Anyone Have any Problems with VBP Adj Poly Strut Rods?
 

Working on the car yesterday and noticed the rear wheels had a noticeable increase of negative camber. After raising the car up. I see pieces of the bushing under the car. I put a steel bar under the drivers wheel and lift and pieces fall out of the rod where it connects under the rear.
Bought and installed about 7 years ago when I went through the TA's, brakes etc.
I thought poly was supposed to last longer than rubber. No oil or anything on them. Called VBP and no warranty or any explanations. Have a nice day! So not sure which direction to go. Replace with another like set, or upgrade to rods with heim end or go back to stock.
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Did VBP offer to sell you new bushings?

I had my car in storage for 3 years. I jacked the car up and every freaking bushing underneath did that same exact thing. VB&P said it was a texas weather thing.. Not f@#K*ng funny. all were bought from them. every freaking bushing. I had to pay to replace them. They advertise better and last longer then rubber BULLS$#T!!!!! your not the only one..:smash: Even the front trailing arm bushing broke. I had to pull every suspension part back off..:smash::smash::smash::smash::smash: :smash::smash::smash::smash::smash::smas h::smash::smash::smash::smash::smash::sm ash::smash::smash:

this was 2 month ago. I took pictures of everything. Funny thing is mine were about 7 years old also..

:eek:I better check on my suspension as well. It's all VB&P:eek:. I'm in California, so no excuses!

No, only solution was to replace the strut rods!!
Glad the rest of my suspension is oem style rubber!!
Not like there was a lot of wear. I've put less than 4,000 miles in 9 years that i have owned the car.

Something is not right here obviously…not all poly bushings are the same..different quality like everything else in life….tires are all round but the rubber in a Michelin is going to be superior to a chinese made tire.

I had poly bushings in my stock strut rods for 20 years and replaced them a few years ago with the Competition adjustable heim joint struts. The poly was perfect in the strut rods but they did squeak…annoying….The Comp Struts are SUPERIOR to all the other struts…no bushings to flex, quiet, really plants the rear suspension with little to no loss in ride quality.

I also have poly upper and lower control arm bushings-perfect. Replaced the front poly sway bar end links last year…30 years old.

All my poly are/were from different vendors, not from VBP….surprised they did not help you out...

Poly bushings will DIE! with age, rubber might rot but, it is a slower process to the failure of Poly parts. They can also fail because if you look at the movement of the suspension, the outer strut rod ends move in a different arc than the inner ends...something has to give! I find the pre 1974 model year strut rods work quite well in street/performance applications, I have even used stock in some autocross applications. They need to make a strut rod with a " Johnnny Joint " style end to allow for the roation of the outer end or you can do like one old guy told me....leave one locking nut off when you run them....NOT ME!:D

Same thing happed to me, went with heim joints instead.....damned trailing arm bushings did the same thing, went back with poly like a fool. They gave me some story about climate too....climate on an impervious material?? I don't think so.... I think they had a batch if cheap Chinese crap, I hope if they did, they learned their lesson. I bought new trailing arm bushing from them because I didn't learn my lesson??? No, I trusted that they were now selling the good stuff and they couldn't simply say they were at one time selling junk.....we'll see. They have been a good company to deal with in the past.
Jim

I've noticed that this has been coming up quite often in the past 4 months or so... lots of people reporting failures and/or unexpected deterioration of poly bushings anywhere and everywhere on the car, but especially on suspension components. So at least you know you're not the only one having this problem.

This is part of the reason I decided to go with stock rubber each time I need to replace bushings.

Are you guys driving enough? I put the VBP rods w/ poly bushings in mine and love them. But I've only had them for about 1 year. The thing I am learning about these C3's is if you don't drive them, they will punish you when you finally do. They need lots of love. (kinda remind you of women in general). I drive mine almost everyday.

Note that squeaking poly is binding poly, which is never a good thing. YMMV, but poly really isn't all that well suited to use for components which inherently move in 3D (i.e., camber struts, TAs). I would highly recommend either upgrading to heim-jointed camber struts (preferably eliminating the eccentrics also) or just sticking with rubber; the latter being sufficient for those more concerned with rumors of additional cabin noise than handling.

I wouldn't trash the rods it ends. You can out new bushings in those. If you go back with poly they slip right in.

If you do decide to replace the bushings with new poly bushings, you might want to contact Prothane Suspension Parts at 888-406-2330 and see if they can supply you with exact replacement bushings in the correct size. They have been supplying polyurethane bushings for high performance applications for a very long time.

Poly bushings are like a lot of things, you get what you pay for and PST bushings are not the cheapest on the market.

Good luck... GUSTO

I got my new poly bushings from Prothane. Thanks Gusto for the tip. I hope they last longer than my VBP bushings. These new ones come with a lifetime warranty. Lifetime = less than 5 years...
Here are a few pics. I am pretty pissed that these basically disentagrated. It's like they were baked in a 1000* F oven, and they just crumble to the touch. Maybe 2000 miles, less than 5 years old.

I have a question: The right and left labels on these adjustable strut rods are a little confusing. I remember because of the geometry that they only seem to fit one way from side to side on my 82. I cannot remember if the knuckles were attached to the rods or not when I bought them. The driver side had the "right" label on the tire side and the "left" label on the diffy side. Before I pulled the strut rod, I noticed that the strut rod knuckle was basically metal on metal on the T/A mount on the back ear. Anyone advise on what to check on re-installation?
This is a weekend bruiser. No racing/auto crossing, etc.
What do you guys think of these pics. Normal... wear...


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Thanks for the follow up.
Are the bushing part # 71202?

