This is the installation of VBP (Vette Brakes & Products Inc) polyurethane bushings on my 2001 Z06 Corvette. This is not intended to be an in depth detailed document. This only covers removing and replacing the bushings in the control arms and assumes you already know how to remove and replace the control arms on the car. The instructions that VBP sends with their kit shows sawing the old bushings to remove them. This is a lot of extra work that you don't have to do if you have access to a press. It does not take a lot of force to remove the old bushings. I used an arbor press and had no problems. The problem with using a press is the fact that on all C5 control arms both bushings are inline with each other. Meaning each time you try to press, the other end of the control arm is in the way. I made a very simple tool that allows a press to be used making the bushing install very quick and easy. The instructions that come with the new bushings shows cutting the old bushing before you try to push them out. With this tool and a press you do not have to do anything to the factory bushing before you press them out. Since you don't have to cut the old bushings this process is very quick. I think with this tool I could replace every bushing in the C5 control arm is less than 15 minutes!

Here is how you use the tool. This example shows pressing out the rear bushing on the right front lower control arm. At the bottom you can see the bearing plate under the control arm. The bearing plate is over the hole in the press so the bushing can be pressed right through the plate and will drop to the floor. Right on top of the bearing you can see a deep well socket. This is simply a spacer that will be pushed down into the control arm, forcing the bushing out the bottom. Above the socket you will see my C5 bushing tool, you can see how the upper end of the control arm is sitting in between the arms on the tool. The upper end of the arm does not touch the tool, no force is applied to the upper end of the control arm. On top of the tool is a couple of blocks of wood for spacers. I'm using an old 50 ton hydraulic press that I bought for $50 at an auction but I'm not using the hydraulic part, it does not even have oil in it right now, I'm using the arbor part of the press.

Click on the camera for a short video showing how the tool works. Sorry about the cheesy videos, they were made with a cheap digital camera, but at least they show how the process works. Be careful, watch those toes, you don't want to do this!

Once the bushings are removed it is time to install the new bushings. The instructions say to coat the inside and outside of the bushings with the supplied grease. I only coated the inside of the bushings. I wanted to make sure the bushings did not spin in the aluminum control arms and only spun on the center steel shafts, so I only greased the center part of the bushings. The bushings push in easily without grease on the outside.

Once the bushings are in the control arms you will want to coat the inside of them with grease. Now rub grease on the outside of the steel shaft that goes into the bushing. It don't take much grease, most of it will be wiped off by the bushing when you press in the shaft so no need to leave a lot on the shaft. But you do want to rub the grease in really well. Even though the shaft feels smooth, there is tiny little places for grease to stay. The better you get it rubbed into these little places, the more grease you will have in between the shaft and bushing after the shaft is installed. I used the press to install the bushings, but a vise or C-clamp would work too. You could probably push them in by hand if you try real hard. Notice now the tool is sitting flat on the press table and we are working off the top of the tool. Now the lower side of the control arm is resting between the the legs on the tool. No pressure is applied to the lower side of the control arm, it is simply hanging between the legs of the tool.

Notice the grease as the press is lifted back up. You can see the grease that was wiped off the shaft as it was pushed in to the bushing.

After the shaft is in place, it is time to press on the washers. Here again a vise or C-clamp should work fine. Again I used the press, working off the top of the tool. I simple place a washer on the top of the tool, one on the top of the bushing, sit the bushing on top of the washer, and press them together. The VBP washers press in fairly tight, the video shows I give them a little bang when I'm done pressing, to be sure they are seated well. Remember to coat each side of the bushing before you press on the washers.

This is installing the large billet aluminum shaft in the front upper control arm.

I did run into one problem while installing the VBP bushings. When installing the front lower control arm bushings I noticed that the new washers were much larger than the factory washers. As you can see in the image of this rear control arm and factory bushing the new washers are quite a bit bigger. I didn't think much of it until I had mounted the arm back on the car. That was when I noticed that I could not rotate the adjustment bolt but so far to the inside. The bolt would rotate freely then just abruptly stop.

I had this problem on the front lower control arm's rear bushing, and both bushings on the lower rear control arm.

I rolled under the car to see what was going on. I found that the larger washer was hitting the cradle limiting the inward travel. Here you can see the large radius on the cradle where the control arm slides between. You can see where the washer is hitting the radius and actually digging into the aluminum cradle. Fearing this limited adjustment may be a problem in the future I removed the arm and looked for a solution.

Bushings_VBP_Problem-02.jpg

Here you can see the limited travel of the arm and adjustment bolt. This is probably a lost of 25% of the total adjustment range.

