idle

iTrader: (5)

There's so many different types of suspension upgrades... and I have no idea what any of them really do. I mean... generally I have an idea of what a sway bar does (they do come stock, I know) or what a panhard bar does... But is there a page that explains all of this or if I should get any of them or in what order with what other parts? Feel free to enlighten me as I'm totally blind in the vast world of suspension/chassis parts and I have money to blow

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

What kind of driving are you going to be doing with the car? Give me some details and I can definitely help you out.

idle

iTrader: (5)

I don't plan on autocrossing and it's mainly the garage-get-out-on-occasion-and-show-off-on-the-highway-and-in-town car.... know what I mean? The car spends most of her time in the garage underneath a cover but I like the performance when I want it.

BMR Sales2

iTrader: (40)

Do you plan on taking it to the drag strip much? If not than there are couple of things I would definitely do. A good set of sway bars front and rear will really help with the all around handling as well as a set of lowering spring. These two items will help with body roll by lowering the center of gravity and stiffening up the suspension a bit and make the car much more fun to drive around. There are a couple basic things I would do on the rear. I would do an adjustable panhard rod which will allow you to center up the rear end after the car has been lowered. Lower control arms and relocation brackets would also help out quite bit and get rid of wheel hop if you have any and help solidify the rear suspension which will help with overall performance and traction.

idle

iTrader: (5)

I might take it to the strip just to see what it would do in the 1/8 and 60 ft but that's really about it. So what should I consider?

Element

iTrader: (5)

Starting with the nose, going back...

Sway bars act as torsion springs to act against body roll. There's more to picking the correct size, but the general rule is the larger the diameter of the bar, the stiffer it will be and the more it will limit body roll. You typically don't want to do with an overly-stiff bar because you do need some weight transfer in turns (an overly-stiff bar will make you "skate" across the pavement in a hard turn, due to poor weight transfer). Likewise, an undersized bar won't limit body roll enough and you'll wind up losing traction with the tires on the inside of the corner. Stock sway bars are adequate, but a properly-sized set of aftermarket bars can make the car handle much better in turns.

Front control arms basically connect the wheel (mounted on the spindle) to the car. They bolt to the spindle via ball joints, which allow up-and-down and side-to-side movement of the spindle while driving. The stock lower control arm is a monstrously heavy stamped and welded deal; the upper arm is really nothing more than a U-shaped piece of single-wall stamped metal, with no welded reinforcement. Going with aftermarket front control arms allows you to change the bushing type (poly, delrin, rod-end, or roto-joint style) and, in the case of the lower control arm, cut a decent amount of weight off the car. Aftermarket upper control arms are very simple - basically a flat plate connecting two tubes - and quite expensive for what they are. Unless you really need the extra adjustability for camber adjustment, new bushings and ball joints in the stock upper control arms are normally adequate. Bushing selection will come in later.

A strut tower brace goes in the engine bay and connects the shock towers (where the top of the front shock/spring assembly mounts) by bolting to both towers and running above the engine. It's a debated topic, but the general consensus is that they do absolutely nothing to increase chassis stiffness; more for engine-bay bling (or, in the case of short guys like me, giving us a safe place to lean on when working on the engine). These don't come from the factory on the car.

Subframe connectors attach the front and rear subframes of the car. Since f-bodies are unibody cars, they don't have a discrete frame; simply front and rear subframe assemblies that then bolt to the body, which acts as the "frame" for the center of the car. The majority of SFCs bolt directly behind the front wheelwells and run back to the rear lower control arm mounting pocket. Some (3-points) also span inwards to connect to the stock tunnel brace mounting location. They can come in both tubular and boxed styles; tubular typically tucking better and being almost impossible to see unless under the car, while boxed offer a nominal jacking rail (although I personally wouldn't use it that way). These tend to act to stiffen the car up along the long axis, and are one of the more hotly-debated suspension items. These are also not factory pieces.

