g-body rear bushings

[megaladon6]

quite simply what are the best style of bushings to use on the g-body's 4-link rear. (with upgraded solid tube arms)?

[Gbodyolds]

I use moog rubber bushings in the top (rear side) with Edelbrock double adjustible uppers and Cirrie currectrac lowers, the best setup with the least suspension bind available if you ask me.

[jdpolzin]

I use UMI adjustable uppers with replacement rubber bushings in the top mounts. Also, do not use polly bushings. I like the Hotchkis lower arms. The old UMI tubulars I used to run on the lowers binded badly. The Hotckis arms are nice and smooth! I have 1 5/8" rear swaybar and BellTech lowering springs also! I really like my rear set up.

[Gbodyolds]

I use UMI adjustable uppers with replacement rubber bushings in the top mounts. Also, do not use polly bushings. I like the Hotchkis lower arms. The old UMI tubulars I used to run on the lowers binded badly. The Hotckis arms are nice and smooth! I have 1 5/8" rear swaybar and BellTech lowering springs also! I really like my rear set up.

I like the UMI adjustible uppers and rubber bushings on housing side is the way to go but I am thinking about giving the spherical bearing setup made by TRZ Motorsports a shot.
I dont have any experience with the UMI lowers but I have the Hotchkis lowers on one of my cars, not a big fan. they seem harsh and noisy, feel bumps harder with them and personally I think there is a considerable amount of bind with them. the ride, handling and feel of my other car is a lot better in my opinion. the only difference in the suspensions is Currie lowers and hotchkis springs on one and Hotchkis lowers and Eibach springs on the other.

[Marcus SC&C]

It`s all about how the converging 4 link rear suspension works. An absolute minimum of binding throughout the usable range of motion is what you`re looking for. This lets the springs,shocks and swaybar (if used) properly control the rear suspension. When it binds your effective spring and roll rates go crazy and the car becomes harder to control and looses ride quality.
The upper links swing in conflicting arcs,they need a certain degree of longitudinal deflection to prevent binding the suspension vertically. Metallic bearings don`t allow for that and cause vertical binding. They transfer NVH from the road/axle directly to the chassis and they open and high precision nature makes them vulnerable to road grit,water etc. and rapid wear. As they wear they get more noisy. Rubber on one side will reduce the NVH but you loose the precision you just added with the bearings on the other end...
When the rear axle articulates (body roll,one wheel bumps etc.) the arms need to twist. Put your car on stands under the frame. Jack one side of the rear axle up and let the other droop. Not take a close look at the stock arms. They`re twisted like pretzels and the bushings are deflected in torsion also. What happens when you substitute solid tubular arms with hard poly bushings at both ends? The rear will articulate much less and then it`ll bind up. Substitute rubber bushings on the axle side of the uppers and it`ll articulate a little more but again you`re giving up soem of what you just gained. We`ve tested every combination you can think of in our full scale rear chassis rig and you can easily see and even feel the difference when you compare them side to side. The best compromise,and is is still a compromise is poly graphite on the axle side,which allows for a small amount of longitudinal deflection and soem torsional deflection but not too much of either and a big polymer race greasable spherical bearing on the frame side. The polymer race helps NVH control,allows just a little bit of longitudinal deflection and is free to move over 30* in torsion. Their closed,greased nature makes them virtually impervious to dirt,water,road grit and they last just about forever even under severe usage. They should they were originally developed for the hardcore offroad market to take abuse that would destroy our cars in no time at all. This combination yields a very precise feel to the rear suspension along with a smooth ride and trouble free service. This leads us to Currectrac arms top and bottom. If your car isn`t high horsepower the adj. Eddys will work on top for less money. I get nervous about them on serious cars because their construction is rather light on the axle side of the arms,especially compared to the bomb proof Curries. The next step is to isolate the tasks the rear suspension does to take much of the compromise out of the system. That`s where the rubber axle side upper bushings and frame mounted watts link come in....:naughty: Mark SC&C

[83hurstguy]

I just got my lower Currectracs from Mark beginning of this week. Those things look like they could survive a world war! :cool: When I asked him how much weight savings you could actually get over tubular lowers by buying the aluminum ones, he told me on the phone "you obviously haven't seen a set of Currectracs, have you" lol. I was surprised how stiff the JJ's are in the ends... I couldn't get them to rotate by hand the other night with a screwdriver stuck through them...

They are very nice pieces, I obviously won't be able to test them for a few months as we have a seemingly endless amount of the white stuff covering the ground. For now, I am running a set of UMI adj uppers with the rubber bushing in the housing end, but will upgrade to the Currectracs once the rod ends either wear out or drive me nuts...

If in doubt, just call Mark and talk to him for a while. He knows his stuff, isn't just there trying to sell you product on the phone.