7tea1

Please help me with these questions.

1) I need to replace my rear spring bolts/bushings. What are the advantages/disadvantages to using stock rubber or poly?
2) I also need to replace my front sway bar bushing and bolt/bushings. Same questions—poly or rubber.
3) What is a decent shock absorber that wont break the bank. The car is street driven only.
4) I do not have a rear sway bar. What advantage is there to adding one? Are they hard to install?


Thank you for any info! I do appreciate it!
Gary

lbell101

I don't really know the advantages of poly. To me the poly would have to be MUCH MUCH better than rubber to overcome that irritating squeek squeek I hear everytime I'm driving through town from the poly bushings. I'm going back to rubber and staying there.

flynhi

Poly reduce compliance at the expense of ride quality. If you replacewith poly, you will experience a slight improvement in cornering quality over new rubber. Previous poly bushings squeaked a lot. Newer units are treated to stop the squeaking.
Rear stabar will improve cornering somewhat but it's probably not needed for a street Vette. If you install one, start with a small one.
With steel springs, there are many decent shocks that will work well. I had good luck with Monore Sensatracks at a reasonable price.
Call VBP and talk to Robin about these topics.

Chuck Harmon

I went with poly bushing and have been very happy. If you don't have the ones impregnated with lube, I read about a guy that drilled them out and installed a zirk fitting to each bushing. I thought what a great idea. Simple, cheap, and would be effective!

Dick Guldstrand stongly discourages using a rear sway bar, even on racing C3's. I trust his judgement in such matters.

Bilstein Sports are a very good shock for a C3. Close to $100 each. If too expensive, get good brand name heavy duty shocks for about $25 per shock. If you only drive on the street with the base suspension, the extra advantages of the bilstein might not be noticed by you, so why pay extra for what you won't appreciate.

Chuck

mrvette

I"m happyenough with the KYB's I got through VBP some 6-7 years ago...
they work, may be better out there, but for 400 bux, mearly twice what I paid for parts in the Rack/Pinion installation...well,..thanks but I"ll take the rack/pinion setup anyday...... :D :D

GENE :cool:

V8yunkie

For the parts you want to replace, poly is definitely the better choice: It just lasts longer and is more rigid (esp. applies for rear leaf spring). Squeaking is a problem when replacing A-Arm bushings with poly (although there are solutions for this symptom).

A rear swaybar might improve cornering, but also it will increase the car's tendency to oversteer, i.e. if you take a curve too fast, your cars rear end willl sooner break out than without a swaybar. Believe it or not, but the Chevy-engineers knew what they were doing when they decided to put the sway bar standard on big-block cars ONLY (with the heavy engine at the front, the car is too understeering - therefore they helped with the rear sway-bar). So your car will be more dangerous if you are not careful!

Same applies for the shocks: Shocks and springs are designed to work in a designed combination, i.e. if you have stock springs front and back, go for stock shocks as well. Believe me, you will be fine with them (and your purse, too).

If you want to improve over stock, then you must do the COMPLETE job and choose a proven and tested combinaten, e.g. a package from VB or else. But springs and shocks must match together!

BTW: Development of a chassis takes weeks for engineers that do nothing else than jsut that. One like us should not immagine to improve a chassis as easy as just dumping in some expensive, nicely advertised shocks with good sounding brand name like Koni (admit it guys: Who of those who have adjustable Koni's did ever readjust them after first installation?) or Monroe on it.

If you would have had the chance to get a ride with the Chevy test engineers in a 70's vette with a stock (and 100% OK) chassis, you would be amazed what one can do with it! It's also the driver who makes a difference.


[Modified by V8yunkie, 10:29 AM 9/9/2002]

Fevre

One thing I am thinking of is using poly on the hard to replace bushing, ie arms arms, then use rubber on the one's easy to replace.

jerryjfunk

Bushings: Go with Poly. Last longer, provide slightly better handling, and wont' squeak as long as you apply the lube.

Shocks: If you don't want to spend the money for the Bilsteins, which I didn't, KYB is a good choice. If you have a fiberglass monospring, get KYB GR-2 shocks.

Sway bar: I don't know. I might get a small one later on.

:chevy

Jerry

flynhi

v8yunkie covers the points very well.
I can testify that C3s with too much rear stabar will oversteer and spin easily as I have posted numerous times.
GM intentionally designed in some understeer for street Vettes to keep inexperienced drivers out of trouble. Gymkana suspension option did include a rear stabar for small blocks.
Some components we have access to now just weren't available in Zora's days - such as poly and fiberglass springs. We also have 30 years of track experience to develop new products such as Smart Struts.
The salient point is that suspensiolns are systems - all components must be considered together. Just randomly replacing components will result in disappointment at best and dangerous driving at worst.

KJL

I put a 1 1/8" dia sway on the front and a small 5/8" sway on the back. The car handles great. Rear bar is very easy to put on. You stock front sway probably is 7/8" diameter. If you want to try a rear bar I suggest you beef up the front bar. Like others have said, you need to make sure your combo is balanced. As far as rubber vs poly, I had poly on my sway end links and springs but switched back to rubber to take the edge off the ride and it did help. Those bushings are easily replaced. Also, I believe my 72 and your 71 have solid body mounts instead of rubber, this adds to the harder ride.

7tea1

Thanks everyone for the good advice. I think I'll stick with stock shocks since my springs are stock (newer replacement items, but stock strenght).
As far as the poly, I might go that way for the sway bar ends and bushings.