Suspension maintenance

[BammBamm]

My 82 spider has all original rubber in the suspension and its time to go. When I look at the price of ball joint and control arm bushings it makes sense to buy the pre fabricated from AR or vick's. Unless there is a reason the tear the old ones apart, sand blast, paint and reuse them. Then which ones should I get? Vicks has ones that allow the shock to be dropped out easily. Is that important to me?

[RRoller123]

Just an fyi: The ones from AR also let the shock come easily out the bottom. I have them in my car.

[wubie317]

My 82 spider has all original rubber in the suspension and its time to go. When I look at the price of ball joint and control arm bushings it makes sense to buy the pre fabricated from AR or vick's. Unless there is a reason the tear the old ones apart, sand blast, paint and reuse them. Then which ones should I get? Vicks has ones that allow the shock to be dropped out easily. Is that important to me?

I'm in the exact same boat right now, though my rubber is from '77. I decided to buy the complete control arms from AR because my mechanic quoted me $600+ to do all the bushings, saying he had just completed the job on another '77 a few months ago and knew how much time it took. Can't vouch for AR's over Vicks, but can say that the ARs look quite sturdy and well put together.

[baltobernie]

Guys, make sure you install the Left one on the left side of the car, etc. Both arms look quite similar and may be installed regardless, but they are different.

[Dawgme85]

I just received my control arms from AR, but haven't taken them out of the box, yet. I have an upper ball joint with a bit of slop in it and the bushings appear cracked. After discussing with my mechanic, the consensus was that it would be less expensive to replace the control arms, as opposed to replacing the bushings and ball joints individually. The car goes in the shop on Monday for new control arms, progressive lowering springs, and Konis.

[DieselSpider]

Whatever you do replace everything in pairs matching both sides. The previous owner did a one sided repair since the older bushings on one side looked good enough and the uneven suspension reaction is clearly evident while driving. 4 new shocks and such were put in but they skipped matching the bushings on both sides. Its on my growing to-do list of things to set right.