GTP_MuNkYs Suspension Upgrade Thread *Update Pg 13, New struts and sleeves*

[19Cutlass94]

When I was working on my car, I first put on a RSTB ( with stock suspension ) and noticed a HUGE difference ( mind you this is all on a car with NO rear sway bar ) then When I lowered the car, I put on BMR tubular trailing arms and the ADDCO sway bar. Once again another HUGE improvment in handling. I dont think youll notice the trailing arms as much as the lateral links. This I still have yet to do, but will only do it if needed. But you should notice a decent improvment over what you have now.

[xtremerevolution]

When I was working on my car, I first put on a RSTB ( with stock suspension ) and noticed a HUGE difference ( mind you this is all on a car with NO rear sway bar ) then When I lowered the car, I put on BMR tubular trailing arms and the ADDCO sway bar. Once again another HUGE improvment in handling. I dont think youll notice the trailing arms as much as the lateral links. This I still have yet to do, but will only do it if needed. But you should notice a decent improvment over what you have now.

 

So I would imagine that putting in a RSTB now would make a HUGE difference when considering that I have the car lowered plus the addco rear sway bar.

 

I'll do the lateral links if I get a chance some time in the future, although it looks like it will take me quite a while to do them. For now I think the RSTB will do to top off my suspension upgrades. After that I'll probably just start saving up for that L67.

[CSI_MuNkY]

After my suspension is done the next BIG mod is up for debate. It will either be paint, or engine. Paint I want to go to a darker metallic red, engine I don't know if I want to OBD2 swap and a turbo on the LQ1 or go to an L67 with the Cartuning turbo kit, either way, whatever I do will be turbo charged...

 

However in the mean time there are some less expensive mods to come...

- New sub box / trunk set up

- Sound deadener under the carpet

- FWI (later this month)

 

Jamie

[CanadianRegal]

Just a question.. what does FWI and the other ones you guys use mean??

[Bake82]

Just a question.. what does FWI and the other ones you guys use mean??

 

 

Nigel!

 

FWi=Fender Well intake!!

[CSI_MuNkY]

So heres an update from hell!

 

I'm at my parents house, work will start as soon as I can get the car running again! On the 2 hour drive to my parents place, 45 minutes from my destination the car just shuts off and will not start! WTF!! It cranks over but doesn't fire up... so a $125 tow bill later, I'm home. I should just pull a Loudcut and sell the damn thing when I'm done this work!

 

Going to try and figure out the problem tomorrow, if we can't figure it out it will be going to the shop Monday morning and suspension work will start whenever I get it back.

 

This sucks!

 

Jamie

[GOT2B GM]

check that connection for the fuel pump that we talked about

[CanadianRegal]

Thanks Kyle (whacks forehead). That really sucks Jamie, hope it is just the fuel pump or something easy like that.

[CSI_MuNkY]

OK, so despite the fuse issue we started suspension work today, the front end will be completely apart early tomorrow morning. Then we need to rent a spring compressor to get the assemblies apart, and then we can start modifying them. Once the front is done we will decide if we have time to get the rears done based on when the appointment for the fuse issue is (Tuesday next week)

 

I've decided that I am not going to paint the underside of the car at this point. This whole fuse thing buggers up my time line and I don't have the kind of time that would be required to clean it up underneath. If I find any bad spots I will wire wheel them and hit them with some Tremclad or something, but over all there is too much road debris and oil & grease caked on to be worrying about it in depth now.

 

Here is a list of parts, if anyone wants them they can PM me an offer, once all the work is done I will likely put up a thread in the FS section

 

Front springs

rear monoleaf

stock trailing arms

stock lateral links

stock rear sway bar & bushings

 

 

No pictures of the work as of yet, but you all can pop off a front tire and see what I've worked with, lol.

Tomorrow I also have to hunt down a spanner wrench, this could be a pain in the ass, I don't know why Held doesn't supply you with one.

 

I lucked out, I have a temporary mode of transportation while my car is off the road, my fathers 04 Silverado! I love it!!

 

Jamie

[CanadianRegal]

Nice ride, i roll around in 07/08 Silverados all day at work hehehe...

[CSI_MuNkY]

Sorry about the lack of updates. With the time frame I have to work with its been all work and no play. Meaning no spare time to come post.

