VERY confused.....

['94firebirdv6]

Alright with all this talk about Poly vs. Rubber for bushing material im very confused as to which is better. i cand stand some squeaks and vibrations but i dont want all the binding that suppposedly occurs with poly.

Right now from what ive read, im assuming that rubber for LCAs and poly for everything else?????

[Little G]

You'll get different answers from different people. I have poly everything and my LCAs are spherical rod-ends. My car is loud and squeaky but it boogies down the track. If you aren't interested in all that and you just want a comfortable ride, stick with the stock rubber crap.

[Jerriko]

Originally posted by Little G:
stock rubber crap.

[img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

[PewterBird]

In my understanding. There are four basic levels:
</font>

• Stock Rubber----Soft, safe and quiet</font>
• Hard Rubber (1le) ---Half step bewteen Stock and Poly, a little more firmness without the problems of Poly.</font>
• Poly ----Firm, and Responsive, but possibly squeeky and possible binding</font>
• Metal- Serious Race Stuff</font>

Its a trade off, beween confort and quiet and more responsiveness and squeeky.

But this is way over simplified. If your serious you should do a lot more extencive reading on suspension.

[BirdOnFire]

I have poly bushings in my front lower controle arm, because my old bushings were shot, but im not happy with them, where can you get replacment rubber bushings from? i have searced all the GM sites and cant seem to find those rubber bushings?

[njp98]

Talk to Sam Strano at www.stranoparts.com , he knows ALOT about f-body suspension and suspension in general. He won autocross nationals twice I believe. His sight has a forum on it which he answers almost daily.

He was talking about how our stock bushings are so horrible since they only have two nubs on the center hub. Most times he says poly-bushings are the best for performance, but suprisingly hard rubber are better than poly in some circumstances.

I got a ride in his race prepped Z28 and then he drove my stock suspension firebird. His car had better everything: handling, ride quality, etc. I was very impressed. It also didn't do the nose dive like mine does now. The setup he runs gets slightly over 1g on the skidpad with z-rated street tires (some type of sumitumo I believe) and 1.2g's on race radials.

The upgrades are Koni adjustables , GC coil-over kit w/ slightly stiffer springs, thicker hollow sway bars he has made by Adco (they take off at least 40lbs I believe).