bsherman211

I have a 65 Starfire that we've completely rebuilt but now I'd like to improve the suspension. I'd love to use one of the Ride Tech kits but I'm unsure if our Starfire shares its suspension with any of the GM platforms that Ride Tech has listed. I've asked Ride Tech but they have no idea. Does anyone here know if the Starfire shares common suspension parts with any othe GM cars?

joe_padavano

The 65 Starfire uses the same suspension as the 65-70 full size Olds and Buick cars. Delta 88, Ninety Eight, LeSabre, Electra, Wildcat. It is NOT the same as the Impala.

Classics65

How about rear control arm being interchangeable? Would like to beef them up to a tubular design, but if it's like the other 90% of the starfire, they are unique to that car and connot use control arms from another cars kit, I suppose I could always box the old ones. I guess a better question would be how much abuse can the original control arms takes at a drag strip under the high grip/hp abuse?

joe_padavano

The Chevy and Olds full size cars from 1965-1970 use COMPLETELY different suspensions. Nothing interchanges. The Impala rear suspension is a three link with a Panhard rod. The Olds is a traditional four link.

Classics65

Figured as much. So to strengthen the control arms of the 4 link my best bet is to do some fab work and box them? Thanks again for passing on your wealth of knowledge! 👍

cfair

I'm using boxed rear upper and lower trailing arms for a cutlass in my 66 Starfire and 66 98.

Long ago in a junkyard I compared the trailing arms for a body and the b/c body and they were identical to my eye. So both my big cars have I think hotchkiss arms for an a body and they've worked great for at least 10 years with the rear sway bar. If I remember correctly hotchkiss arms were slightly different for 65-67 as compared to 68-up.

Caveat: I've never confirmed that the pinion angle was correct.

Consider this a lead and call hotchkiss with the dimensions of your factory arms.

Classics65

Hotchkiss or qa1. I was looking in to getting the tubing and weld in bushing ends and doing custom tubular control arms. I'll see what Hotchkiss has to say. I can't imagine the geometry being much different going from and an a body and b body using the same length suspension components

cfair

I've found the front suspension for my 66 big cars a challenge. The specific weak spot I've been bitten by is a lower ball joint breaking an A-arm in a low speed turn. Twice on 2 different cars. Very scary. Especially with a child in the car. Or a girlfriend.

There are 2 fixes I've used.

First, when you pull the upper and lower arms for new bushings and/or ball joints, have them magnaflux (under u/v?) checked for cracks. Also out of round for the bushings which will need tack welding of the bushing to the arm. If yours are bad and you can get good ones, replace.

Second, have a good welder weld in new steel in the lower a-arm on the underside to strengthen or reinforce the lower arm.

I think what cracked and cause my lower a-arms to fail was either a slight too-large new ballpoint or high mileage fatigue. Or maybe someone didn't use a ball joint press and just beat the joints in...

My hard won experience.

cfair

As to bushings and shocks, just to finish things, KYB gas-a-just is my go to for decades. Just great balance of ride and control.

After experimenting for a year or 2 with polyurethane bushings on my 66 Starfire on the hunt for better control, I went back to rubber. The poly was just too stiff. It felt like I was fighting the comfort design goal of the big cars.

The only exception might be front sway bushings, poly might be good there, but marine grease them on installation to minimize squeaks.

If you're aiming at a street car, I'd strongly recommend staying with rubber bushings like the factory intended on the a-arms and trailing arms.

joe_padavano

The factory parts book confirms that the 1956-1970 B/C-body cars use exactly the same P/N rear lower control arms as the 1964-72 A-body cars.

Classics65

Too good to be true?

Charlie Jones

Yes , it is too good to be true . As Joe P. noted before , Chevy and Olds control arms from this era "B" body are NOT the same.
Try asking the vendor if they have actually seen these arms installed in a 60's full size Olds . Bet they haven't .

Classics65

oh i know they havent. I just thought it was funny how the same part number supposedly fits mopar a,b,e bodies. BOP full sized along with the gm b bodies.

joe_padavano

Worse than that. The 61-64 cars use different arms than the 65-70 cars, which use different arms than the 71-76 cars, yet these fit all three generations.

Classics65

a truly universal control arm

Charlie Jones

The stock Olds suspension was designed to be at least twice as strong as it would ever need to be. In my estimation , strong enough for a half ton truck .

Why would anyone want to waste their money on these control arms ?
The only thing that is going to be lighter is your wallet .

If you want real "handling" buy a Ferrari .

Classics65

Don't worry I'm not buying them haha. My control arms are in surprisingly good condition given the fact I drove it for 3 years not knowing all of the bushings were shot. All I'm doing is new bushing all around and coil over shocks.