Newbie here trying to find someone that can tell me where to find rear bump stops and a carrier bearing for my 96 3.8 auto. Just bought this car and I found out the bearing is toast and bump stops are gone. I tried all the big chain auto parts but nobody even shows this car to have a carrier bearing. WTF? At least they know it has bump stops but just can't get them. So where do I go from here short of a stealership? Any advise is much appreciated.

 

If your car has a two-piece drive shaft, the carrier bearing is the thing in the middle that flexes. Its cheaper and better to replace with a one-piece drive shaft thats either steel or aluminum. They can be had for under $100. The only place I could get bump stops is the dealership. If your car is stock ride height they probably arent necessary

 

Thanks Socom. This is my first 4th. Gen so I'm on a learning curve here. I live outside of Dallas and things like driveshafts cost bit more than a lot of areas. Is there a model that the driveshaft is a direct swap without any modifications? Pick-a-Part places ain't all bad lol. As for the ride height??? Just judging by the looks it may be a little low and the rear shocks are almost new but this thing will bottom pretty easy. Scared the crap out of my daughter when she drove it I also thought about air shocks... that would give it a little boost and should stop it from bottoming out. Or I could install those donut type spring spacers. 1" makes quite a difference in ride quality.

 

Forget the air shocks, they where a bad idea from the 70s. You really do not want the weight on the car on your shock mounts all the time. If your car is starting to sag then some new springs would fix it up. Aftermarket springs are not too pricey (Much cheaper then air shocks) and if you get the stock Z28 springs it may help with the bottoming out because of the increased spring rate. With the 4th gens the type of shock used is as important as the age. A good gas charged shock can make a world of different.

Any 4th gen drive shaft will fit. You should be able to find steel ones cheap from someone parting out a car. The aluminum ones are rarer and can be had online for around $100-150.

Check Ebay for both. I can normally find stuff cheaper locally then Ebay but not by much. Up here the 4th gens in the u-pull-it look like they were attacked by piranha.

Good Luck

 

A 3rd gen driveshaft will fit as well, as long as it's from a 700R4 vintage application. Whatever you pick up, take the time to replace the u-joints.

 

Bump stops here ya go

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Much appreciated Frumpy and thank you to everyone else. The factory replacement springs are actually higher priced than a set of air shocks but I'm sure this is the real issue here. And like Gorn said, age of shocks don't matter if they ain't good quality. I'm thinking I should just replace both of them and now I know where to find bump stops if it persists. Thanks again everyone!!!

 

I have never bought a factory springs,,, Even when I was a GM tech. I never installed a factory one unless it was warranty. If you want to avoid preformance stuff you can never go wrong with Moog. IMO Moog stuff is always a notch above the factory stuff unless the factory stuff is Moog.

 

Oops, sorry Gorn. I guess I wasn't real clear in what I said about the springs. When I said factory replacements I meant replacements for the factory springs. Moog springs are the ones I looked at. I usually refer to dealer parts as OEM regardless of the actual manufacturer. That was totally my fault. BTW, Did you really replace a spring on warranty? They usually outlast most cars lol. I talked to my parts guy today and he's gonna slide in these Monroe Sensa-Trak's under warrantee so at least I'll have a new pair under it this week and the bump stops will be ordered on payday. Now I gotta start looking for bushings for the trailing arms. This thing has more squeaks and bumps than I can handle.

 

I can not think of any part on a car that at one point or another I did not replace under warranty. Spring would have been replaces for breaks mostly. True defects, they happen.

You can shoot a little spray grease into the bushings. It should remove the squeaks for a short time. This can help you figure out which ones to replace.