The torque arm, in its stock configuration, is connected to the tailshaft of the transmission and runs back to the top and bottom of the differential, to act as an "upper" control arm (also called a 3-link rear suspension setup) to keep the rear axle from rotating while accelerating. The stock torque arm is a big chunk of stamped steel, subject to flex and deflection under heavy load. The stock mounting location - on the tailshaft of the transmission - is also a weak point, as it's possible to crack or break the tailshaft because of the forces transmitted. Aftermarket torque arms are generally much heavier-duty tubular reinforced deals, with thicker mounting flanges on the differential. There are also adjustable torque arms, which allows you to adjust the angle between the differential pinion and the torque arm, allowing for better driveline angles during hard launches. This is typically considered a "second tier" replacement item, as the stock piece is adequate at stock power levels. There are also more exotic types of torque arms, like decoupled ones, but that gets into a more specialised discussion about instant center, drag vs road racing, etc.

Related to torque arms are torque arm relocation mounts; basically, an aftermarket transmission crossmember with a mount for the torque arm to connect to. This takes the torque arm load off the transmission tailshaft and loads it onto the crossmember; a much more solid mounting point. There are also different mounting methods; some use a factory-style "push/pull through" greased bushing, while others use a rotating shackle assembly. Another "second tier" upgrade, but one that's beneficial when you need it.

Rear lower control arms connect the bottom of the axle to the rear subframe, and act along with the torque arm to keep the axle from rotating while driving. The stock pieces are much like the front upper control arms - flimsy U-shaped stamped metal with no welded reinforcements. Most aftermarket pieces are tubular, with some boxed versions available, and can be had with poly, delrin, rod-end or roto-joint bushings. Aftermarket versions usually help with wheelhop, which is partially caused by control arm flex during hard launches. Some are also adjustable (depending on the style, either on-car adjustable, or requiring removing one end of the control arm to adjust), which allows better fore-and-aft centering of the axle in the wheelwell.

Lower control arm relocation brackets help with wheelhop - they bolt or weld to where the rear lower control arms normally bolt to on the axle, but allow the rear of the lower control arm to be mounted lower, giving a greater angle of separation between the control arm and the body of the car. This acts drastically to reduce wheelhop, although it can negatively affect handling in corners.

The stock panhard rod is, yet again, a flimsy piece of U-shaped stamped sheet metal. This piece acts to keep the axle centered from side-to-side under the car, with the caveat that is actually pulls the axle to the left or right depending on the height of the body - due to the fact that, because of the hard-mount points on the body and the axle, the panhard rod describes an arc as it pivots up and down, thus forcing the axle to move left and right. Aftermarket units are tubular, available with the same bushing choices as outlined above, and like rear lower control arms, can be either fixed, off-car adjustable, or on-car adjustable. The adjustable versions allow the axle to be pulled back to center on a lowered car, but are still stuck with the limitation that they will still pull the axle to one side or the other at different body heights. One solution to this is a Watt's link, which are better covered in dedicated threads about them than I could explain here.

Note that I left out a lot about instant center, roll center, and that sort of thing, but that should cover the basic mechanical applications of each suspension piece (sans shocks and springs - another discussion by themselves). There's really no situation where aftermarket parts don't positively increase the handling characteristics of a vehicle, but it comes down to a personal cost:benefit ratio and car goals as to which ones are significantly more useful than others.

