Crap, I'm just not having a great month (broken suspension), heh

[Starfury]

So I took my car to school today to figure out what i broke in the l/f suspension that's been clanking when I go over bumps/potholes.  Turns out my l/f shock pushrod broke right at the point where it threads into the lower mount (edelbrock shocks, so they're upside down).

Since the shocks are basically new as of late last year, I'm blaming it on the stupid rubber-bushing spring perches.  The damn things don't rotate.  I think the shocks broke as I came down hard after hitting a rise too fast.  The suspension went from the bottom of travel right to the bump stop in a fraction of a second, and I theorize that the spring perch didn't rotate as the spring collapsed, putting a lot of torque on the shock, causing the rod to snap.

Two things come of this:
1) I get to buy another shock.  Meh.  I knew something was broken, and a broken shock isn't that bad.
2) I now have an excuse to buy roller spring perches along with UCA's (and maybe coils) when I tear the front end apart to do the Shelby drop.

On the upside, after shaking down the rest of the front end, I found my LCA's are in good shape, so no need to replace those.  I also replaced my motor mounts earlier tonight (PITA, again), so no more rocking engine:)

[cmayna]

Sounds like you should have stayed in bed.    Yeah, go roller perches.  Get a roller idler arm.  Why not, it's only money.

[Starfury]

Because I don't have a lot of money:(  Starving college student and all...

I'm not really pissed.  I knew something was broken, but not what.  Now I know what, which is better than two days ago.

[pnandy]

how much does a roller idler arm help with manual steering?

[Starfury]

Looking at the price, I may fork for one while I've got it all apart.  It's only $75 (compared to $100 retail for a stocker here at Napa).  I've heard they make a noticable difference in steering effort and steering feedback.

On the downside, I'm almost at $400 for my front end project=/