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Hi, I am trying to replace my trailing arms bushings. They are not stock, they are 2" offset but no brand whatsoever on them.
I compared with pics from Van Steel or other vendors (Global West) but I could not find a match.
I have tried rubber bushing, too big. I tried poly bushing from Energy suspension, they will go in but the result is not great.
Here is a few pictures of my trailing arms and it would be great if someone here could tell me if they have already seen these.
You can see they have some kind of a raised lip on both sides.
View of the offset trailing arm. As I took it out from the car, no bushing left. One poly bushing in place The sleeve I took out of the trailing arm compare with the sleeve supplied in the Energy Suspension kit. Not long enough sleeve to insert the washer
How did you remove the bushing that was in it that was worn out.
Normally these bushings are staked in and you have to drill or grind to get the large washers to come off the inner sleeve.
So I am confused .
What do you mean the rubber bushings were too big, HOW??? too wide or to long.
Also your flash from your camera is not providing a clear picture of what you want us to see. so adding another good light source so we can see what you want us to can help greatly.
Measurements also...how wide is the area the bushing needs to go into the the width of the bushing area and length of the original sleeve and so on.
When I removed the arms, the passenger side had no bushing whatsoever, just the sleeve. On the driver side there was pieces of rubber that I was able to remove with my fingers. Certainly no drilling required! No large washers in there.
The rubber bushings are too wide: they are 1.38" wide and the opening is 1.08". Below the part decsirption:
Material Rubber
Length 1.00 in
Length 25.40 MM
Color Black
Inside Diameter 0.630 in
Inside Diameter 16.002 MM
Outside Diameter 1.380 in
Outside Diameter 35.052 MM
Alternate/OEM Part Number(s): 88912798
I have MAJOR concerns due to I have never seen a trailing arm bushing that was just rubber and a sleeve and NO outer washers that were staked to hold it all together in a compressed state..
Due to a trailing arm bushing NOT having outer washers that hold that bushing assembly in a compressed state. There is no way that using the shims for the alignment are going to work due to NOT having the outer steel washers in a staked position...you would fight trying to get the shims in good enough and compress the rubber (or whatever) to allow for the toe-in to be adjusted and HOLD... which makes this not right....or at least in my opinion....not right or how I have seen these bushings for well over 30+ years.
If you cannot find anything...then you might need to have parts made. And if you want to...call around and or look at the off-set trailing arms and the factory design and look at the bushings and you will see what I mean.
I bet the rubber that was in there crumbled away and disappeared as you drove down the road....must have been fun times holding your lane!
If you can't find proper bushings, I would find some delrin and have some custom bushings made for those. If you get the Delrin and draw up some plans for them, it shouldn't take long to bang those out.
Check out Craigslist for a home machinist to do it inexpensively.
I fully agree with your comments and I am not planning on resintalling the arms in this state.
The car was becoming unsafe to drive, at speed the rear was going its own way.
In fact this is the reason why I stopped using the car in the first place and I am now at the point where I am ready to order new trailing arms with bushings already installed!
I have seen a pair on ebay from Jacob's corvettes and they look just fine.
Are you planning on buying just the trailing arm itself....or...the entire trailing arm assembly with the spindle and all that attaches to it???
Reason being you can service just the trailing arm and NOT have to mess with the spindle... BUT it can be a challenge to do so due to how the rear park brake shoes must be removed and IF the spindle bearing hub, dust shield and a brake caliper mount bracket get stuck on the four studs that hold them all together.
I have one trailing arm on the bench completely disassembled: studs, nuts, braking plate and spindle have been damaged during the process...so I would have to buy a kit to replace everything.
The other one still complete on the car. This is holding me up for finishing the rear suspension before I can put the body back on.
I have read here that setting the wheel bearing is not a simple job. Give the amount of time I have already spent on rebuilding the differential I am enclined to go for the full trailing arm assembly option.
Do you need the big offset? I had my trailing arms rebuilt, and they turned out great! GTR1999 showed me how it could have been even better, so I'll do that next time I have the rotors off. I needed stock cores to get to this point, though, but you have the hubs already.
A lot of money later, the race end of my car is solid, and a blast to drive.
