Had the trailing arms rebuilt by Van Steele 2 years ago and went with the rubber bushings..... So far so Good!!! They also rebuilt my rear Diff. Went from 4:11 to 3:36. Not a racer, just a cruiser... They do Great Work!!! Highly Recommend!!! Mine is a 69 as well, 350-350
Glad I came across your video!! I had been seeing little pieces of rubber underneath my corvette before I had parked it for the winter. Had no idea where they had come from. After seeing your video, I went out and peeked at the the bushings on my trailing arms and sure as shit, the left side outer bushing is doing the same damn thing. The others seem to be okay though. Grrr…looks like I’ve got another project to do before the weather gets nice. My offset arms are not Van Steel, but a pair that I had picked up from a rebuilder up in Chicago area about 10yrs ago. They are poly bushings as well. Wondering if they came from the same supplier as wherever Van Steel got theirs from. Thanks for a great video! This helped me out greatly! Question though…would you mind sharing the part number of the replacement bushing kit? Where did you get them? Thanks again!
Yup! I feel your frustration! Wasn’t something I wanted to do that’s for sure. Only good thing about it was everything is new so it came apart easily. Thanks for reminding me, I had every intention of listing the part number but must’ve forgot. The bushings are Energy Suspension brand part number 33191G. Looks like Amazon is the best deal right now, no surprise there at 33.65 but eBay and rock auto have them also. Thanx for the kind words and good luck on the ole swapperoo 😀
Yeah I have known several people that have had the trailing arms bushings from Van Steel disintegrate. Me included. These companies advertise that the polyurethane components last for a lifetime but we are finding out that urethane degrades after a while. My buddy had a Snap On urethane dead blow hammer that fell apart sitting in his tool box. I'm debating whether to go ahead and replace my bushings with the OEM rubber bushings. Might be better in the long run.
Interesting to hear from people that have had this problem. This was the first time I ever had poly bushings fail. Looks like it’s more common than you’d expect. You might be right about the rubber, it dries up and gets ugly but usually doesn’t crumble and fall off.
@@ratfarm767 It makes me wonder where Van Steel is getting its bushings, and maybe they are some poorly made cheap import, or even may be USA made, but quality in everything these days seem to be shit any more, even from companies that used to be respectable and reliable. I put poly bushings on the front suspension of my 1975 Formula in 1996, and they looked brand new when I sold the car only a year ago.
@@corbinhbucknerjr558 I’ve used energy suspension brand for years with no issues, I hope they continue to make a good product. I used them in these trailing arms, so I guess we’ll see how they hold up.
