[Msquared]

Originally Posted by Eric SS

BMR, can you please rehost your photos on this thread.

I'm not BMR, but this only applies to factory factory-style rubber bushings where the bushing is bonded to the inner sleeve and outer shell. It won't matter at all with urethane bushings and certainly not with spherical bearing rod ends.

[buckwam]

Originally Posted by Msquared

I'm not BMR, but this only applies to factory factory-style rubber bushings where the bushing is bonded to the inner sleeve and outer shell. It won't matter at all with urethane bushings and certainly not with spherical bearing rod ends.

How many rubber bushings are there in the stock suspension that need adjustment when installing a lowering kit? I had the GM lowering kit installed on my camaro at the dealership and have the unstable, floaty feeling at highway speed described in the original post.

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by buckwam

How many rubber bushings are there in the stock suspension that need adjustment when installing a lowering kit? I had the GM lowering kit installed on my camaro at the dealership and have the unstable, floaty feeling at highway speed described in the original post.

Well, on each front corner there are two lower control arms that have rubber bushings on the inside pivot where they bolt to the frame, so that's four. In back on each side you have the main lower control arm with an inside rubber bushing. On the V8 cars (I think? Someone correct me if that's wrong), the toe link uses pillow ball joints on each end, but the lower models have rubber bushings in both ends. The upper lateral link and both semi-trailing links have rubber bushings at both ends, I think. So if I got that all correct, each corner of a V8 Camaro has seven rubber bushings that would need to be reclocked if you lower the car.

[buckwam]

Originally Posted by Msquared

Well, on each front corner there are two lower control arms that have rubber bushings on the inside pivot where they bolt to the frame, so that's four. In back on each side you have the main lower control arm with an inside rubber bushing. On the V8 cars (I think? Someone correct me if that's wrong), the toe link uses pillow ball joints on each end, but the lower models have rubber bushings in both ends. The upper lateral link and both semi-trailing links have rubber bushings at both ends, I think. So if I got that all correct, each corner of a V8 Camaro has seven rubber bushings that would need to be reclocked if you lower the car.

Thank you for the info. My car is a turbo 4. How many in that case?

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by buckwam

Thank you for the info. My car is a turbo 4. How many in that case?

On that car, the toe links apparently also have rubber bushings on both ends. That would make for a total of nine bushings at each rear corner.

[buckwam]

Originally Posted by Msquared

On that car, the toe links apparently also have rubber bushings on both ends. That would make for a total of nine bushings at each rear corner.

Thanks, again.

[WhiteMale]

Just curious the practicality of needing to do this vice having done the install on jack stands at home, needing to have the car on the ground, access to the bolts and all that. Something I'm def wanting to do at home but I'm thinking it all the way through.

[Msquared]

Originally Posted by WhiteMale

Just curious the practicality of needing to do this vice having done the install on jack stands at home, needing to have the car on the ground, access to the bolts and all that. Something I'm def wanting to do at home but I'm thinking it all the way through.

You can always place jackstands under the knuckles and lower the car onto those. That would make tightening the bolts at ~ride height a lot easier than having it actually sitting on its wheels on the ground.

[WhiteMale]

Or ramps front and rear, get it off the jack stands and lowered on to 4 ramps/cribs/cradles.

I'm unsure How different in suspension between 5th and 6th gen but the Camaro5g has nice pictures here

https://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153188

[buckwam]

I had the GM lowering kit, which included struts, shocks, and springs installed at the dealership 10 weeks ago. An alignment was done afterwards. I noticed after less than a 1000 miles that the handling at highway speeds became unstable. I took it back to the dealership today and they did another alignment, which showed it out of spec and re-aligned it to factory settings except the caster on driver's front, which they said couldn't be done. I also noticed that the wheel gap is larger in the front wheel wells than the rear. I would assume they should be equal. I have 18" wheels with all season tires on now, but at the time of the lowering kit installation, 20" wheels were on. Did the smaller wheels/tires affect the front caster not being able to reach factory specs? Did the alignment go out, due to the rubber bushings not being timed at original installation? If anyone has ideas on what caused this issues, please share them, so I can be more informed before I go back to the dealership with my concerns.

[Msquared]

As long as the two front corners are at the same ride height, then caster won't be affected by any of this. Caster will be affected by overall "rake": the front ride height relative to the rear. But it should affect both front caster angles the same amount. The big thing with caster is that you don't want a big difference between the two front corners' caster angles. Caster is not adjustable on these cars.