Bushings_VBP_Problem-04.jpg

My first plan was to use the washer from the factory bushings. I removed a couple of those washers but the lips on those washers was slightly smaller and wouldn't fit tight on the new VBP center shaft. So on to the next plan. Second plan worked great. I used a lathe to turn down the OD of the new washers. The new washer don't have to be as small as the factory washers. I turned mine down to 1.750" OD and they worked fine with plenty of clearance. I'm guessing the cradles varied a bit as GM changed the production through the years. This is probably why there is a interference problem with the VBP kit. Every year C5 may not have problems.

Cutting these washers down is not precision work. The object is to reduce the OD enough to clear the radius in the cradle. You could do this on a grinder. Your local machine shop could do the work for you, just find 3 large nuts and some washers, put them on your factory bolt. Tell you mechanist to cut them to 1.750" OD plus or minus a tenth, and he shouldn't charge you too much.

After the washers are cut you can see now the control arm and adjustment bolt will travel through it's entire adjustment range.

One other thing that concerned me but has not been a problem, yet. That is the new upper rear control arm bushings don't seem to fit the control arm very tight. If you push the bushing in the arm and turn the arm up sideways, the bushings will fall out. I'm afraid that being this loose in the arm the bushings will tend to spin in the aluminum control arm and not on the center steel shaft. This could cause a lot of wear to the soft aluminum control arms. So far the bushings are rotating on the center shaft and not in the control arm.

Also, like many others have reported I did have to grind the sides of the rear upper just a slight bit to get them to fit between the factory mounts. The rear upper bushing seems to be made just a slight bit too wide, and a slight bit too small on the outside.

I didn't like the way the little washers jingled on the shafts. So before installing the snap rings I ran a little silicone sealer around the shaft and washer then installed the snap rings. Once the snap rings were installed I pulled the washers back towards the snap ring squeezing out any excess sealer, wiped off the excessive sealer, then left it to dry. I don't know how long it will last but the washers and snap rings are glued to the shafts and don't rattle.

In theory, you shouldn't even need this washer. Nothing should ever touch it since the shafts goes in each side of the control arm it can't really move towards these washers. There is nothing on this end of the factory bushings to keep them from moving.

The new VBP shafts have elongated holes where they mount to the frame. The way I recommend installing the upper arm is to start all of the bolts, run them all down about 5 turns short of being tight. Don't forget to reinstall all of the washer that the factory installed behind the control arms! These must be placed back in the same locations as they were from the factory. Look at the washers before you start and write down the number of washers and location of all the washers so you won't forget where they go when you get back to this point. Now grab the control arm and pull it towards the back of the car, while holding the arm towards the back of he car tighten the two front bolts. Now using a pair of pliers or Vise-Grips as shown in the photo, push the shaft forward towards the front of the car while tightening the other bolt. All you're doing is hooking the pliers over the head of the bolt and pushing against the shaft to push it forward. You want to push it forward just enough to take out all the slack between the shafts and bushings. I pushed mine forward pretty hard then moved the arm up and down to make sure the bushings were seated well. Then released all the pressure and then applied a very small amount of pressure and tighten the front bolt. Once the other bolt is tight remove the pliers and tighten the rear bolt. Again, all you're doing here is making sure all the slack is removed between the shafts and bushings so the control arm can not slide front to rear on the shafts.

VBP C5 Bushing Kit Review

I think the VBP C5 bushing kit is an excellent kit! Very good quality at a fair price. I feel it is well worth the extra money to buy a kit that includes all the hardware. As shown in the photo there is a huge difference between the quality of the VBP parts and the factory parts. The factory C5 bushing material is surprisingly soft. The bushing material used in the VBP kit is surprisingly hard. You can easily press your finger nail an 1/8" into the factory bushings. If you try this with the VBP pushing you won't even dent the surface. You will probably just break your fingernail. The kit is very easy to install and all the bushing hardware is included. You do not reuse any part of your old bushings. You only reuse your control arms and bolts, everything else if provided in the kit. This makes installing the kit very quick, specially with the tool shown above and a press. The only problems I had was the washer size. The only concerns I have is the slightly small upper rear bushing. Over all I am very pleased and very impressed with the VBP C5 bushing kit!

Facts

I so often hear people say that the polyurethane bushings are stiff and cause the suspension to bind and not travel like it should. Often called static bind. This is exactly the opposite of what happens with polyurethane bushings, specially with this kit. Factory bushing are normally molded rubber bushings that are molded on the inside and outside. The rubber does not slip on the pivots, the rubber itself flexes to make the pivot. This prevents squeaks, but tends to make a gooshy bushing. The polyurethane bushings are more like a bearing. They are much harder and do not flex like the factory rubber. This means the polyurethane bushing must pivot on their support shafts. This will often cause noise such as squeaks but make an extremely tight bushing. Being that the polyurethane slides on the shafts they almost always pivot easier than a factory rubber bushing. The two video clips at the left shows just how easy the VBP bushings move. Both of these arms have the VBP bushings installed and are torqued to specifications. Just try to do that with factory rubber bushings!