sleepingcougar

in order to drop the from subframe, the upper control arms will be removed from frame, shocks too, which may throw the alignment away (maybe a little bit)

JackDidley

I just dropped one control arm and shock and I put the shims back where they came from. No alignment needed.

StayinStock

The subframe and control arms all have a very small degree of play in them. Even if you reassemble everything perfect the alignment likely will need some work. The chances of getting it perfect though are pretty slim. Good rule of thumb is anytime you touch anything suspension related its best to get an alignment.

Dreamer2

Upper control arm are direct bolt in with no play. I put washers back the way I found them and that's it.

StayinStock

Doesn't matter if the subframe shifts a cm to the right or back, its still gonna throw everything off. My point being if you drop the subframe you probably wanna get an alignment. You certainly don't have too, but your tires might pay the price in a few 100 miles.

JackDidley

This is not bad advice but it has been several thousand miles and my tires look fine. I know, maybe I just got lucky.

MyBlackC6Vert

Where are you located(State)and what shop?

1Hotrodz

Does that include an alignment also?
(I should have read the whole thread)

Mike98SilVert

This sockets provided the necessary amount of room. I agree with StayinStock however I did not have it aligned and 7000 miles later there are no alignment issues.I always poly wrap my fenders in addition to the fender covers. Can't be too safe.

Mike98SilVert

My stock balancer on top and the Summit Billet balancer on the bottom, On the stock balancer you can see that the rubber was dried out and coming forward.

Vet

Just chiming in, my bone stock C6 needed a new balancer at a mere 27k miles. My car has never been raced or abused. Part just failed.

At about 20k miles, I noticed the balancer / pulley wobbling a bit, but not bad. I made sure the bolt wasn't loose, it wasn't. Figured it was just tolerances. Over time it seemed to be wobbling more and more. At 27k it finally started looking pretty bad and causing the belt to yield a faint oscillating squeal noise.

I took it over to a local mechanic that is very familiar with LS2s and he immediately said the balancer was shot and needed replacement. I had his shop do the work, they did an excellent job, got the car back running and handling perfectly, with a nice, new non-wobbling balancer.

I can't find the receipt right now, but if memory serves me correctly, it was about $1600 parts / labor / tax. Even if this is considered expensive, I don't mind because the shop is top-notch and they treat me really well, entirely trustworthy in all regards, it's worth it to me.

But yeah, kinda sucks that the balancer failed on it's own in a mere 27k easy miles. Though it was over 15 years old, I suppose time is a factor when rubber parts are involved.

joeking

I don't have the car any longer however I purchased a new C6 in 2005 and had it until June 2023. I had a local shop that does great work replace the balancer and they installed a good aftermarket HB. It cost $1400.00 and they aligned the car as well. The car had 72,000 miles on it when the HB failed. It started making squeaking noises and really got bad after about 50 miles however I was able to drive it to the shop for repair. The shop repaired it in two days and that was the only major problem I had with my C6. It is about a 7 or 8 hour job too. These harmonic balancers are not only related to Corvettes because they go bad on the same LS pickups, vans, sedans and all sorts of engines.

qwazipsycho

Just FYI, the only thing a mfg is required to recall is safety items. They will almost never initiate a recall for a part that fails early. Unless it failing will likely cause injury. I've heard of thousands of HB's failing but not one of them hurt someone. Seatbelts, airbags, and fuel leaks. That's about it.

tektrans

It's not only the mileage but the age of the rubber as well. 15+ year old rubber not the same imo. My '07 had a slight wobble at 11,000 miles-I had it replaced when it went in for the supercharger, Think it was just under $1400 if I remember correctly.