Creative Steel: Front Sway Bar Bushings
01-18-2014, 04:21 PM
#22
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Got it, I'll start looking at the rears
You were reading my mind, one less thing for the customer to source.
A 3/16" drill bit and a 1/4-28 (NF) tap will be required
A 3/16" drill bit and a 1/4-28 (NF) tap will be required
01-18-2014, 04:51 PM
#23
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ens-9-5161r/overview/
I'm not sure why the rear brackets are perceived as being difficult. The CTS-V1 supports the use of universal, flat sway bar brackets there. The front of the car, on the other hand, has stepped mounting holes that make it impossible to use univeral brackets without the use of a standoff. The venerable Hotchkis HSS-2280 kit includes them, or you can buy two standoffs (P/N 16810288) for ~$10 from Hotchkis directly and then just use whichever universal brackets strike your fancy.
If Creative Steel is going to build brackets, in addition to replacement bushings, they could one-up other vendors by using 90-degree Zerk fittings on the front. There's barely any room to get a grease gun in there, with the aluminum hard lines and power steering hoses running right above the sway bar. It might be a little more difficult from a production standpoint--you'd have to clock the Zerk fitting so that it points outwards--but I doubt they'd have a problem with it.
That and a Shore 75D hardness option would help to differentiate this product offering from a veritable sea of competing products. Since these bushings are only there for vibration isolation, it doesn't really make sense to even consider something lower than 95A.
I'm not sure why the rear brackets are perceived as being difficult. The CTS-V1 supports the use of universal, flat sway bar brackets there. The front of the car, on the other hand, has stepped mounting holes that make it impossible to use univeral brackets without the use of a standoff. The venerable Hotchkis HSS-2280 kit includes them, or you can buy two standoffs (P/N 16810288) for ~$10 from Hotchkis directly and then just use whichever universal brackets strike your fancy.
If Creative Steel is going to build brackets, in addition to replacement bushings, they could one-up other vendors by using 90-degree Zerk fittings on the front. There's barely any room to get a grease gun in there, with the aluminum hard lines and power steering hoses running right above the sway bar. It might be a little more difficult from a production standpoint--you'd have to clock the Zerk fitting so that it points outwards--but I doubt they'd have a problem with it.
That and a Shore 75D hardness option would help to differentiate this product offering from a veritable sea of competing products. Since these bushings are only there for vibration isolation, it doesn't really make sense to even consider something lower than 95A.
Last edited by FuzzyLog1c; 01-18-2014 at 05:14 PM.
01-19-2014, 04:03 AM
#24
Sounds like confirmation bias to me. Over the last few years, I've received 200+ PMs discussing sway bar options and end link settings, so it seems to me that around 2/3 of the Cadillac Forums and LS1Tech are running some form of Eibach, Hotchkis, GMPP, or Addco sway bars and brackets.
Granted, the adoption rate of CF/LS1Tech members is probably several times higher than the unwashed masses, but those unwashed masses are not 10,197 strong. Looking at the volume of "new" salvage parts on eBay over the past couple of years makes me think that at least 1/4 of the original production run of V1s has been decommissioned.
Either way, my point is, why hamstring yourself building bushings for one subset of the population when with a moderate amount of additional effort, you could receive orders from the whole?
Granted, the adoption rate of CF/LS1Tech members is probably several times higher than the unwashed masses, but those unwashed masses are not 10,197 strong. Looking at the volume of "new" salvage parts on eBay over the past couple of years makes me think that at least 1/4 of the original production run of V1s has been decommissioned.
Either way, my point is, why hamstring yourself building bushings for one subset of the population when with a moderate amount of additional effort, you could receive orders from the whole?
01-19-2014, 04:06 AM
#25
01-19-2014, 08:54 AM
#26
01-20-2014, 11:06 PM
#27
I used to get many emails about drag racing/ twin disk clutches and if i went on what i got as emails/pm/messages then we would have more drag racers here than most camaro forums. many tire kickers in things, very few actually take a bite.
01-23-2014, 02:50 PM
#33
01-24-2014, 07:58 AM
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01-24-2014, 08:02 AM
#35
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- Jack up front corner of car, put a jack stand under there, and remove wheel
- Remove sway bar bushing bracket
- Peel old rubber bushing off sway bar
- Clean surface of sway bar, slather bushing grease onto sway bar
- Slide poly bushing around sway bar
- Reinstall sway bar bushing bracket
- Reinstall wheel, lower that corner
- Repeat on other side
Or you can jack both sides up together, which might actually be better (since that will put both sides at full droop and thus put less load on the sway bar).
Nope. Particularly if yours are clunking, they're probably not even tight to the sway bar anymore. At the absolute most you might need to stick a flathead screwdriver in at the edge to break them away, but that's not likely.
04-01-2014, 09:18 AM
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04-01-2014, 11:54 AM
#39