Work has been going great up until today with very few road blocks. More on todays issue later...

 

We started with the front end, because I have the appointment for the fuel pump next week we decided it would be smartest to tackle one end at a time rather than doing the entire car in one go. The last thing I wanted was to be half way through the front and back on Tuesday.

 

The front end was easier to do than I had feared its a pretty easy conversion once you get going with it.

 

The only glitch I had with the front end was the kit I got from P-S-T.com. The kit included ball joints and outer tie rod ends, those were great, but it also included 4 control arm bushings, when we got the arms off we quickly realized that PST had sent me 4 forward mounting bushings. The rearward mounting bushing is about 1/4" smaller. Rather than dispute the ordeal with PST I said screw it, went to NAPA and ordered the right bushings, additional cost of $30, no big deal really.

Here are a few pics from the front end job...

 

What was in the car to start

 

Here are the parts that have to be cut off the strut assembly to make way for the threaded sleeve;

 

After 3.5 hours of grinding I have 2 of these (the first one took 2.5 hours, learning curve, once I had it figured out the 2nd one only took me an hour to do)

 

A dash of tremclad and a coil over kit later you have these

 

And here they are installed...

 

I forgot to get pics of how I fastened the white cups to the mounting "hat" up top, I will get these pics tomorrow.

The threaded tube was basically glued in place, as per Lee's instructions. I will try to remember to get pics of this when I assemble the rears in the next couple days, they will be glued the same way.

 

Today was rear deconstruction day.

All went smoothly till the end. Currently the mono leaf has been pulled, stock sway bar is out, and both struts are out, along with the spindles.

The sub frame is still in the car, it will be coming down first thing in the morning. The lateral links remain attached to it for now. The stock trailing arms are still attached to the body. Everything is soaking in this stuff my father got a free sample of, anyone that has ever had a seized nut or bolt really has to look into this stuff!

 

Now, the hitch we ran into today... All was going great till I went to pull the bolts out of the left strut mount. I didn't even use the impact gun, the with a typical socket wrench I snapped both heads off the bolts. We cleaned up after that happened. Tomorrow we are going to try and thread a nut on them either from the top or bottom and weld it in place, then pull them out the rest of the way. We have the remainder of each bolt soaking in the Fluid Film right now, and the torches are ready to go.

 

Well thats all for now, I gotta get to bed so I can get up nice and early and get back to work. I don't have any assistants tomorrow, dads at work and my brother has court. (being charged for owning a pitbull, nothing major)

 

Jamie

[GOT2B GM]

coming along nice Jamie, but what isolates the bottom of the threaded sleeve from the strut housing?

 

On a side note, Fluid Film smells funny, and you can buy it at TSC Stores.

[CSI_MuNkY]

but what isolates the bottom of the threaded sleeve from the strut housing?

 

Thats the part I'm skeptical about, it just sits on top of the part that the hub attaches to, I will be keeping an eye on the threaded sleeve, if it starts to do anything funny I will be ordering a longer one and coming up with something to isolate it better, I thought about welding a ledge for it to sit on.

 

Jamie

[CSI_MuNkY]

Before I get all dirty and can't touch the computer for the next 10 hours...

 

Here is how I attached that white cup to the hat,

I drilled pilot holes through both the cup and the hat, then used 2 self tapping screws to fasten it together. The rubber piece that holds the strut in place has 2 grooves, one facing forward the other facing backward, I was able to plan it so that the screws went into these grooves rather than drilling into the rubber. All these screws have to do is keep the cup from falling if weight is taken off the spring, but with the strut completely unloaded it doesn't pull the spring out of the cup.

 

Like Matt was asking about, here is how the front sleeve sits on the strut housing, I'm kinda worried about a point load on there, but will be keeping a very close eye on it.

 

Here is how it sits on the rear struts, much better.

 

Just for fun, here is how my car sits right now,

See what I mean by low ceilings there Matt? Thats with the garage door open, if I close it I have about 1/2" to spare between the open hood and the ceiling.

 

Well, back out to the garage... lots to do.

 

Jamie

 

 

[gpchris]

front adjustable coilovers?? awsome!

[Euro]

wow that's coming along nice!!!! Nice Nova too!

[CSI_MuNkY]

The nova is dads toy, well one of them...