EDIT: I meant to say "rear end", but "race end" works, too.
EDIT 2: I didn't mean to leave DUB out of this, he gave me great advice, too!
I will say this and I am NOT pointing fingers at ANY specific company that offers this. But when you buy a complete trailing arm. GM specs for the bearing run-out is from .001" to .008"
Any person who really KNOWS about this is that you really want it at -0- or .001" run out. So knowing that most companies will sell you what is within GM specs...you might get trailing arms that are within this specification... BUT....in time...that run-out will increase due to the bearings breaking in.....thus it can cause you to now have bearing run -out that is now OUT OF SPEC.
Keep in mind that if you install rotors they need to be indexed for proper run-out also and not just slide them on and ASSUME that they are correct.
Keep in mind that if you buy these trailing arms all ready to go and the rotors are attached that the rotors brand new are 1.250" thick. the minimum that the rotors can be machined down to is 1.230" And discard thickness is 1.215". Reason I am writing this is due to one of my customer chose to use big name company who we all know about for his trailing arms instead of having me do them for him and thus is what came back and what was obviously wrong. So just be aware.
@Van Steel: that could work indeed, do they come with wahers or shall I add some?
@Bikespace: I don't need offset, I am just trying to work with what I have found in the car. If I decide to change both arms I'll go for stock, I have regular size tires and don't plan on track racing the car.
@DUB: do you actually sell those trailing arm assemblies complete with indexed rotors? If that's the case, then I would be interested in doing business with you directly!
NO..I am not really into parts sales like being a major vendor in the industry. I do not have trailing arms sitting around that are ready to go for an install. I rebuild them when I get them in and put them on the car or send them back to the owner. I do the service work and restos and stuff like that due to owning a Corvette shop. SO I buy and sell parts to the customers whose cars are in the shop for repairs... buy not so much into buying and shipping out parts. I am too busy for that.
And shipping me your trailing arms for service and then shipping them back could be REALLY costly in shipping charges and become cost ineffective except for the fact that the set-up will be much more precise. For some people the added cost does not matter...while others it does. On occasion...will get a local Corvette owner who wants me to rebuild the brake calipers on there 1967 for example. and they want the original calipers the car came with to stay with the car for whatever reason....and they want me to do it at their house in their garage so the calipers are not out of their sight... and the costs are staggering versus that of me getting a caliper with correct numbers that has already been rebuilt with stainless steel sleeves and cost MUCH less.
Keep in mind that I along with some other people who do work on these Corvettes such as GTR1999 KNOW that being picky in certain areas is good thing and NOT always follow what the 'book' says.....while even though what is being sold will work for a long time in most scenarios...it depends on IF the person who is buying this stuff pays attention to what they are buying and if it is not correct or they do not like what they are being sold....they let the vendor know and see if the vendor will do anything about it or not. I have heard it so many times from some companies who rebuild stuff and when I get it in...it is within specs..but it could be better if they cared. And when I call and talk with them they say that is in specs and that is the reply that fall back on.. And in some cases they try to sell something that is OBVIOULSY WRONG and still want to dispute it. This is NOT always the case BUT it does occur.
You can buy a run of the mill rebuilt engine or you can have an engine really built. And as you may know the costs are no where near each other. Both are engines that will run...one is more than likely going to out perform the other if that is a concern or not on what the engine is going to be used for.
And what is all this hype about when dealing with the rear wheel bearings and rotor run-out It deals with how the car handles and the effectiveness and reliability of the brake system. The brake calipers are SOLIDLY mounted to the trailing arm so it is common sense to try to make sure your bearings and rotor is as true as possible so it does not effect the pistons and seals in your calipers over time.
Shipping the arms over to you would be the best option indeed.
However I would assume that would cost me close to $1000 in shipping and taxes both way, that's the price of a new arm assembly.
I will think about it and let you know.
Were you commenting to me on this????
IF so...that is what I was referring to is the cost of what it will be by the time the arms and rotors are sent to me and back to you.....and then any parts like bad spindles and so on that are needed.....along with parking brake shoes and kits if you plan on still having a functional park brake.
11-13-2018, 08:37 AM
Trailing arms bushing replacement
