Front Bushing

[rayho91]

Took my 79 in the dealer ship today to get it align caues it was BAD!
they said i need to change 4 bushings in the front and change the 2 front tires first. they wanted 900 bucks to change the 4 bushing.
can i do it myself?
how much do the bushing cost?
where can i get them?
and so on
thanks

 

[sperkins]

They must be talking about the upper and/or lower control arm bushings. Nothing else would cost that much. You could try the job yourself, but it's pretty involved. I would call around and get quotes from different shops. Better yet...upgrade to poly bushings or a complete VBP kit for not too much more.

 

[Hib Halverson]

Bushing replacement is a DIY task but only for those with intermediate-to-advanced skills and with the proper tools. The problem for most DIYs comes in getting the old bushings out of the control arms then getting the new ones in.

If you don't have the shop tools necessary, you can remove the control arms yourself then have a machine shop or other service facility change the bushings.

If you haven't done work like this before, the first task for you is to get a service manual and learn how the control arm removal and replacement is done. It requires removing the front springs and that, alone, is a task to be considered carefully, because if you lack the right tools or an understanding of the procedure, working with springs can be really dangerous. The work also requires working under the car so you need jack stands.

1) Educate yourself on how to do the job
2) Acquire the proper tools.
3) Remove and replace the arms

Good luck!

 

[Vette79]

Very good information provided. Definitely get a 79 shop manual. I'm in that thing more often then any other book or magazine...lol. Also, I would look for a shop that specializes in corvettes, particularly a C3. They can be found. Stay away from dealerships as the knowledge and parts needed in most cases is non-existent. You'll learn as I did to do most of the work yourself to save money. This is an expensive hobby. But one that I will never give up!

 

[wishuwerehere82]

I had my bushings and springs replaced in 2001.
Along the way, they found one of the control arms was bent and one ball joint was bad. So they replaced the bad components and installed the new bushings and springs. Total labor hours were 6.6 Hrs. for the whole job.
I think you need to find a good mechanic/alignment shop that will do it for a lot less than the dealship is charging for their labor rate.

 

[LVMYVT76]

I would also change the ball joints and look closly at the front springs. Tie rod ends need checked as well. Have the ball joints been changed at all? If so, they can be changed quite easily. Then, take the car for a 4-wheel alignment at a place that knows corvettes. Now, they may have trouble aligning the back wheels if they have the stock shims on it, (rust), but that is the correct way to do it.

 

[raybies]

The bushings are cheap, all in all when I rebuilt my 1980 front suspension the control arm bushings (upper) were about 35 bucks for both arms and the control arm bushings lower were about 40 bucks. The upper control arms are easy to do but if you don't want to have to move the fan shroud you have to tap the studs out, they are knurled and pressed through the control arm mount to the frame it's really not a big deal. Then I just took them to the local machine shop and had them press the new bushings in they charged me 20 bucks.

The Lower control arms are a bit more involved only because you need to rent or buy a spring compressor for the coil springs but once you get past compressing the spring it's no worse than the uppers.
Hope this helped and good luck

Ray