OK I admit it...I know next to nothing about suspension. I want to upgrade the suspension in a second 84 I just bought. Where should I start and what should I buy. I see these poly bushing kits and what-not from summit,, jegs and just about all other go-fast outfits. I assume these whould be a good place to start of, right? What next? Shocks??? Thanks for the help.

 

I'd start by replace whatever is worn out the most. The poly bushings you mentioned is a good place to start, along with new shocks and a good set of tires. Then you can start in on things like LCAs, STBs and SSFs.

 

Thanks Justin. Sorry for being a bonehead but what are SSFs?

 

SSF are a typo Meant SFCs

 

I just redid the whole rear suspension on my car (finished the last phase about an hour ago.) I originally bought the Energy Suspension master kit for my car but after I saw how weak the stock components were (i.e., I bent a control arm) I decided to replace everything.

The Hotchkis front strut brace helped front chassis flex when pulling into my driveway and my steering was a little more responsive.

The Hotchkis rear suspension kit (control arms and panhard bar with polygraphite bushings) literally stopped any side-to-side movement of the rear of my car except for tire sidewall flex. I have more traction off a launch now and my turns are more predictable.

I put new shocks and poly sway bar bushings on my stock sway bar (it's 24mm) and the difference was huge. I found out that both my rear shocks were 98% discharged, so they did absolutely nothing. Now the whole rear suspension is really stiff, but *finally* doesn't squeak.

If I had to do it over again, I'd do shocks, strut brace, then rear suspension kit in that order. I haven't touched the front since it's really responsive already with the stock 36mm sway bar and wonderbar.

My total investment is around 550-600$ right now, and my Edelbrock torque arm still hasn't arrived yet.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

Also, the stock suspension alignment is not aggressive enough most of the time. Add more negative camber and that will help out a lot too (move the top of the strut closer to the middle of the car). A lot of pictures show the camber plates as far in as possible. Replace everything that is stamped with tubular and get new shocks. Also upgrade the rear sway bar and that will loosen up the car some. The factory designed them to be pushy so this will get you closer to neutral steer. LCA relocation brackets will also help by taking out a lot of squat in the rear end. Whatever you do don't forget about the tires.

 

Synapsis,

The Edlebrock torque arm I ordered was on back order for nearly a month. I finally received it a few days ago only to discover that it had been shipped without the poly tranny mount (I wonder if the E/S poly version will work, since the torque arm lips appear to be stockish?). I've contacted both Edelbrock and Summit in the last day or so, but I haven't had a reply. I hope your luck is better than mine.

JamesC

 

Gah! Don't tell me that.

I checked my order on Summit and it's supposed to arrive Thursday. I guess I'll see if the kit comes with the mount. They shipped it from the Ohio(?) warehouse so I guess it's not that common of an item to carry.

For general information: If you've bought decals from stripeman.com recently, check your credit card balance. Someone had a joy ride with my card yesterday to the tune of $2300. The only places my card was used is there and Summitracing.com. And I have a feeling that Summit has more resources to throw at secure servers.

 

Thanks for all of the help guys.

 

JamesC,

I just got my Edelbrock Torque Arm. It shipped with the Energy Suspension bushing, but the box was exploded and they had to pick it up off the floor of the truck. It appears that Edelbrock doesn't pack their suspension parts as good as Hotchkis does.

 

Synapsis,

I understand about the shipping container. Like yours, mine was shot to hell. I have heard from Edelbrock, however, and the company's shipping me a new bushing. Is the bushing actually an E/S? Glad all worked out well for you.

JamesC

 

Well, all didn't work out as well as it was supposed to.

Yeah, the bushing is E/S, it has E/S's number on it and is shipped with E/S's lube. =)

But as I was putting on the new torque arm, I noticed that I have some interferance between the plate at the end of the arm and the casting(?) of the rear. My old torque arm curved out an inch in the center, but the Edelbrock arm is just a flat plate. I'm taking it to my chassis guy tomorrow to fab a new end for it.

Now, to find out some info on this rear which isn't stock on my year Iroc.

 

Synapsis,

Humm, well, I hope that I don't have a similiar problem.

JamesC

 

Synapsis,

Here's the butt of my stock torque arm. Does it look like yours? I'm asking because I sent the Edelbrock version out for power-coating (red). If it doesn't fit, I'll be royally pissed.

JamesC

 

Here's a pic I took for the chassis guy to look at. You can see where I started modifying the Edelbrock arm to fit. (I cut out part of the E at the end.)