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2004 Grand Prix Spindle Rod Squeak

Zaniac

Zaniac

New member
Hey everyone,

So I had this squeak in the rear suspension. I jacked it up and narrowed it down to the bushing on the spindle rod. The issue is that I can't remove the bolts as the spare tire holder and gas tank are in the way. Just wondering if the rear suspension support unbolts from the frame and I can lower it to remove the bolts and either grease or replace the bushings?

Has anyone ever dealt with these spindle rods and if so, can you offer some tips.

Also, I was going to jack it up but can I use ramps for this particular job?

Thanks,

Derek
 


you need to lower the rear sub frame to get to the bolts for the bars. keep in mine the brake line runs in the frame so dont go pulling to hard and break or kink the line. there might be a union on the d/s and you can undo the line at the pass side union to the rubber line.

i also had to un hook my cat back from the rubber mounts.

air gun is key here. by hand this will be work. large tight bolts.
 
I jacked up the car and supported the back by the body, then put stands under the rear subframe about 1-3 inches and allowed it to lower down onto the second set of stands. Not too bad overall if you keep that brake line in mind.
 
the joy, but at least i could get it aligned again. guy at the shops like who did the bars? im like i did, on my back, hes like damnnnn.
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Thanks everyone. Yes, air gun for sure. I noticed the dual exhaust is tight as well, was there any problems dropping the suspension support with the exhaust there or is there enough clearance? I will keep the brake line in mind. Going to do it tomorrow morning when it's cooler so will post back on the effort. Thanks again for the tips :)
 
I undid the exhaust at the middle and back.. give it a little support at muffys and it'll give you the room you need.











You can see here that I supported the body of the car and mufflers are hanging. I think I used a cardboard box to support them at the back.
 


When I say undid exhaust, I mean the hangers for it. It was still connected to the engine.

You may also note that I was redoing nearly everything at this point, so while the brake line is visible in the above pics, the brake hose was being replaced, suspension, knuckle, calipers.... it was all off. You shouldn't have to pull everything to do the bars.
 
Ok everyone, job went well, I only replaced the non-adjustable ones on each side. Put everything back together and noticed tires are now toed in slightly. Took it for a drive and could feel it. Parts were identical so not sure why it is out of alignment. As it is a rear alignment, can I simply adjust the other lateral links to compensate? I will post pics later if needed.

Thanks again to all...
 
if the adjustable bars still work, you need an alignment. why its best to just swap all 4 bars at the same time at min, job kinda blows why set your self up to have to go back one day.

would need an alignment either way tho, all 4 bars replaced or not.
 
Thanks Scottydoggs, so are you saying I should just get a professional alignment or can I tweak the adjustable lateral links? And yes, in hindsight, the job was big enough so replacing all 4 would have been the smart choice. I am in no rush to go back and do it again :)
 


having a shop do it will be best, but theres nothing stopping you from trying to get them back to true till you got time or money to hit the shop.

thing is if they are that far off the tires will wear unevenly pretty fast.

be worth going over the front end before hitting the shop too. tie rods go bad its easy enough to test them out and replace if needed.
 
Sounds great, thanks Scottydoggs, I will attempt it in the morning and give you an update. Thanks again for all the help.
 
FWIW, I did all front and rear suspension, etc etc and brought it straight in for an alignment as new tires were also going on soon. Told the place, it's all new so it should be super easy vs trying to free up 10 year old parts. When I picked it up the guy said "Wow the tech said it really was new and that we all had to go check it out, that was impressive and yeah the guy loved doing this alignment"

Wish I could always do it that way.
 
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