fauxrs

Carried over with all the good ideas from this topic http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=581888

>Tire pressure - especially differentials between front and rear
tire pressure is good and within 2-3 lbs corner to corner - I dont have an air compressor here so I matched the pressure in the lowest tire -29psi

>connection at front sway bar
Zwede wins on this one - very loose on the drivers side - incredibly loose on the passenger side - since the outside of the turn in question from the last thread was the passenger side - this might be a winner - kept going though

>rear strut rod lock nuts
checked - still very tight - no problem here

>rear strut bracket to center section bolts
still tight - guess that red threadlocker works

>side yoke and/or bearing play
none detectable - thank god :hurray:

>rear toe
all shims in place - no room for movement of the trailing arm - side to side - since alignment was previously good and there is seemingly no way this could have changed - I moved on

>loose or worn front a-arm bushings
front bushings showing typical wear - slight cracking but no gross splits or obviously missing rubber

>loose a-arm mounting bolts
plenty tight - these arent going anywhere

>loose or missing a-arm shims
all there, but man there are sure a lot of them - has anybody done offset crossbars (is that what they are called) you know the bar that goes through the upper a-arm bushings and bolts to the upper mounts?

Other ideas that came up
>frame cracks
so far as I can tell, there are no cracks in the frame that are apparent - obviously some areas are hard to see and I didnt get the car a mile up in the air but I feel good

>Ride height
[i] the drivers side ride height was about 3/8" lower than the passenger - in the rear - mostly due to my fat butt I am sure, since I have the long adjustment bolts from VB - I readjusted that.

Here's the shocker.......
>Loose half shaft to bearing companion flange bolts!!!!
On the drivers side - three of the four bolts were loose enough that little to no effort to turn them with a wrench was needed - one in fact had backed out 1/4". I pulled all these guys - went to a local vette dealer (who has a large used parts department) and picked up some french locks - reassembled with french locks and blue threadlocker - these boys arent coming back out on their own

Anyway - I took it for a quick spin (no pun intended) around a few cloverleafs and the car feels much better.

As always - my thanks to the collective help of the forum. I coulda done it without you, but - it still fells good to get the ideas from others.

Matt Gruber

half-shafts are an integral part of the suspension.
:smash: reminds me to check those bolts once in a while :seeya

Jay M

When I started removing engine parts to pull the engine I was amazed at how many loose bolts I came across :eek: The left exhaust manifold bolts were all only finger tight! Plus about a dozen other bolts here and there.

I think I'll crawl under the car tonight and check every in the back.

~Jay

Matt Gruber

i'm surprised how many bolts are loose on brand new cars :eek: but the oil filter is ALWAYS real tight :rolleyes:

Paul L

That handling incident turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

gkull

What is the max pressure for your tires? 29 seems awfully low. Mine are a max 44 and they seem to work the best around 36-38 hot

fauxrs

I had to go out and check cause memory said 32 psi, which is very low compared to your 44...I was wrong - 35 psi is the max pressure on these tires. Out of curiosity I checked a few tires in the parking lot, most were in the 32-35 psi range until I found a set of G-force T/A's which had a 44 psi rating.

My buddys 64 BelAir has Radial T/A's and they have a max of 35 as well, my tires are comparable so I feel a little better - in any case - I topped the pressure off yesterday as well. I just lowered them down so they would all match when I went out to test drive it.

norvalwilhelm

loose or missing a-arm shims
all there, but man there are sure a lot of them - has anybody done offset crossbars (is that what they are called) you know the bar that goes through the upper a-arm bushings and bolts to the upper mounts?

Yes TRW sells a offset cross shaft that is move 1/4 inch back from stock to increase caster without shims.
I personally slotted by cross shafts 1/4 inch and have 5 degrees of positive caster with only I shim. I too hated the pile of shims to only get 2 3/4 degrees of positive caster.

Rockn-Roll

What gear did you have it in? I discovered that when I'm cornering like on an onramp my car hugs the corner well in 3rd, but if I have it in 2nd then the torque from the higher revs will break the tires loose.

In other words maybe the nut behind the wheel is loose? :jester

fauxrs

:lolg: :lolg: :lolg: :lolg:
Nope - in 5th gear :steering: :hurray: :party:

mrvette

I had the rear strut mounting flange/bracket come off the differential housing, it was getting looser and looser, untill the final bolt failed, I was on the freeway some years ago when this happened, I knew there was trouble, but tires were good, and no noise, just loose as a goose....I drove it home that way, it was a hell of a drive/fighting the wheel all the way....
when I found what happened, I put locktite, and lock washers on the new bolts....no troubles since, I marked the bolts too, just to be sure when I check....paranoid reigns supreme....
I dunno why they came loose, lucky they didn't break off....but 4 missing bolts, clean as a whistle...

GENE

Double Aught

Doood nailed it on the head with that one! :rofl:


[Modified by sd pacecar, 4:14 PM 6/15/2003]