After I bought a new set. I called VBP to complain about the struts and the poly on the composite spring. They sent me the pieces for the spring. They will sell you just the poly bushings for the struts. Never admitted any problem with their poly other than the "Florida Heat" is a problem for the poly. Amazing that I have some original rubber on my 72 that has outlasted the 7 year old poly, that is supposed to last longer!! LOL

There should be some alternatives
http://www.summitracing.com/int/sear...MobileSwitchNo

VBP makes a strut with the heim joints and no poly. Cost is almost double.

you've already got the strut, i'd match the threads and swap over to heims, unless they are affected by the "weather" as well. definitely wouldn't be rewarding someone for selling cheap, "weather dependant" polly.
wonder how it holds up in the trailing arms?

"Left" and "Right" on the VBP strut rods just indicate left and right hand threads. You can install them any way you'd like.

Heim-joints are the way to go. There is no impact on ride or noise. There's already a solid connection from the wheel hub to the diff via the half shaft, so using solid strut rods makes no difference for vibrations.

Wow, I'm glad I read this before I went out an purchased those things. I just finished putting rubber bushings back in the entire front end. I feel more comfortable with that decision.

Poly is ok on control arms as they only spin and there's no twist. That said, I use rubber on the lower control arms as I got tired of the squeal. On the upper there are delrin bushings and they are quiet.

Since the temps are heading for 104+ today, again... I figured I would post a few pics. Nothing special. Vette will remain in summer storage until this heat passes...

I replaced the disintegrated VBP bushings with some new Prothane poly bushings. Lifetime warranty... yeah... right.. anyway.. these new bushings had a little more meat to them I assume, as they were very difficult to install. Used a lot of grease. I had a tuff time squeezing them into the inboard side of the strut rod bracket when re-installing with those steel cap reducers on each side. (tracdogg2 said they gotta go back in). The out board side was just as difficult getting them to fit between the spindle ear where the lower shock mount bolt slips thru. The rubber mallet got a good work out with this job.
I am not going to say how long it took me to get these back together, not proud of it and I also had to have some assistance (female) to hold a long pry screw driver and or crowbar to allow the new bushing on the inboard side of the strut rod knuckle with the steel cap reducers to slip into the mounting bracket. (Thx tracdogg2 for the tip to loosen the nut/bracket bolts). Had to re-adjust the camber on pass side. Currently 1-2 degrees of neg camber on both wheels now. Next time, I will go with Heim joints.

I will post a pic (new thread) tip/tool for removing lower rear shock mount bolt.

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I installed Heim joints on my mine 9 years ago. No Problem. I did install Poly ones on a project 77 of mine, hope they work out better than yours did. V B P you need to answer about your product, Right or wrong, you are in this business, Where are you. Gene

VBP only posts ads. They never answer any questions.

:iagree:

replace the rod ends in your VBP strut rods with heim joint rod ends. Speedway or Summit will have what you need at reasonable prices. You will want to get some conical washers and you will have to cut some spacers out of tubing (or you could use a stack of stainless flat washers). I made my own out of catalog parts from Speedway & Summit, still good as new after a few years:
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Why don't you ask them to supply you with the Heim joint ends as a goodwill gesture, or offer to pay for one set and they supply the other.
As an alternative you can go to speedway and get some there....just make sure the VBP stuff is imperial thread first.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Pro-1-...ale,29363.html
Lots of selection there, I just copied one page.....spend some time and select the right ones.

Hemi joints can fail in a spectacular fashion after they reach their end life. Heims are frequently changed out on race cars as part of a proper ongoing maintenance plan. The early (pre 73) strut rods when fitted with a replacement rubber bushing are pretty decent pieces on a street car. I have even won an autocross championship on sticky Hoosier tires running stock early strut rods on my Vette but, I wouldn't try that on the China made replacements being sold today....hunt up a pair of original early GM strut rods and rebuild them unless you want to go through the annual Rod end inspections and replacement intervals.

Yes, heims should be periodically inspected; the more harshly they're abused, the more often. Yes, when one goes it's usually pretty spectacular (BTDT). I would urge those who, like me, prefer them over rubber or poly to avoid cheap rod ends like the plague. As is the case with a helmet, IMHO this is NOT the place to save a couple of bucks, unless that's all your noggin is worth.

Go back to stock rubber. Poly does not work well here.

Vette Brake Products
 

I have been saving my money and was just about to pull the trigger on the VBP Big Daddy suspension/brake kit for my 1981. It has a very nice performing 383 stroker with a built turbo 350 behind it.

The whole stock suspension is just tired. I have the time and means to update it right now, so I was going to take the plunge and order the above kit, but now I am not so sure.

The reason being is that I was doing some background check via this and other forums, and it seems VBP does not have quite the sterling reputation they used to have for their customer service and parts. In particular their polyurethane bushings and lack of customer service after the sale.

I cannot invest 10K for a Ridetech system, any other viable alternatives out there?

Thanks

You should be fine with Poly bushings up front, control arms, tie rods, sway bar etc. But I would go with Rubber or Heim joints on rear strut rods and also rubber on your rear control arm bushings.
I ordered Prothane poly bushings for my strut rods, but will most likely go with rubber or heim NEXT time...

I have seen this many times here Charlotte. But it is not a common issue. I have seen the rear spring bolt urethane cushions crack and split and fall apart...and when I hit them with a hammer.,...they shatter. That is why I do not use nothing but the rubber cushions for the rear spring outer bolts.

Using the heim joint style is obviously the best route to take (my opinion)....unless you want to stick with the rubber...which..as we all know do fail also in time.

DUB