1996 LT-4, 145K miles. Dailey driver with rough roads in the DFW metroplex. Getting ready to start on the suspension of my car.
Rear suspension- what parts to get for rear? Banski or OEM. The rear tires are wearing on the inside. I need to replace the camber rods.
Front- Ball joints upper and lower, tie rods?
The care darts a little back and forth. Corvette central has heim joint tie rod ends. Any good?
Looking for ideas to get the suspension in good condition. I am replacing the worn shocks with bilstein.

New Bilstein shocks are a good start and might cure most of the problems. It does sound like new bushings all around on the rear followed by a quality alignment is in order. As far as the ball joints and tie rod ends there is no way to tell without a hands on inspection.

I agree with Andy especially on the bushings and shocks.

Banski? Well, yea if you want to spend the money. Guys who installed the kit like it a lot. But if you're not going to put the car on the track there may be other things to spend the money on. Add up the costs stock vs heim.

The rear tire wear is a camber problem, an alignment will fix it (with all the new parts).

And as Andy said, a hands on inspection. The BIG things you need to check at this mileage are the wheel bearings.
Get the car up on stands. Grab the front tire at 12 & 6 o'clock and move it to check for wheel bearing play. Then grab it at 9 & 3 to check for play in the tierods.
And, put a pry bar under the tire and pull up to check for play n the ball joints.

"The car darts a little back and forth"
That can be caused by different things, 1. wheel bearings, 2,loose tierod ends or 3. alignment (not enough toe in).

CC's heim joints - all I see in the catalog is the bumpsteer kit with heim joints, not really necessary for the street.

It all depends on what you really want to accomplish Bill.
Just getting it back to a good street driver - stock parts are fine. But there can be some handling improvements that don't cost boatloads.

If you have a dial indicator, there's a method for checking wheel bearings in the FSM, I can look it up.

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Well I certainly hope you'll choose the Banski products, but being the proprietor of Banski MotorSports I'm likely a little biased.

Just know that we have lots of parts in stock and if there is anything I can help you with just post up here or feel free to email me.

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Yep.

Ball joints are rather easy to check on the C4... it's a case of are the lowers bad? Then replace them all.

check the lower ball joint and the joints grease nipple. Can you put a grease gun on the nipple? If not, that means the nipple has receded up into the lower control arm. Once it is flush, you really need to replace!!!!

As for wheel bearings, they are noted for 80k mile failures, I would bet that if they are OEM original, they are toast.

Same with the rubber bushings. Even more so if you are in the LA Basin! The ground level Ozone will eat the rubber to bits.

I would also consider new ujoints... I have new wheel bearings and unjoints ready to go in. Just need to get the ass end of the car up in the air!

For the rear I have to give a recommendation for Banski. I have the trailing arms and camber rods on my car. It isn't a track car, but I cross several RR tracks on the way to town (5 to be exact). Three of them are at high speeds. I am not bounced as much since the spring and shocks are able to react much better.

For the front what tire size are you running. Chevy did decrease the tire width in the front with the complaint of the car darting. Still be sure to check all components.

Bearings were replaced 2 years ago on all 4 corners. I am running 275/40/r17 on all 4 corners. Just looking to update the suspension since its worn with lots of miles. Which bushings should I check?

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For the front Chevy changed the size to a 255/45/r17 to improve drivability. It usually feels like you are on grooved pavement with wider tires up front.

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You might be surprised to find the bushings still in good shape. The rear dogbone and camber bushings are easiest to see and also easiest to replace. The batwing bushings rarely need to be replaced.

What is your budget? That will help determine a lot. As far as ball joints, stick with Moog or another high quality manufacturer.

Matthew

My budget is 2k, this includes ujoints, ball joints, tie rods, shocks. I will be doing the installation but will send out for alignment.

Corvette recylcing has all 4 front control arms with bushings and ball joints installed (NOS) for $400, which might be a good deal for you.

was thinking of doing my front suspension bushings and ball joints as well this spring as i also need to rebuild rack.are you going to use urathane? I did the rear last year with all new urathane. really feels good and tight back there. as for darting increase in caster angle will ussually fix .

I am going to use poly. trying to tighten up the suspension. The roads are hard in the DFW metroplex.

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Then you'll feel them even more with poly! It will transfer the shock of the pavement more than rubber bushings. It will more than likely respond better, but understand ride quality may suffer slightly.

The corvette recycling setup is a pretty good deal considering ball joints alone are around $70 a piece. It's no hassle doing it that way and you'll get new (although NOS) bushings.

As far as shocks, KYB is the budget version, Bilsteins are better and were what was put on by the factory. I haven't priced them lately but I think they were in the $350 range for all four.

Matthew

PS - Lou, good to see you back around!

I cannot reinforce how lovely the Banski kit is on the street. It allows the suspension to move fully and freely and does not transmit noise into the car.

Amazing.

Rear poly is a really bad idea... and since I hate typing stuff twice, read the attached PDF.

Attach file:

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CE Banski Article Compressed.pdf Size: 493.24 KB; Hits: 114

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I couldn't agree more!! I only purchased the trailing arms from Banski. When installing them I was able to understand the links and ordered the rest. My wife reads when she rides with me.

Ok, Banski it is. I will do a writeup of the install since it will be a first for me for suspension. Got the bilsteins in so that will be installed next weekend. Thanks for the pdf file Bogus.

you say'n my write up wasn't good enough???

I will be curious what you learn during the install. Each one is a little different!

I love the way it rides now. All I want next is coil overs and redo the front end. Bushings in the front are not as bad a in the rear.