| This is the front suspension all torn apart to replace the lower control arms and spindles with ones from a Cadillac Fleetwood limousine. I did this on the reccomendation of an article written by Scott Mueller on B-Body.net. The main reason to do this mod is to replace the weak standard 9/16" ball joint with a HD 5/8" unit used on the limos, late '96 taxi and 9C1 cars. The stock suspension actually felt quite solid (particularly for having 100K miles on it), but if you read Scott's article you'll see that this is about a 95% safety upgrade and 5% performance upgrade. While I was in there I also replaced the upper ball joints and was planning on replacing the upper bushings as well. However, when I got in there I found that the original upper bushings were still really solid, so I decided not to bother. If you do this mod, I would suggest that you don't disconnect the upper arm from the frame unless you have to. It's a little tight to drill the rivets out of the upper joints, but getting the arm out of there is difficult, plus you run the risk of losing your shims and screwing up your alignment. |
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