
My question is: can a novice car guy expect to be able to complete this task in his garage? Or would I be getting into something I shouldn't? I have the shop manuals and dont care how long it will take. I just want to be realistic about my abilities.

 

I replaced all of my bushings by drilling and/or pressing them out with a c clamp. Must be carefull you don't drill the aluminum. Here are a couple pics, and I would try to do as many as possible then do an alignment.
I did 2 alignments by the time I was done. Some like the sway bar bushings(Large ones not the side ones) were fine so I left them.


Sometimes you have to take it apart to see the wear, Good Luck and use a new bit.
Also these work great for the front, once again the large ones under were fine

 

Congrats on the new ride. I'm going to do the same later this year, so keep us posted on the work. I did the rear sway bar bushings last month and it took much longer than I expected.

 

You can't buy new rubber OE-style bushings anymore. So you'll have choices of regular urethane, Super Pro urethane, Del A Lum (front control arms), or rod end links (rear links only AFAIK). In front, any of the options will work well. In the rear, I do not recommend regular urethane. The rear trailing arms and camber rods have to swing in two different planes, but regular urethane is designed only for movement in one plane (around the pivot bolt axis. Therefore, urethane bushings will add bind (rising wheel rate) to the rear suspension. the stock rubber bushings allowed little resistance to that second plane of motion, so they added very little bind. For the rear suspension bushing replacements, rod ends allow multi-plane movement with zero bind, and it looks like the Super Pro bushings are at least closer to rubber that regular urethane in minimizing bind.

If this car is going to remain a street car only (i.e. no racing of any kind), I'd probably get the complete Super Pro kit. If you plan on autocrossing or tracking the car, then I'd consider Del A Lum for front control arms and rod ends (like Banski) in back, with rod ends also for the swaybar end links.

With any of these options, I think removing the old rubber from the shells is likely to be the hardest part. Anyone can do that with a few tools, but it's just a serious PITA. In the rear suspension, there are 12 of these to remove. Rod-end replacement links have a major advantage in that one doesn't have to mess with removing those 12 bushings!

 

This is all true. I replaced all of the rear bushings with urethane on my autocross car, and it made the suspension very tight and it bound up.
I made all new dogbone,camber, and toe rods from hex aluminum and used rod ends with teflon bearing liners.
works great and suspension travels like it should.

If you still want to use urethane bushings, I'll sell you my dogbone and camber rods with the bushings already installed.

 

I found this three part how-to helpful when paired with the factory manual. It's not really very difficult to do the job if you have the right tools and a little patience. I 100% recommend either renting or buying a ball joint press to get the sleeves and bushings out quickly and with minimal risk of damage to new or old parts. Also, you'll need a shop press to get the upper control arm disassembled. Most alignment shops can do this for a small fee. Good luck and enjoy the vastly improved ride.

https://tech.corvettecentral.com/201...sion-overview/

 

I replaced all the bushings in my 84 last year. I did the job with a bench vise with one exception, I took the both front upper control arms to my local Chevrolet dealer and they let me use their hydraulic press to install the shaft and bushings. I removed the old bushings with the vise at home. This worked great for that particular part.

The original bushings were so rotten I was able to push them out easily after drilling about four places around the original bushings. I used sockets to facilitate pressing out the old rotten bushings. Be sure if you use poly bushings to purchase some extra grease for these bushings and lube the heck out of them on installation. I think a 4 oz tube was around $12.00 shipped.

I just drive the car on the street so the poly bushings have not been a problem for me. It made the car so much tighter than it was on its rotten old bushing I could not believe it was the same car.

I did this job on jack stands in my garage so I believe you can get the job done. Good luck with your repair.

 

I replaced some of mine in my 93 not as easy as one might think its not rocket science but have to take your time and not get pissed and bust stuff up like with a ( BIG HAMMER ) LOL.. It would help to invest in a bench vice make some of the work a little easer can do with out but a little easier .. I would go on YouTube and check out the bushing replacement stuff you can get idea on what's involved in do the job and trust me they make it look easy its not that easy .. If you don't mind working , its work to do it . After replacing the bushings my 93 drove different ,taking awhile to get used to how it drives .. Its different can't put my finger on it but different for sure not better or worse just different .. Go for it ..

 

Thank you everyone for the replies. It's very helpful. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

Hi
At 50k miles they should be fine, i replaced my bushes at 170k and only found the strut rod bushes worn.
The Poly bushes need plenty of the grease which is supplied, however that wears out over time and they squeak and need to be removed and greased again.
It is a lot of work to do it, you need a large bench vice a drill and some large sockets to help push out the old ones and in the new.
I used a drill to drill small holes through the rubber to be able to push them out, it was a bastard of a job.

I regretted it afterwards due to the noises and affected stiffness a bit more, i ended up putting Banski trailing arms and strut rods to smooth out the rear suspension.
there is no binding with the Heim joints.

I suggest driving the car until you are over 100k then think about bushes, poly bushes are best used for race tracks.
They don't have rubber bushes available for our c4's

 

Super Pro from your country is now manufacturing bushings for C4's that are in between OEM rubber and poly. The Super Pro bushings are 1 piece and compliant enough to be pushed through the suspension components using a vice. They should not cause the bind that poly does because of their compliance.

 

I'm not an expert but assumed the life of a bushing was dependent on miles and age. Mine is low miles, but it's an 84. I can't imagine the rubber bushings are still good.

 

read this thread

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...uspension.html

 

so here's a question, I have brand new set poly bushings for my build ('96). After reading some of these suspension threads (especially the poly bushings need to be re-greased), I just want to install and be done with it. I'm wondering if I should sell the poly set and buy these superpros?

Thoughts?

P.S. - sorry about the double post, but I wanted to make sure everyone in the 2 threads see my question

 

Hello,

I am also interested in replacing all the suspension bushings on my 91 Corvette. I definitely don't want a stiff ride. The Superpros are supposed to better than the normal polyurethane bushings. Anybody with experience with these bushings. I would consider going with stock rubbers but they are no longer available. Thanks

 

Remove the parts (with old bushings) one by one, and take them to a shop (with the new bushings).

they will have a press to do the work

 

You don't need a press to install the Super Pro bushings. You can push them in with a vise. Shops will charge too much money for doing this. If a person really wants to push them in and out with a press, Harbor Freight has one available for less than a shop would charge

https://www.harborfreight.com/6-ton-...ress-1666.html

and if you really wanted to step up with the money saved by not going to a shop

https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ton...ess-32879.html

 

I have the 12 ton in orange.. I got it in a yard sale for 40 bux... looks almost brand new. I haven't used it yet, but I will when I do my front bushings.