Rear delrin install, sway bar, end links
So this weekend was frustrating. I finished up the rear delrin bushings. Luckily the rear is a lot easier as you can press them out either direction. It’s even possible with the arms still on the car. I skipped the rear ball joints for now. They are in okay condition and I just wanted it back together for my first event next weekend.
The camber lockout kit presents some issues with delrin in the rear however. The rear bushing on the LCA has no adjustment on a C5. It just acts as a pivot for the front lca bushing. Trouble is that delrin has zero compliance. I could only get the AMT kit set to S1 in the rear and only on the front side of the bushing. The rear side is s2. Talking to some other folks, this is common. T2 seems to be the best that anyone with delrin has done. To fix it you’re probably looking at moving to a spherical in the rear LCA or moving back to something with compliance like poly. Maybe one of the offset delrin bushings? Adding an adjuster isn’t really an option as it shares the bolt for mounting the rear sway bar. For now I’m going to see what my alignment guy can do with it. I shouldn’t need as much rear camber with the delrin bushings. Hopefully it works out. I think I aimed for -1.7 before. I should be good with -1.4 or so with stiffer bushings
https://www.shredjesse.com/sites/default/files/c5-corvettes/CorvetteAlignmentGuideRev20110912.pdf
I also finally installed my diff mount. I got one of those ebay copies of the AFE bridge style one. I have nothing but bad things to say about it. It’s huge so annoying to get in. The pads require moving the rigid brake lines. The ebay one has countersunk holes for the diff bolts that not only required me to hog out with a router to get a socket in, but required me to drop the subframe a bit to get the ratchet in. Don’t buy this. The AMT one looks better. Trackspec also has one I’d buy first if I did it again.
Lastly I installed the Strano rear sway bar with new whiteline end links. Despite what whiteline tells you, I don’t think the rears are right. I had to shorten them ALL the way to get to stock length. Plus the Strano bar didn’t have anything to line up the bushings like the front did so centering it was a pain. Don’t get the whiteline adjustable links for the rear.
I did a few other misc things. I plugged the holes in my floor around the cage install with butyl. Mostly to help keep exhaust gas out of the car, but it was noticeably louder after the cage install. I also finally painted the front plate cover to match the car. Rattle can job, but it works well enough for a race car.
So now comes the annoying part. I buttoned up the rear and put the wheels on. Then went to do the same on the front. Wheels won’t fit. wtf. Did the moog ball joints have a longer stud? After googling some stock images I realize that I pressed the upper ball joints in backward. Suddenly having to flip the UCA made sense. I thought I just remembered wrong. After struggling for a couple hours trying to press them out on the car with my c clamp, I gave up and went to my buddy’s house to use his shop press this morning. Not a big job with the press. Just another half day wasted taking them out and flipping then reassembling. Ugg.
Well it’s done for now and ready to get aligned. I think I’ll go to the test and tune on my old ns2r tires. Burn those up and swap over to the brand new P1’s before my first proper track day. I need to see if my sway bars are set right now and adjust my brake bias. Next project is probably going to be mounting my front tow strap. I had to remove the solid hook with the front vents. That and get proper summer fluids back in for the track day.
