steering/suspension components - simple questions for you

[javt99]

Hi guys,

Just got my '99 VT Calais back from the mechanic and am told I need new Z-bar bushes (front and rear). I've been doing some research and trying to decide if I should have a shot at this repair myself. I have a fairly limited amount of mechanical experience, but think I'm pretty handing at figuring this sort of stuff out with some basic instructions. I have purchased a Commodore repair manual recently. It's just hard to use sometimes when different parts have multiple names and for example, my manual makes no reference at all to Z-bars...

Do these front and rear Z-bar bushes both go at the front end of the car? Or is the rear bush actually for the rear end of the car?

I've found a few 'how-to' articles on the net, but need to clarify some terminology.

Z-bar bushes are also known as:
- radius rod bushes, or radius rod to chassis bushes
- caster bushes
- any other names I should know?

Does this mean that the Z-bar, radius rod and caster bar(?) are all the same thing? What about the sway bar? I've also heard 'radius arm' and 'strut' being used interchangably - is this correct?

Lastly, is a torque wrench a MUST for this job? I was going to get one until I saw the price of them...

I'll limit my questions to the above for now. Thanks heaps in advance to anyone who can provide some help and save me a few hundred dollars on mechanic's labour.

[accentstencil]

All the same thing except for the sway bar which is attached to the struts. Radius rod bushes are easy enough to do yourself. The Gregory's should be of help. The radius rods are at the front. They go from the crossmember to the control arm.
I only just recently bought a torque wrench. I went for decades without one and had no problems. But you need a rough idea of how tight a particular torque is. For certain things, like rebuilding an engine you would be wise to use one.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

This is the problem with the automotive industry, different names for the same thing.

Caster rod, radius rod, Z bar - all the same. The sway bar can also be known as the stabilizer bar or anti-roll bar. It goes from one side of the car to the other and is held by bushes. You will see a pin that connects a bar to the strut, the bar is the sway bar, the pins are link pins, and the bushes are link pin bushes. The other two bushes that hold it are D bushes.
Strut and radius arm are different. The strut is the thing your front spring is on, the radius arm could be anything that swings through an arc.

Front and rear radius rod bushes refer to the front and rear of the rod, not the car. One end goes to the lower control arm, the other end goes to the front of the K frame.

To replace them isn't that hard of a job, your repair manual will walk you through it, but it will probably have a few more steps that an experienced person will skip because they are not totally necessary.