crease-guard

The install for me is more a matter of time than anything else. I keep the car at the track and that's an hour and a half from my house so to be able to pull apart all the CA and what not (barring any stubborn parts) wold probably take me 1-2 days having not done it before.

Jay

travisnd

Been tracking C5s for a decade and have NEVER seen a Pfadt or VB&P poly bushing do that. I have however seen multiple posts on Energy suspension bushings ******** the bed like that. One member put Energy poly couplers on his driveshaft and they failed in short order.

Pfadt Racing

Sounds like an excellent plan Jay. As mentioned by most of the posters above getting the old rubber bushings out typically takes more effort than installing a new bushing into the control arms. The Sphericals are typically even easier to install than poly, just press the old bushing out, clean up the inside bore with an emory cloth and Acetone, install the new bearing with the supplied retaining compound and snap ring... 24 hours later and you're ready to rock!

We don't really want to derail Crease-Gaurds thread here, but we're comparing apples to oranges in that photo. There are certainly situations where poly isn't a fantastic material choice, and in the case of your C4 it certainly was chewing through that poly as shown in the photo. However, for C5/C6 control arms it really is a very good middle ground between soft rubber and a solid spherical for reliable track performance. Our Pfadt Racing poly kit has been installed on literally hundreds of Corvettes and has an excellent field record. I'm sorry poly at that position didn't work out well for your C4, but we do have enough experience to say that our Poly kits do work very well the C5/C6 and are perfect for the home mechanic who doesn't have the time or machinery required to custom machine their own Delrin.

rfn026

I decided to use my durometer to check out the bushings I have around the shop.



Red = Energy Suspension
Black = Vette Brakes
Yellow = Energy Suspension

btw - The Vette Brakes bushings actually fell out of the car onto the track. I think they lost my phone number because they never got back to me. I have to give Energy a lot of credit because they contacted me and created the yellow bushings we see in the above photo.

With a 94 that's getting pretty close to Delrin.

Richard Newton

mph1972

Some great information in this thread. I had poly bushings and the LG Coil overs on my previous ZO6 and didn't know that the RED Energy Suspension was that weak. I have plans in the future to do poly bushings and coil overs again on my 2002 ZO6 and I will make sure I don't get the RED setup.

fatbillybob

Because poly is not delrin. Google the properties. I took the really well made Pfadt poly bushing kit and lathe cut my own delrin bushings using their precision hard parts. The combo works awesome!

froggy47

All poly is not created equal. I just serviced my Pfadt upper/lower fronts and did a video with particular focus on wear. There never was any squeaking, the lube was still good all around, the handling improvement was very significant, and I found one small wear area after 1.5 to 2 years (I forget) of HARD use. I think the wear & service requirements on spherical (yes they are the ultimate "race" choice) are higher than poly. Delrin, I don't know, but delrin has to be custom fitted so far as I know.

Check the video for a real world test on Pfadt poly's.

There is one video for front upper & another for front lower.

It's uploading now (Fri nite) so may not be ready til Sat.

crease-guard

Dateline...Update.

I spent 6 hours yesterday removing the entire suspension off the car to prepare for the upgrades I have and that are coming (I'll post up some pictures once I start the process). Pulling all that off wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Now let's see how long it takes me to get it all back together.

As for the front alignment stud and eccentric I showed at the beginning, the cradle was not damaged (thankfully). Turns out the nut was so loose I could undo it with my fingers and pull the bolt out. When I went to the passenger side, the front lower alignment bolt was also finger tight loose and had a ton of play in it. This would explain why the passenger front tire corded. It was loose enough to move back and forth but not loose enough to move out of the cradle. The driver side was so loose, it moved out of the cradle and probably gave that tire more negative camber and thus didn't cord.

So now I'm in the process of installing Pfadt's spherical bearings in a second set of control arms I bought a while back. I pressed out the bushings last week with a shop press I bought (never pass up a chance to buy a new tool). All that was pretty easy really.

This is the first Pfadt product I've bought and so far I'm very impressed with the quality and service. I emailed them with a couple questions last Friday close to quitting time and immediately got responses.

The spherical bearings are really aircraft quality design and materials. I did the 4 upper control arms last night and the process was ridiculously simple and easy. Can't wait to try them out on the track. I'm so impressed with Pfadt, I am seriously considering their double adjustable coil overs. My suspension guy at the track is a serious Penske guy and is pushing me to get those but I might change my mind.

Jay

travisnd

Pics of pretty orange Pfadt bits ASAP.

Pfadt Racing

Thanks for the great recommendation Jay, and thankfully the car wasn't too chewed up after the alignment eccentric incident. The Spherical Bearing kit really isn't that difficult to install at all once you remove the factory rubber bushings!

We would definitely love to see you out there on a set of our FeatherLight Doubles. Please let me know if you have any more questions there.


The older spherical kits were anodized orange, but the latest housings are actually a pale green color. The anodization we use is specifically to promote bonding between the control arm and the bearing housing it's self. You can see the color in this cut away CAD Rendering.

Tell you the truth, I kinda miss the orange housings.

geerookie

I have a set of the orange ones
1 of 3 of the best modifications ever done to my car

If you like driving a responsive and easily tuned race car you will love this mod!

crease-guard

Man...don't leave me hanging. What are the other 2?

Jay

kentz06

Installed a set of Moton Club Sport double adjustable coil-over shocks on my car in 2008 and put three years on them with great performance. Decided to install the Pfadt Feather Weight double adjustables on my car during it's top to bottom rebuild this spring. I assumed that I would be hard pressed to feel a difference in the handling. I have been plesantly surprised in the improved handling performance (no other suspension changes were made). Corner control feels more precise and throttle steering is easier to feel and control. I guess and old dog can learn new tricks.


Dean

geerookie

........................................ ........................................ ........

geerookie

#2 Installing a well designed cage which stiffened the chassis while providing protection....Thank You Dave I couldn't believe I could feel the difference and this was after I had driven the car for 6 months with spherical bearings already in it.

#3 A good set of adjustable coil-overs.

crease-guard

Cool. Cage is already in the car, coil overs should be here tomorrow.

Then I will swap out the steering rack for a TurnOne rebuilt rack to go with my TurnOne pump and install a Setrab Oil cooler. THEN....hopefully, I'll be set for a while.

Jay

Cobra4B

Any pics of the Pfadt sphericals yet?

crease-guard

I just finished the last control arm last night about 1am and needed to go to bed and work today. I'll be home tomorrow and will snap a few more shots (I took some of the entire process) and will post up a quick "how to".

I've got 2 bearings that need the housing on the CA shaved down a bit to get the snap ring to seat properly. I glued them in before checking so I need to remove the bearning, shave down the housing and glue them back in but I can post up some pics in the mean time.

Jay

Timothy Lottes

Had the same problem with mine, bonded before realizing I needed to shave a control arm boss to fit the snap ring. Only have 2 that need to be fixed. Planning on dealing with this problem at some point when I get closer to finishing up the car.

Will be very interested in hearing the story of the removal method.

geerookie

A bunch of heat but not too much and a press. That green loc-tite is a pain to get loose. Have fun and it stinks so have good ventilation.