The nova hasn't moved under its own power in, ummm, 12 years I think. He also has a 77 Chevy Vega, which he takes to shows and all that until the nova is finished, then the 2 will likely switch rolls. He told me the other day that the nova should be running by the end of the year, but I have my doubts.

Heres the vega

 

Jamie

[Euro]

Nice.

[19Cutlass94]

Looks good so far.... besides the seating of the adjuster sleeve up front...

[CSI_MuNkY]

I've e-mailed Lee in regards to those front sleeves, we'll see what he has to say about it.

 

Today was a pretty productive day, considering I was on my own all day.

 

I started the day by dropping the sub frame and lateral links out of the car

Then I took the lateral links off it and went nuts. I got most of the rust off by wailing on it with a BFH, after that I used a couple different wire wheels to clean it up.

Finally I painted it with tremclad Rust paint

 

Then I moved onto the arms & bushings, they are now done and ready to be bolted in and greased.

 

Here is that strut mount bolt I mentioned in a previous post. We never got around to giving it a go today

 

Hopefully with a little help and luck we can get them out tomorrow.

[97loudcut]

Wow that is really nice looking.

[CSI_MuNkY]

Rear coil overs are installed, sorry no pics at this time, tomorrow though, I promise! However here is a pic of how I glued the threaded sleeves in place.

I used a silicone adhesive which said it was good for metal to metal applications. The fronts don't move at all.

After these beads were applied I lowered the threaded sleeve onto the strut body in a twisting motion so to evenly and thoroughly distribute the silicone inside the tube. Then of course I used a rag to clean up any extra.

 

The G-max sway bar (which we have determined to be identical to the Addco bar) is not going in right.

First the outer mounts didn't fit worth a crap. They were too tight on the bushing and yet they had to be squished together even more to fit onto the studs from the strut. We got that problem solved only to run into 2 more, after that we called it a day in hopes someone here might be able to offer a solution.

 

Problem 1

When the mount is lined up to the frame the mount wants to sit right where this lip is, and its really close to a brake line. Has anyone else had this issue? Heres a pic where you can see the lip in question, its to the left of the pic, you can see a bit of black grease on the edge of the lip where the mount wants to sit.

 

Problem 2

This one isn't a problem till weight is put on the car. My dad thought it was going to be an issue so we jacked up the spindle and held the sway bar in place. You can see how the sway bar is hitting part of the car along with that brake line.

Right in the center of this pic you can see where it wants to come into contact with the red metal. Should we just grind this back flush with the frame rail?

Its worth noting that at this point the car had not yet lifted off the jack stands, so me being under it to take pics was fine.

 

***Edit

Could the sway bar fitment be thrown off because the trailing arms are not yet in? I had to cut the stock ones off and as a result do not have bolts to hold them in until Monday. Going to TRY and find some grade 8 bolts tomorrow, but I doubt I will find any around here on a Sunday.

Jamie

[mediabandit]

well all in all it seems to be coming along pretty good, it will definelty make a huge difference in the handling and the stance. that is the undertaking i will be doing as well this winter when the car is in storage, that way i won't have a time table like you have. well good luck with the rest of it. she is looking good so far.

[19Cutlass94]

I mounted the bar the SAME way that you are. First off that lip, Doesnt matter. Where mines bolted its right on the lip. I just tightened the bolts with a 2' breaker bar. Youll be fine. Just measure where everything needs to be CAREFULLY!!!!

 

Youll also need to re-locate your brake lines. Heres what I did. On the U bolt that goes inside the frame, then leftover threads after the hanger has been bolted up, I mounted that brake line to there on both sides.

 

Also, you WILL want to cut off the excess threads on the middle bolt as it WILL hit the frame.

 

 

On your sway bar, where it wont fit to the struts, what I had to do was take some poly grease, apply that to the bushing. then I had to bend the bracket. I then had to take a hammer to get the bracket on the studs to the point where I could put the nut on and tighten them down. Your bushings will be crushed a little bit, but really they need to be so your bar wont move. Ive been running mine like this for a while and theres NO damage to the bushing at all.

 

Hope this helps!

[Mach 5]

I know that you have a different year and your brake lines are in a different place, but this may help. I made longer brackets for the swaybar mount because the geometry was all off and the bar was hitting stuff. So heres the pics.

 

[attachment deleted by admin] Removed to free up storage space.