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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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#121 ·
No offense taken, I really don't care if anyone else does this to their car. Actually I would kind of prefer nobody did, to tell the truth. I just figured i'd throw a post up showing what i'm doing to my poor car. Anyway, here are some updated pics.


This is a better pic showing that lip of rubber im cutting off.


Here is a pic of one of the front bushings with my new washer setup.


Here is a pic of the same bushing after its torqued down. Not much room for the cradle to move around now. :lildevil:


Lastly here is a pic of the rear bushings using the washers I found.
 
#122 ·
I hope this link works for you guys. Its just a short burnout vid. This is 5000RPM dumping the clutch on concrete. Usually the thing will just sit there and burn em but now the damn thing actually hooks a little. Its not the greatest vid but if you just stare at the wheel you can tell farily well that the thing isn't hopping. Its not perfect, but it sure is better.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2038186618
 
#126 ·
So wait, now it's 6 washers on the front of the cradle and 5 on the rears?
 
#128 ·
it didnt sound like hop to me... It sounded like traction... I do think the video should have been done on a longer stretch, because you really dont get a real feel for what the car is doing... It does seem much better.... would you say no hop hog? or just dramaticly reduced hop?
 
#132 ·
I think we all need some more vids before we start chopping our cars apart. It sounds like a good concept, but I agree...you can still hear a bit of chirping with the thrown gravel...

My goodness. Some of you guys think cutting a tiny piece of rubber trim is 'chopping' up your car and going to void your warranty? Oh wait, you're probably right w/ some dealers. :)

I'm going to try this mod as soon as I can locate some rear washers.
 
#135 ·
Well just a little followup on this one. Ive been driving the car around for a few weeks now this way and have noticed both good and bad changes in things. The car hooks up vastly better than before with it having a little bit of negative pinion angle to it and with the instant center dropped down a bit. You can actually feel the car weight transfer when you get on it now. Even with that stiff ass suspension the nose rises a bit now on acceleration which is great. The wheelhop is about 70-80% gone i'd say, if you just purposefully try to do a burnout it will light them up without any hop but if you dump the clutch just a little too quick on a launch it will still hop a little. Not a bad hop like it used to be but there is still some movement back there. That much of if I figure im stuck with which is pretty much the status quo wiht any IRS car.

As for the bad stuff, I can hear a light differential whine that I didn't hear before under certain conditions. The only annoying part of the swap is that damn clunk you get when you shift. That is definitly more pronounced than before. Its not horriffic but it definitly is annoying enough that i'll be working toward a solution there as well.

Now that the back end is rock solid i'm going to take it in and have it re-aligned just to make sure everything is dead on. Then off to the track and we'll see how much those 60' times improve.
 
#136 ·
The only annoying part of the swap is that damn clunk you get when you shift. That is definitly more pronounced than before. Its not horriffic but it definitly is annoying enough that i'll be working toward a solution there as well.
Cadillac engineers already found a solution to the clunk- soft-ass rear bushings.

....and around in a circle we go.......
 
#137 ·
Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner. Don't forget the "Engineers" came up with a fix for both.... less wheelhop and no clunk. Unfortunatly those squeak like a mouse in a blender.

Everyone keeps saying this BMR pinion support got rid of their clunk so I figure i'll give that one a whirl on top of what I have done so far.
 
#138 ·
Is the slight whine that you are getting because the rear cradle isn't sitting in space where it was before the washers? Meaning since the factory bushing compress so much, when you replaced them with washers did you account for the compression? You may have mentioned it and I missed it. I am going to try to do this this weekend.
 
#139 ·
Well another update on this little project. The clunking and whining were driving me batshit so I decided to rework things just a little bit. I just removed one washer from each corner so that the cradle was not 100% metal on metal with the frame of the car. There is about 1/16" of rubber between the cradle and the frame now. Wheelhop and traction are still great and the road noise is back to the way it was when it was stock. I'm going to get under there this weekend and paint the washers all flat black so it doesn't look quite so ******* and i'll try to post up a few pics.

The next step will be the pinion support....
 
#142 ·
Installed a set of custom made 303 stainless spacers in the two rear cradle attach points. Still hopped like a bunny. So I finally installed my Kars Cradle Stage III kit. Much to my dismay it still hops. I did however manage off a 1.01g on the first corner. Previously a 0.96g was the best. It hopped before these mods with both Michelin M&S and now with a new set of Dunlop Sport Maxx. I believe the Kars 'spacers' achieve basically the same thing as the DIY$17 spacers.
 

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#144 · (Edited)
So has anyone found a reliable online source for these washers? I googled for companies selling washers, and most of my responses where similar to what I'm attaching below - basically nobody seems to stock them.


Ha! Home Depot has the first ones I need already, I just really needed the second ones. I was under the impression you guys had STOCK for fasteners, not that everything was a tool job.
So no, I don't need a quote!

-B

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sales [mailto:sales@XXXX.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 7:47 AM
> To: Bob Pitas
> Subject: RE: Information Requested
>
> We have a 25 piece minimum on this size of part and their would be
> approximately a $300.00 to $600.00 tool charge.
>
> Let us know if you would still like a quote.
>
> Thank you
> xxxxx Inc.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Pitas [mailto:xxxxx@comcast.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 4:00 PM
> To: Sales
> Subject: RE: Information Requested
>
> It can be multiple washers, I just need to be able to add multiple
> washers to *get up to* 1/2". I'm expecting this would be 4-8 washers,
> but I don't know what thickness you have.
>
> -B
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Sales [mailto:xxxxxxx@bokers.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:27 PM
> > To: xxxxxxx@comcast.net
> > Subject: RE: Information Requested
> >
> > Thank you for your inquiry, however we are unable to submit
> a bid due
> > to the material is too thick.
> >
> > Thank You
> > Andy
> > xxxxxx Inc
 
#146 ·
Huh, maybe I *did* find a source - did a little more looking and came up with this:
HTML:
http://secure2.data-comm.com/servlet/RBIS/-strse-Fasteners-cln-Washers-cln-Flat-Washers/Categories
If you search for "1 1/4 ID", you'll get down to some washers that have the right ID. I think the biggest OD is 2 3/4 though - would that work based on what the washers have to do?

No luck on the 1 3/4ID ones, unfortunately...

-B
 
#151 ·
You'll get over it.
 
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