Bushing information: Stock bushings are rubber, which allow a more compliant, comfortable ride, but also allow a lot of deflection and bushing compression because they're relatively soft. Polyurethane used to be the common answer for bushings, as it's much harder than rubber but still allows some compression to help absorb road imperfections, but it has a tendency to bind when subjected to deflective loads. It can be an effective bushing material, but the location it's used in should also play a role in determining whether it's a good choice or not. Delrin is a type of very hard, "self-lubricating" plastic used in quite a few very heavy-duty applications. It acts as a solid bushing to replace rubber or poly bushings, offers no compression at all (ergo, a rougher ride) but also is less prone to bind than polyurethane. It's a very effective bushing material where there will be relatively little deflective load, but will also transmit more NVH into the car - which some people dislike. A rod-end is basically an eye bolt with a hollow globe pressed into the middle. The inside of the eye bolt is typically lined with Delrin races for the globe to pivot in. This is also a solid bushing, with no compression and very little chance of bind. This is due to the fact that the body of the bushing - the eye bolt part - is allowed to rotate in a fixed manner around the globe portion (which is where the bolt connecting the rod-end to the suspension part passes through). These are extremely effective bushings due to the high flexibility and lack of bind, but give an even rougher ride than solid Delrin bushings. These are more popular with "max effort" guys than people who are looking for a more moderate street/strip car; they will also wear out and require replacement, with effective life being determined by environmental conditions (a rod-end in a clean environment will last much longer than one in a dirty environment) and basic amount of use. Roto-Joints are a sort of bastardized rod-end; they use a larger outer housing, in which a rod-end style globe sits in Delrin races. These can be taken apart and rebuilt, and allow the amount of preload on the bushing to be adjusted by tightening or loosening the retention ring. These are still, in basis, a solid bushing, so NVH will be somewhat worse than with a polyurethane bushing, but most people who use them tend to say they're not quite as rough as a rod-end. These are becoming more popular, especially as polyurethane is falling out of favor, Delrin hasn't caught on in high demand yet, and most people don't want to deal with the increased noise and maintenance factor of rod-ends.

idle

iTrader: (5)

Perfect!

Sticky???

Kurt D

iTrader: (2)

You basically doing the same thing with your car as I am with mine. I would get a set of lowering springs. Nothing super low, the BMR and Stranos are prefect to me. Get a set of SLP Bilstiens shocks, good bang for buck there, and freshen the stock front and rear sway bars with new poly bushings and endlinks. Also add an adjustable panhard to get the rear centered under the car.

Those mods alone will make the car look better, feel better and handle better. From there you can decide if you want or need more. If you want less roll in the corner get a bigger set of sway bars. If you're getting wheel hop on the launch (street or strip) get a set of lower control arms and relocation brackets. Might also want to look at a new torque arm there as well. If you want better brakes, there are better brake pads that will really bring things to a hault quick and rotors that can give you a better look (cross drilled and/or sloted, painted, coated, etc).

HAZ-Matt

iTrader: (8)

You didn't list them but shocks would be the best upgrade to the suspension.

Element

iTrader: (5)

Updated my post with bushing information (forgot to include that before).

HAZMatt is right, though - changing from stock DeCarbons to a good set of aftermarket shocks will make the most drastic difference of any single suspension modification that can be done to these cars.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Blowing money isn't really the way I'd put it, because there are those that will read that and run with it.

Simply, the 3 biggest things you can do to help the handling of the car are Shocks, springs and sway bars.

Shocks do not change how much the car rolls or pitches, or the balance in corners. But they effect ride quality, how "tied down" the car is, how quickly it reacts, and takes a set in corners. Also the floating you probably have... that's poor shocks.

Sway bars only effect roll and balance. Negligible effect on ride unless you do something silly like a drag type rear bar. Nice because they are big help to handling with very little downside. You can go too big, you can easily get bars that aren't matched up very well. I worked very hard on the sizing of my bars, they are all about balance and driveability.

Springs. Well, they help handling too, they cut roll and pitch. They add wheel rate (basically think of how much spring rate you have actually at the wheel), but unlike sway bars which only do it when they are twisted, springs do it all the time. The result of that along with the lower ride height is that the ride does get stiffer.

Stock shocks suck, and generally are the first thing I do. If you are going to do springs, then upgrading the shocks is pretty much a must do. Bars you can do without upgrading shocks, as they aren't damped by the shocks like springs are.

Does that help?

And there is no way in hell I'd get into changing control arms and all that based on what you are saying you want (basic as it is). You have to ask yourself what it is you want to change about how you car drives, and my guess it'll come back to one of, or some combination of those 3 things above all.

idle

iTrader: (5)

Having read all of this it sounds like I'd be a good candidate for new sway bars & bushings... and shocks?

But is it shocks THEN springs? Both? or what?

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

It's up to you.... Do you want to lower it? If not, then skip the springs and just do the shocks. If you want springs, then doing both at the same time makes the most sense from a labor/install point of view.