Ace77

I'm back at it, now it's a rear-end rebuild and frame refresh.

Here's the left arm out:


Here's the crud that came out of the right side:


Here's the holy grail, a bolt about to be cut:


I got the second arm out last night, and the strut rods are a bit bent, probably from some shoody alignment attempts. Anyway, the cams and bracket are in good shape (or will be after some sandblasting), but i am wondering if there is any alternative to to the solid struts other than the smart struts some of the US vendors have available.

Were there any other cars with adjustable struts that would compatible?

Fevre

Believe Norval made his own and posted a parts list in a thread, might try shooting him an IM.

That looks like a rusty PITA job you got going there.

Chumpzilla

Wow, those arms are in rough shape. I thought my rear suspension was bad when I took it off.

NHvette

The "Smart struts" incorporate a new center bracket ... to make the struts parallel to the half-shafts and reduce camber change during suspension travel.

I have the VBP adjustable strut rods - notably cheaper than the smart struts.
They basically are the adjustable rods without the 'smart' bracket.
They have poly end bushings that bolt right into the stock location.

You could always make some, as suggested by Norval - but he uses the solid
joints. They would need spacing to fit in the stock locations. Also, the solid
joints can get dirt in them and wear out more quickly (so I've read).

If/when you go with adjustable rods, I would suggest tightening the lock
nut down very hard. Either that - and/or use a thread locking compound.
Mine - and others I have heard - have had the nut work loose and start
losing adjustment.

Good luck. My 75 rear suspension looks like that ... didn't even try to get it
out. Luckily the 70 chassis I bought let me pull the TAs with a few taps of a
hammer. Be careful trying to get the shockmounts off. I cut my strut rods away,
since the inner sleeve of the bushing fuses to the shock mount.




[Modified by NHvette, 12:01 PM 6/24/2004]

NHvette

Wow - looks like someone installed your rear shocks upside down !!!

gkull

I'm so glad that i live on the "Left Coast" Southwest where nothing ever really rusts.

Fevre

My vette came from Cali and has only minor surface rust, thank God.

Disco_Mike

actually, the shock is right side up. however the whole trailing arm is pictured top side down. look at the pic upside down. everything looks better.

flynhi

The Smart Strut bracket lowers the inboard pivot point of the strut rod. This will decrease camber change through movement. For tuners, it offers a good range of adjustment.
Almost the same effect can be had by lowering the OE bracket with a spacer. See the Vette Improvement Program section on suspensions in the archives.

theandies

That pocket scares me. Have you checked the frame really well for rot? I just pulled my TA's and my pocket has very little rust at all. It looks like your pocket's reinforments are comming apart. It may just be the picture but I'll take a picture of mine to show you what one without much rust looks like and you can make a decision. Ask NHvette about rust and go to his website to see some very scary pictures.

NHvette

Yeah - didn't want to impart too much fear.
General rule of thumb from my experiences:
If it looks decent, there is some good rust between the layers.
If it looks bad, it's way way worse than it looks.

I would say from the pictures, that there is (likely) a fair amount of frame rot down
in the corner. I hope I'm wrong. Be warned: If you pull the body off, you will
be fixing her up for a while. I'm 3 years into it. I should not strive for perfection,
rather strive to drive.

In regards to the shock ... yeah I know the whole sha-bang is upside down.
I've just never seen shocks where the piston comes out the bottom of the body of the shock.
However, I now realize that the top bushing would not fit over the bottom
mount - unless maybe the bushings were swapped, too. Strange.




[Modified by NHvette, 3:10 PM 6/24/2004]

Ace77

Thanks for your concern...I'm a bit worried too.
But it's not as bad as it looks in the picture, upside down or not.

The edges show some rust separation, and the right side is beat up from me trying to leverage the shims out, but otherwise, this area is really not too bad. The dirt mixed in with a spotty paint job probably make it look worse. There are no cracks, and no other bulging in the plates or welds.

One of the first things I had done after buying the car was to have the frame reinforced around the "keyholes". The metal has thinned, but there are no holes where they shouldn't be, and you can't bend it with a hammer (anymore).
I will be POR-15'ing the whole area to clean it up. The arms and struts are going out to a shop for disassembly and refurb (hopefully). I had a he11 of a time even getting the shocks off, the struts would be impossible - there is no way to even pull the cotter pin out of the rust and crud.

Sigforty

That looks like it must have been alot of work to get that out with all the rust. Good luck if you are doing the other side.

Solid LT1

There are some things that make me hapy to say, "I live in California!" Thanks for reminding me of that fact!

DMONSVETTE

Got these from Mid Am. for about $110.00.

theandies

Here's one of my pockets. Only a little surface rust but like you said, clena up and POR15 will do the trick. I was really happy the way mine look.


Good luck.

Frank75

As flynhi said, there's a discussion on this in the VIP articles. I installed an aluminum spacer to lower the mounting bracket and used the heavy duty adjustable struts. I'm no expert but it feels fine to drive and adjusting the rear alignment was very easy. The stock struts were bent (like many) which just shows how fragile they are.

Ganey

See Norval's topic: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=752239
You can also replace the bushings w/ polyurethane from VB&P.
A spacer can be used to lower adj. bracket.

They may have been designed to flex some. Have seen them hold when split completely open to a C at the spindle housing attachment so "fragile" is not a good word. The reason it split open had to do w/ the installation of the urethane bushings w/ an air chisel.


[Modified by Ganey, 8:40 AM 6/25/2004]

Ace77

Well, Solid, these pics should make you jump for joy...

Left:


Right:


Both arms are out now, and I have ordered Norval's strut setup from Coleman Racing (thanks to Ganey for the link, and Norval for the post).

My pockets have reinforcements welded around the outside edges, not sure of they are original or added to strengthen at some time. I will take a pic now, but I won't post until I am done the "after".

What am I doing on the vette this weekend?
I'm gonna get down and dirty! Simple Green and POR-15.