Don't know if many will care about this but maybe a few will. About 14 years ago I did a whole bunch of PM to my car. Changed all the wheel bearings, all the Driveline you joints, put new bearings in the alternator, install the new water pump and more. Since then I've put about 100,000 miles on the car as it sits at around 220k right now. It has been tracked quite a bit, drag tracked, a little autocross and obviously a lot of daily driving and road trips in the meantime. I thought it was time to put it up on jack stands and tear into it again. So I did.

I knew it needed all new bushings everywhere. They are all 33 years old. It's time.
second, the thing has had a drive shaft vibration since I bought it. As previously mentioned I replaced the drive shaft you joints and that didn't saw that. I had the drive shaft professionally balanced, that didn't do squat. I replaced the tail shaft bushing as there was play in it with the slip yolk, that didn't help either. So that was on the list.
my C5 front calipers have dragged since I installed them over a decade ago. So I wanted to replace those with new, figured I would upgrade to C6 calipers.
wanted to change all the fluids, and then, anything else I found as I went through the car and inspected touched and looked at everything.

my timing couldn't have been better in a lot of cases, hahaha.




It was time for new suspension bushings. 20 in the rear, 14 in the front, plus two for the steering rack. That turned out to be a lot of bushin' pressin'.




I used "Super Pro" brand bushings for a couple reasons; they don't squeak -supposedly, and mostly, they DO flex some which is good on the rear of the C4 since it is a binding suspension by nature.












On just the rear, I did every bushing that exists in the back, changed diff oil, both rear wheel bearings (I LOVE the $30 RA unit hubs!!), changed both rear outer tie rod ends, rear brake pads...and fixed a rattle in my spare tire carrier assy. I think that's all of it.

 

With the rear suspension mostly done and back in the car, I couldn't finish hooking the last things up to it, such as the spring, until I had the drive shaft and c-beam reinstalled. I didn't want to do that until I solve the vibration problem or at least felt as though I had made a good effort. The yolk was loose in the tail shaft housing and as I stated earlier I had already replaced the tail shaft bushing 10 years ago or more now. While it has some wear on it from the 10 plus years, changing the bushing didn't really do anything, so I wasn't super keen on doing that again. I wanted a new yolk and they don't make yolks for that transmission anymore. I learned however that the slip yoke on a Chevy Half Ton 4x4 (an NP T-case) has the same 32 splines and the same diameters. Before I put time/money into that idea, I wanted to confirm fitment, AND....would it be worth it? Would it tighten up the slip yoke in the tail shaft bushing? I tested it by grabbing the drive shaft out of my own Chev 1500, and sliding the slip yoke into the trans. I thought that this looked rather funny...




But it did fit, and it totally did tighten up the lateral and up/down slop that had been there w/the original slip yoke.



The truck/t-case slip yoke was way too long, so I chopped it to length and radiused the front end of it, polished it up and got a 1350 to 1310 conversion u-joint










Put it together and threw it in the car, put the C-beam back drained and changed the trans oil, and moved on.

 

Moving to the front, I changed the engine oil, changed spark plugs and wires, dumped the PS fluid and pulled the PS fluid cooler to flush that out, pulled the front suspension, spring, steering rack and started?....pressing more bushings!



This is nice.....







Man....I. LOVE how these suspension parts look when cleaned up. Maybe I'm a weido....I AM a weirdo, but I think that they look like art.....



You can see the old C5 calipers at the top of the following pic. They've put in their time.

 

There were a few additional "discoveries" or recollections that needed addressing up front.
*Why put rack poly bushings in, if ya still got a rag joint?? So I ordered an aluminum replacement from Unbalanced Engineering.
*The PS Pressure line on the LT is dumb. DUMB, I say. It's got a run of steel from the pump, does a 180 and heads down about 10", then a 90* and heads forward about 4-5", goes under the "wonder bar"...then is crimped to a rubber segment that's about 8". That rubber part needs to be bent into a 180 and goes back under the "wonder bar" and connects to the rack w/a little 3-4" hard line. What's DUMB about it is the amount of length and mass of the steel and rubber line that's hanging from the flair nut that is holding the steel line into the pump! There is NO WAY that steel line isn't going to crack at the flair under the nut. And crack it does. I've lost 3 of them at track days now, and had to drive home w/no power steering. Sh:tty. That needed to be addressed.
*Repacking all of the sealed accessory pulley bearings
*Painting my new C6 Calipers
*I discovered that my FR wheel bearing was noisy, so...two new front hub assy's. I LOVE....LOVE $42 front hub assy's from RA!!


Spring and "Spring protectors" and steering rack, back in...



Lower arms and shocks....


Suspension mostly together, with new hubs on.....





Oh yeah, the new wires. Man....those fatties are damn hard to get into the stock wire brackets!


C5 on left, C6 on right. Man....I love...LOVE....LOVE! me a $28 caliper from RA. Hell yeah.



C6 caliper all painted up, raised letters polished and clear coated....


Behind the wheel.....

 

Backing up to the steering rack a little, here is the old, dirty dog.after coming out...




Cleaned it up some....




Then installed the new bushings, here is an idea of the difference in stiffness....






Ready to go back into the car....



Installed again.




I f'd around with a bunch of different ideas for the PS pressure line, Making my own from Hydraulic hose, modifying the stock line to be shorter, Doug Rippie sells a braided/shorter line, it's $100. I don't like $100. I could by nearly 4 RA C6 calipers for that money!! Ha ha ha....so I simply modified the idler pulley shield and installed a P-clamp on a new stock replacement PS line. But look at the length of that steel line!...and don't forget abotu the 8? of hose crimped to it that's out of sight under the Wonder Bar! All that mass is hanging off that flair nut on the pump. DUMB!!....

 

So...that was about it! Only had a few things to button up, and then put 'er back on the ground! WHOO-waah.

I bought a new serp belt, b/c that was about 15 years old (ack!)....I started stuffing the belt down between the wonder bar, rack and damper....and I feel this *drip* on my arm. WTF?? I pull the belt back out and there is a drip on the K member. WTF X2!?





The drop looks red like coolant. How in TF is there a drop of coolant on my K member!?? Everything looked dry, I look all over....dry. I slip my hand under the water pump, touch the bottom of it; it's soaked. Ah. I'll be changing a water pump too, as part of my PM exercise!




UnFORTUNATELY....all the water pumps local were $180 and up. Back to RA and grabbed on for $84. Now...I don't LOVE $84 for a casting with a shaft, impeller, bearing and seal.....buuuut it's better than $180+. So I bought it and put it on. Put the Cross Bar brace back in, filled/bled the coolant, bled the brakes....put 'er back on the ground.






Good to go for another 100K?

 

personal maintenance?
post meridiem?
Prime Minister?

 

Ha ha ha... yeah Point taken. Industry term. Preventative maintenance. My bad.