Clicking Rear Suspension

[signature65]

Ok after a hour searching I gotta ask. I know this has been covered many times before, Sorry guys.

Going over speed bumps my 73T's rear suspension is clicking and clacking. Leads me to think bushings. As far as I know they might be original.

So obviously its time for a complete suspension rebuild. The car is driven on the street mostly. The front is pretty straight forward. I am curious if polybronze in the front and stock new rubber bushings in the rear would make for an awkard setup. Cost is my main concern. When the polybronze are $315 and the stock bushings are $60 it leads me to rubber.

Any advise, thoughts, or ideas are appreciated. Thanks

[rick2]

Check the sway bar mounts/ends, shock rubbers and even the cv joints can click if they are worn out or the rubber dry rotted and lost lube. Could also be a wheel bearing is so bad it makes noise when the load changes. Hope this helps before you go emptying the bank.
Rick

[Chuck Moreland]

since you have the original bushings, very likely it is the spring plates making the noise.

The bushing becomes permanently deformed, allowing the tube portion of the spring plate to move upward. Look straight on at the tube part of the spring plate, it should be concentric in the hole in the spring plate cover.

But when the bushing has deformed, the spring plate is no longer concentric in the cover plate hole. In extreme cases the spring plate contacts the spring plate cover. The resulting metal-to-metal contact makes the clicking sound.

The cure is new spring plate bushings, either rubber or polybronze.

[tonythetarga]

Originally Posted by signature65

I am curious if polybronze in the front and stock new rubber bushings in the rear would make for an awkard setup.

Nothing wrong with that set up at all.