finally getting started on the suspension

yall want a life hack? take ur car to the local firestone or anything of that nature near u, and if ur a first time customer u pay $9.99 for a complete steering and suspension inspection. i went and got mine and they made a pretty extensive list of things to replace ($3,600 worth of repairs, parts & labor)so i went online and ordered the parts listed and i have most of them now. from new hubs, tie rod and tie rod ends, poly control arm bushings, sway bar links andi even got some 18” wheels and caliper covers (which are for sale btw/fit stock brakes) off the monte carlo. ill be updating this thread when i get to work. let me know what u think of my new shoes.

before and after

i know i got trim missing but its in my trunk imma slap it back on

searching the forum to see if anyone ever swapped wbody suspension parts onto your gbodys and im not seeing anything so let me start us off i took damn near the whole front end suspension (control arm, spindle, shock assembly) off the monte carlo and slapped it onto the riv. does it bolt on? yes? are there any differences? pros an cons? glad you asked well for starters, the MC spindle is aluminum rather than steel or whatever the stock riv spindles are made of. weighed much less, and doesn’t rust. mine were covered with surface rust. the MC spindles are not only lighter, but they also allow you to run bigger brake rotors and calipers. AND... the rivieras control arm is NOT serviceable! when it goes bad you’re supposed to throw the whole thing away and buy a new one. you can only replace the bushings. but the MC control arms are FULLY serviceable. the lower ball joint on there is a separate peice you can replace. and the stock riv ball joints dont have the little grease nipple to service em while the MC ball joints do (any other good balljoints you choose to slap on your car should) the only 2 other differences i noticed are the tie rod end on the MC was a bit longer than the rivs so i had to take the beat up ends off the monte carlo n slap em on the riv for now cause the shorter ones will have your tires looking the opposite of pigeon toed even with the steering wheel straight. and then the sway bar links were shorter on the MC. i dont really know what thats gonna affect, but i only swapped those cause my old ones were beat and the MC had polyurethane bushings. the last thing i can think of are the springs on the MC are narrow at the top, get wide in the middle, then back narrow at the bottom. the rivs springs are narrow on the top, get wide in the middle, and keeps that with all the way down. my passenger side currently sits lowering than the drivers. i completely forgot to take photos of the stock suspension and the differences but i still gotta do the other side tomorrow so ill make sure to follow up with those.

did some more searches on here just to find out that the people with 97+ already have aluminum spindles and 12inch rotors? 95 and 96 really have it hard.

It's all good. There were way more '95-6 Rivs made, and the front suspension stuff has been a pain. Knowing that the MC parts just *bolt* on will be a game changer for someone.

albertj wrote:

It's all good.  There were way more '95-6 Rivs made, and the front suspension stuff has been a pain.  Knowing that the MC parts just *bolt* on will be a game changer for someone.

glad its not all in vein lol any 95-96 g and w body can benefit from this upgrade to be honest

bbyshrk, what year is the Monte?
I am under whelmed by the Rivs brakes and a serviceable front end sounds good.
Not sure I'm equipped for the work myself but very interesting!

Jbird

jbird wrote:

bbyshrk, what year is the Monte?
I am under whelmed by the Rivs brakes and a serviceable front end sounds good.
Not sure I'm equipped for the work myself but very interesting!

Jbird

sorry, im seeing this a little late, my phone’s been broken or the past couple days. but the monte carlo is a 2000. and i believe any monte from 2000-2005 will work

jbird wrote:

bbyshrk, what year is the Monte?
I am under whelmed by the Rivs brakes and a serviceable front end sounds good.
Not sure I'm equipped for the work myself but very interesting!

Jbird

Why do you not like the Riv brakes? They have PLENTY of bite with the right brakes/rotors IMO.

They nice to know in case I can NEVER find another bushing for my RARE 97 FCA. Great find!