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90K views 330 replies 98 participants last post by  bpitas 
#1 ·
Well I got bored today so I decided to try and rid myself of this damn wheelhop. It seems pretty obvious what the problem is with these bushings, they are just incredibly soft. In an effort to firm them up I decided to just shim them. The job was super easy to do, just put the ass end on jackstands, support the diff with a jack, pull the front 2 cradle bolts and let the diff down slowly until you have enough room to work.



I trimmed the rubber bushings down to the point they had a nice flat surface which lets the first 1.25" washer fit over the metal part of the bushing.



I ended up using 2 washers on top and bottom which compresses that bushing close to 1/2". Using the jack to lift the cradle back up and center the upper washers made it a piece of cake.



Unfortunatly I could only find 1.25" washers so I was only able to do the front cradle bushings so far. I'll be picking up some 1.75" washers to do the same to the rear two bushings as well.


Before dropping the clutch at 5k on dry pavement resulted in wheelhop that would give ya a nose bleed. Now it only has a slight little wiggle that you can barely feel and the tires lay a perfectly smooth patch of rubber down. I've still got a little hop when I grab second hard but its only half of what it was before. Hopefully after doing the same to the rear bushings it will be even better. All in all I have to say I’m really pleased with the results. All in all i'm very happy with it. It was a dramatic improvement on the wheelhop and absolutely no increase in interior noise since there is no metal-on-metal contact. :spin:
 
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#90 ·
so anyone else tried the washer remedy (luck/no luck)?

T
 
#92 ·
Just a quick update here. Went to the track last night to try out the new setup. I didn't have time to do the rear shims so still just the front. Burnout was almost perfectly smooth, still a little bit of hop on the 1-2 shift but not bad. I found the 1.75" washers at fastners and will be getting them installed if the weather holds. I'm going to take it one step farter and just shim this entire cradle solid, so there will be no flex from the bushings whatsoever. Probably going to increase interrior noise a bit but we'll see. I'll throw up some pics and video as soon as I can.

Oh ya 13.41 at 109.1 last night with another stellar 2.34 short time. Luckily it was still quick enough to put the GTO in the other lane to bed. :thumbsup:
 
#95 ·
You are fricken funny Jarrett! :bouncy: The caps are hilarious because while you're reading it, you don't see the 'sorry for caps' and it really sounds demanding and like ur mad! lmao
 
#94 ·
LOL @ the caps. No need to shout.

Look at the last pic I posted at the beginning of this thread. You see the washers pinched up against the body of the car and down low by the main bolt and you can see the cradle inbetween. The little gap between the steel cradle and those washers is all rubber at this point. I'm going to put a third washer on top and bottom so that it is 100% solid. The only thing between the cradle and the body will be steel.

Im piecing together goodies for my turbo kit this week and im thinking I might as well make that ass end as solid as possible while im back there doing these shims.
 
#96 ·
Well sorry guys but I wimped out this weekend. Weather was shitty and I didn't feel like getting under the car. With the 3 day weekend coming up I should be able to get it done along with a nice lil video of me destroying these little 245's so I can get some real rubber. Also should be plumbing up the intercooler this coming weekend ;-)
 
#98 ·
I have not noticed any additional road noise. They may be a slight increase, but I really have not noticed anything.

Thus far I can tell the car does handle differently, it feels quite a bit more firm in back. Here in Spokane we have pretty nasty roads in a lot of places which is where I notice it most or if i'm just messing around in a parking lot or something.

I didn't lube the washers or anything like that, its just bare rubber on steel like the rest of the bushings in our cars. No squeaks or anything so far, even after driving it in the rain this weekend.

The more I think about it, I really don't like this bushing setup. We have very finely tuned rear suspension and alignment settings; the vast majority of which are referenced to the cradle and not the car. With the cradles ability to move as far as it can with these gooey bushings that has got to play hell with the cars ability to handle in any extreme situation weather it be accelerating, cornering or braking.

Like I said, i'll be swapping this thing over to a purely solid mount over the 3-day weekend. I'm also going to play around with adjusting the angle of the cradle by varrying the shims front to rear. I'm just going to try to dial in a touch of negative pinion angle and drop down the instant center (if this weirdo IRS setup even has one) of the rear suspension. In theory it should hook better this way.... in reality it may just drive like crap lol.
 
#100 ·
Yeah i'll definitly keep you posted and i'll try to get a little better pics this time around. If it works well you are more than welcome to put it up in the FAQ... hell even if it doesn't work you can put it up in the "look what this idiot did" section. :)
 
#101 ·
Still believing in the dream.... of an inexpensive wheel-hop solution. Any updates fellas?

T
 
#103 ·
sweet. I will be doing this this weekend also... Along with the sways and the coilovers!!! Whoot!!!!
 
#106 · (Edited)
#108 ·
Hey Guys, I just wanted to throw up a quick post before I headed to work. I had a chance to finish up my experiment yesterday. all 4 corcers are shimmed 100% solid with a slight offset front-to-rear to drop the instant center of the rear suspension down a touch and to give me just a touch of negative pinion angle. So far the thing drives like a champ and hooks quite a little bit better than before. And best of all, No Wheelhop! I took some better pics and a quick burnout video that i'll post as soon as I get a chance.
 
#109 ·
ok soo im waiting for a detailed list of the parts needed to get the best fix,,,the washer sizes i got, but if you did something different that works better,,im all for that,,,just show me a list of the parts im gonna need,,i have a friend that owns a machine shop that can custom cut the shims or bushings to the required size,,,gonna try an get under the 07 cts-v and see if its like everyone elses,, mine has the wheel hop as well.

would love to see those pics and videos

thanks for the incentive to get things done and take care of some business Hog,,,Kudos

Chris
 
#111 ·
As I was installing my Ground Control kit this past week I noticed my car has the BMR "anti-wheelhop" kit installed (previous owner did it). The BMR pieces seem to be much beefier than the washers. Whats the difference in the BMR metal spacers for the rear cradle and these washers?
 
#113 ·
I'm watching this thread with much interest, even tho' wheel-hop has likely saved me well over a grand in tire costs. Even with the wheel-hop, my rear tires were down to the wear strips after 6,500 miles B4 thinking about rotating them....

Keep the updates coming, this sounds WAAAAY to easy...

Dave
 
#116 ·
yea wheres the promised videos///final/complete parts list??? Id like to duplicate this procedure and righ tmy own thoughts up, and can do it today, if someone gives me the proper specs of what I need, and how to install them. I remember hog saying something about setting the * of delflection or pinion angle or something too....so its not just a throw the washers in and go.
 
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