I just got my first Vette (87)

I am wondering what are the differences in the suspension for the various years.

Wilwood offers front brakes for the 88-96. What is different with the 84-87 front spindle/suspension and the 88-96?

I have heard the rear suspension is narrower in the 84-87 than the 88-96.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There are several differences, I won't personally be able to name them all, though. A few are:

-86 ABS became standard
-84-87 use single piston calipers, 88-96 use dual piston
-caliper mounts are also different between two styles
-rear suspension is wider on 88-96 due to spindles/hubs, but the batwings and diffs are same dimensions
-front springs are same, rear are different between 84-87, 88-96
-wheel offsets are different

A link with some parts size differences:

http://www.idavette.net/hib/c4/sustunch.pdf

Matthew

Yea, they really redid the chassis in 1988/89. The changes were a result of lessons learned in racing.

You can get many upgrades for the suspension. Vette Brakes & Products has a lot of options.

Just whatever you do, the kidney pounding Z51 of 1984 is NOT a goal... on the street, you need supple... this way, it will maintain contact with the pavement.

Front and rear brakes and suspension were redone in 88. In front, everything changed, front control arms, spring, shocks, knuckles.. In back, about the only suspension part that's the same is the halfshaft and spring.

There's little to no aftermarket support for the 84-87 chassis, and the places that do have stuff are sometimes hard to find without asking.

Yes your front and rear are basically narrower and that's why you have wheels with less offset. Oh yeah, that's the other bad news, very little wheel selection without running a 1" wheel adapter. There's only 2 wheels off the top of my head that are 17" that fit and don't look like ass (C4ZR1 replica and Torq Thrust). There's a few more new choices for 18" (C6/Z06/ZR1/Spyder replica wheels).

For brakes, many upgrade the fronts to 13" C5 brakes using an adapter bracket. Anything else beyond that will take some creativity. I made some Wilwoods fit on mine, but unless you realllly need them, I don't see how you can justify the cost.

Thanks for the replys.

Maybe I should have waited for an 88 but the price on the 87 was too good to pass up.

We are looking into making this a race only car with the intention of running on the salt at Bonneville.

When we are done there won't be much left stock in the drive train or suspension.

Just trying to live out a childhood dream.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound discouraging. The parts are out there, there's just less choices. If you've got the budget to build a race-only car it won't be an issue.

Most guys seem to want to build up their dream car out of a beat up 85 Corvette and $2K in cash and end up pissing money away on bling parts that don't increase performance.

The C5 brake upgrade is simple and probably enough for most racers. The bigger rotors will get you more heat capacity and more fade resistance.

I just put in a heim joint rear suspension kit from Banski, he's a vendor on here. The stock rear end isn't very compliant and tends to loose traction easily on rough surfaces.

Keeping it cool might become an issue. It is on mine at least. There's options for that as well.

Are you running the auto or 4+3?

There's plenty of ingenuity here and very few things that haven't been done to these cars, so ask away before you reinvent any wheels.

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See, that's where I'm so much different than most guys. I pissed away $20K on an '89.

Congrats on getting a Vette!

We'll get you were you want to be.

Welcome to the forum

I will be running an automatic.

For the rear I will be developing a solid axel rear end. This is to help with suspension tunability and gear swaps.

For the front I am looking into coils overs.

For power we are thinking about swapping in a LS series motor. I have seen several LS7's for sale. I figure we need to make about 800 hp.

I hadn't thought about cooling issues. I had figured I would need a bigger radiator.

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Haha...is that what you tell your wife, or what you tell yourself to sleep at night?

SS - Do you have a shop or will you be doing the work yourself? I'm interested in following this project as it comes along.

Matthew

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Take a look at the Neverlift kit

http://www.rodandracecraft.com/products_corvettec4.htm

http://www.myphotosonline.biz/albums/ ... Project%2FRear+suspension

I have a small shop and would do the work my self with the help of some friends.

I have been in the performance business for about 15 years. I have never taken on a project like this but I am looking forward to the challenge

I have looked at the NeveLift kit a little. He uses a 10 bolt. I am looking at using either a 12 bolt or 9-inch. I am also trying to make a kit that would be legal for NHRA Stock Eliminator (to be legal if would need to be the 12 bolt). Part of the goal is to develop a package that would not require any modification to the stock mounting points. This would allow the car to be returned to the stock suspension with no problems.

Not being real familar with the Vette suspension is requiring me to learn quite a bit but that is part of the fun.

www.azzatochips.com

He lives about 1 hour or so from me. I personally crawled under his C4 Corvette with Ford 9" rear and looked at it for about 10 minutes and it is a sweet setup. Full bolt in kit, no trans crossmember or anything, still uses the stock C-beam setup. When I'm ready I will for sure shop around more but from what I saw under his car I think I'll end up going with one. He will do a Ford 9" or a GM 12, which ever you prefer.

Where does the back of Jesse's c-beam bolt to? I presume it's not to the diff...

It didn't hook to the diff if I remember correctly. I think there was another A frame type of bar that went out to like where the stock dogbones or whatever they are called mount. I can't remember exactly how that was setup, but I remember thinking it would be a very solid setup. On his website there are some pictures but none of them show exactly how the C-beam hooks up in the rear.

Cool. Plus supporting it back there won't require as much strength as would fabbing a trans mount at the trans. Which also sucks because there's nothing there to attach to without hacking the floorpan up.

I've seen Neverlifts trans mount crossmember

It's not as hard to install as you would think.