Hi Aldo, your doing real good, you find a problem and then get right to it. You must have good skills as it seems that you are doing everything yourself.
Keep up the good work and you'll soon have it 100% and then you can just enjoy driving it.
PG.

 

Aldo, I've done a lot of things to my car. Read the ROTM write-up or the short version is I added factory A/C, factory PW, factory maplite, factory right side mirror, and factory side exhaust. Played around with a Rochester FI from a '65 and Hooker "nest of snakes" header side exhaust. Also have AR Vector wheels.

Edit: Also have original nine leave spring.

Re: poly trailing arm bushings - Pros: easier to install Cons: the trailing arm not only moves up and down, it also twists a small amount as the wheel camber changes such as when you corner or hit a bump or pothole. Since the poly essentially doesn't allow this twist, it sort of binds up your rear suspension which can affect handling. You also lose isolation from shock and vibration with poly anything in place of any of the rubber parts such as control arm bushings, strut rod bushings, body mounts, etc. If you are going to autocross or race, then poly would be the way to go but for street use, I'd advise against it. I put poly control arm bushings on my friend's '66 and it will jar your fillings out now. []

You might not have to saw the trailing arm bolt if the car hasn't seen a lot of road salt. The problem is if you can get the nut off, the bolt might be frozen in the sleeve inside the bushing and you can get to it with a punch to drive it out. Try soaking it with Kroilhttp://www.kanolabs.com/ first.

While you have the trailing arms off, you can check the spindle end play to see if the bearings are OK. If not, you might consider getting rebuilt trailing arms from some place like Van Steel. Just did a set on my friend's '66 and they're just a bolt-on job.

 

73shark
thanks for the advise about poly bushings on trailing arms. I can't put rubber bushings there because i want to replace bushings without removing completely the trailing arms. So poly...( rubber needs a press...). I think I can live with some road harshness more...
Unfortunately the high shipping costs to-from USA doesn't enables me to to make a restoring job as I would like : I can't send out the trailing arms and can't send cores for restoring. For example I can't had my PS control valve remanufactured on my core, but bought a brand new. If I'll need to restore my steering control box, it would be the same... that's life!

So you have still your oem steel spring... Is it still OK ? not sagged at drivers side? all the c3 I've seen on Ebay with unrestored OEM monospring have this problem ( and mine too...)

I love the colour of your car , and even if that Orange wasn't a 79 option, I'm thinking to paint mine just in that way...

 

Aldo, I don't believe you can replace the T-arm bushings on the car, that is you'll have to remove completely to get the old ones out and new ones in, even poly ones.

Still original spring but it is a nine leaf, not the fiberglass mono-leaf that came out later around 1980. It has settled to where it is basically straight across the bottom leaf at rest so it will need to be replaced.

Thanks for compliment on color.

 

73shark , thanks

I'll try to restore my 9 leaves spring. it'sbecome straighton driver's side only , the other side is OK.
any advise about?

 

Aldous, Shark is right on, you have to remove the trailing arms to replace the bushings,no matter what kind you put in. For me that was a winter project, amongest other items like new half shafts, strut rod bushings,shock mounts, had to cut off tried heat but no luck,brake calipers, lines, steering valve, pistonand rotors. A sawzall is the best way to cut the bolts. I don't think you will be able to get theoriginal out. Just take your time and make sure you get everything involved so you don't have to go back to changeanything else involved at a later date. The inner and outer bearings and seals can be replaced with the trailing arm on the car. But much easier off the car. Good luck and again take your time.

[IMG]local://upfiles/5879/3C48A96458F648EDA75D62808E68025A.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/5879/46E0066D6FCD426982B455DB7A8D69A5.jpg[/IMG]

 

Batesy80,
thanks for the tips.

I can't take so much time to do this job. I have to do it soon because my car is not enjoyable as I would like with all those faults ( quite scary indeed).
So I have to remove the trailing arms...
I'll check on the shop manual , but How difficult to detach the half shaft from the wheel?
which the correct method to check for play at halfshaft? today I went underside the car ( car on the floor ) and find no play trying to rock the halfshafts. Or should I make this test after jacking up the car?

 

the original bolts for the half shaft bracket take a 12 point 5/16 I believe. spray them first with some penatrating oil. I had a couple that striped on me so I delt with them after I removed the T arm. I just bent the clip over and bought new clips and all new bolts. I like to do things right the first time. I don't want to go back to do it again, hate that. When I got the shafts out the needle bearings on the originalu-joints were toast, no grease left and had indentations. my advise... if you take them out change them, and you won't have to worry about them while you have this vette!

 

Is the bottom leaf bent up on the driver's side. Not sure if it's not, how the spring could be causing your problem.

To get the T-arms off, you'll need to crank the strut rod to max negative camber after you separate the half shaft from the spindle flange. You'll also need to disconnect the spring at both ends. Put a C-clamp on the spring inboard of your jack as you relieve the pressure on the long bolt so it doesn't slip. Then you need to get the T-arm bolt out and that'll probably take a Sawzall or air saw to cut ends off the bolt, probably both ends as it'll probably be frozen in the bushing sleeve. Keep track of the shim pack so you can put about the same ones back in and go to the alignment shop. Oh, yeah, use stainless shims and strongly recommend putting in a stainless steel parking brake setup.

Concur with batesy80 on replacing U-joints.

 

OK Thanks

let's see what happens...I hope to be able to do the job in the right manner.
I don't have a sawzall , I hope that a grinder with a cut disc will work fine.
I'm going to finally get the italian licence plates this week , after 3 months waiting. My vette will be registered as historic car paying just 200$ per year for insurance

I'm going also to dismantle the steel leaf spring and take it to a restore shop. I hope to solve my problem with it