Has anyone replaced the OEM A-arm bushings with either poly bushings (upper and lower A-arms) or complete spherical bearings (often, just on the lower A-arms)? I know that LG Motorsports, for example, offers both. I'd like to hear some comments regarding their effect on handling and, of course, how noisy they are. Thanks!

 

I have a set of VB&P poly control arm bushing on the way right now along with poly sway bushing and with any luck some steering rack bushings, they just came out (not even added to the site yet) so I think I will be the first with them installed
I searched all over for a set of polys for the C6, VB&P is the first company that seems to have them, I looked on LGs site and didnt see anything for the C6, do you have a link to where you saw them on their site?
I'll let you know once they are on, though I can tell you a bit from previous experience(Ive had polys and spherical on 4 other cars previously) that the small amount of extra road feeling transmitted through polys would be totaly acceptable for anyone that bought their Corvette to be a sports car and not a golf bag carrier, though after feeling the amount of compliance in the stock bushing(seriously rubber band soft!) I think GM erred on the side of the latter.
Your going to want to do upper and lower control arms, keep i mind that energy follows the path of least resistance, thats why making suspension improvments in one area tends to highlight weaknesses in other areas, if you make the lower bushings stiffer it will just make the upper bushings deflect even more. Poly bushings would really wake up this cars handling, if youve driven this car at all hard you probably notice theres a big delay in all your steering inputs till anything actually happens. This lack of feedback makes it very difficult to transition smoothly and with any cofidence, very frustrating, expecially when you know the srpings and struts are firm enough to do their job, but before they can even begin working for you they have to overcome the amount of movment in the bushings, I want a sports car not 2 seat Lexus dammit!!

 

Invisiguard, thanks for your input. It sounds like poly bushings are quite livable. I'm trying to decide if I should replace the A-arm bushings at the same time I install coil-overs. I guess I should, although I don't like the downtime required to replace the OEM bushings.

LGM apparently has a lot of performance parts that are not on their web site. I've requested information from them re suspension setups: they offer "quiet" end links (presumably teflon lined), poly bushings for upper & lower A-arms, spherical bearings for upper & lower A-arms, and their well-known coil-overs. My current baseline is: LGM coil-overs, Pfadt adjustable sway bars, LGM lower A-arm spherical bearings, and LGM upper A-arm poly bushings. I think I need to add the steering rack bushings to my list!

 

damn that sounds like my kind of setup

let me know how you like it, I might have to try those coil-overs out at some point too, and let me know if you can find steering rack bushings, trying whatever I can to get some more feedback out of our numb steering, widh I had the steering of my STI or Mini in this car BTW if you lower your car an inch or more grab these
http://www.zip-products.com/Zip/prod...F0235EDF446041
BTW, what were they selling their control arm bushing sets for?

 

nice thread guys, please keep it updated or make sure to post links to new ones regarding similar information

 

Hi invisiguard, I had pm'd you before regarding the wheel hop situation. Great thread keep us posted and your feed back upon the poly's. Now just one question in regards to wheelhop. What bushings are replaced in the rear for the elimination of wheel hop?

 

this seems to be the only bushing holding up the tranny and diff,



so Im not surprised that theres wheel hop, most other RWD diffs have lateral arms to provide rotational resistance, like this.



yeah I know our tranny/diff are held to the engine by a rigid tube instead of a flexible driveshaft, but still it would only take a couple degrees of torsional rotation at the trans/diff to become inches worth of hop that single bushing and the control arm bushings really needs all the help they can get!

 

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Thanks for the info..sounds like a plan.

 

Here's some information that I just received from Anthony at LGM:

"The upper control arm poly bushings are $199 for the fronts and $169 for the rears. The spherical bearings I do not have ready to go yet. I think when we do these it is going to have to be a complete new lower control arm with the bearings installed because the sleeves have to be welded in place. With the setup and everything that goes along with them, I am honestly not sure what the price on these is going to be, figure over $1500 for a set of four of them though. Never had them in a street car so, again I am not sure what the ride is going to be like."

It looks like my baseline has just changed to poly bushings for the uppper & lower A-arms!

Here's some additional info from Anthony:

"The quiet end link kit is $299, this includes all four end links, spacers,
bolts, and nuts. The bump steer kits are $199/pair."

I now need to decide whether to use LGM "quiet" end links or the Pfadt end links that come with their adjustable sway bars.

 

This news maybe dated, but here is my 2 cents. I built a Vega with a V8 about 30 years ago and used spherical bearings on all the control arms front and rear. Granted, it did have a tube frame, but the joints made lots of noise when you drove the car. I don't know if this is still the case with the advancements in technology, but you may want to ask the question if you are going to drive the car on the street.

 

VB&P was $350 for all contol arm polys, front/rear/upper/lower, I'll reply when they get in with some pics

 

Invisiguard, did you remove the A-arms from your vehicle and ship them to VB&P? If so, how many days before you got the arms back from them?

 

they only sell the bushings

 

Hey all, I'm not sure what the LG 'quiet' endlinks are, but I can tell you that all of the Pfadt sway bars ship with telflon lined steel endlinks. While I wouldn't necesarily call them 'quiet' the teflon does damp out a bit of noise and it keeps the links from 'clacking' which seems to happen as they twist under load. We ran some plain steel links on our early development sways and they would clack sometimes. The teflon lined units are nice.

-Aaron

 

Do you sell just the endlinks? Will they work with stock sway bars? How much $ ?

 

There might be two more options for stiffer bushings: The C6Z06 is said to have stiffer bushings than the Z51 cars (can anyone confirm this, maybe with part numbers?) and then there are the T1 A-arms with stiffer bushings.

Does anyone have first-hand experience with the T1 A-arms?
Bernd

 

yeah sphericals have come a lng way, hed this on my last track beater, didnt get any clunking for them and even with coil-overs it was actually nicer to drive on the street than my stock STI

 

Yes and Yes.
http://www.pfadtracing.com/products/...&search=&page=
The cost is $179 for the set.

I don't want to talk anyone out of buying anything, but I don't think those offer much of a performance advantage over the factory aluminum ones. The factory ones are also sealed and made to last 100k miles. If you are going to corner balance your car, by all means get adjustable steel endlinks, otherwise put the $179 towards a set of heavier bars or urethane bushings for the Z51 bars. Those will make a real difference in how your car drives.

-Aaron

 

Damn, these bushing are expensive! I'm having trouble finding anyone who wants to remove the OEM busings. The LGM poly bushings come with a steel shell, which makes them easier to install, but they cost $800 for a complete set (uppper & lower, front & rear). Installation is another $700. $1500 total! Just spherical bearings on the lower arms would be $2500; I'm not going there. I may stay with the OEM bushings for now.

 

Im intrested in the steering rack bushings.. that should increase road feel through the steering wheel correct? ( although an aluminum steering wheel is what is really needed) How hard is that one going to be to install though