Frozen rear end in a '69

[Koop]

I washed my car on Sunday, drove it about 3/4 of a mile and put the car away. I went to drive it to work on Tuesday and the car won't move! Trans engages, car lifts up in the rear trying to move, but the tires don't move AT ALL. I tried to move the car again on Wednesday but same deal, frozen solid. I didn't gas it hard, but I wasn't to gentle either.

I didn't set the parking brake (like that could've stopped 460ft lbs of tq).

I got the floor jack out and lifted the back tires off the ground to drag the car out of the garage for the tow truck but I couldn't move it... Go figure the floor jack wheels were stuck in the carpet in the garage.

I decided to see if the wheels would turn by hand while it was up in the air and THEY TURNED!

Dropped the car back down and the freeze in the rear end was gone.



Anyone have any ideas???

I'm lost.

 

[muddywaters]

Pinion bearing????? it's usually the first to go......

 

[muddywaters]

Reading your post again, it might well be the parking brake since jacking it seemed to correct the problem, I always hated the motorcycle/parking brake on the C3's. A frozen pinion bearing would not correct itself.....

 

[gmjunkie]

Reading your post again, it might well be the parking brake since jacking it seemed to correct the problem, I always hated the motorcycle/parking brake on the C3's. A frozen pinion bearing would not correct itself.....

Yeah,I,ve had this happen!!Parking shoes stuck to the drums from rust!!I never use my parking brake when I store it for the winter,They'll be stuck every time in the spring if I do!!!

 

[6880 Mike]

Parking brake shoes.

 

[GTR1999]

I'd look at the PB as well. The diff could have some things like a broken ring gear bolt. They back out and usually shear off but could lock up. You would hear that though.

The PB hold most times isn't enough to completely lock up the wheel. You might want to collapse the PB shoes so there's no drag on them and see what happens.

 

[Koop]

I haven't driven the car yet, I'm going to take it for a ride tonight. I hope nothing snaps.

I guess a part of one of the parking brake shoes could have broken off and wedged in there somehow, since the brake was not set I don't see how it could have fused in just 48 hours. I just don't think the parking brake could hold the car as solid as this was.

Anything is possible, the car has a gazillion miles on it and the rear has never been rebuilt (I'm currently running the 4th motor).

Either it's going to make some noise tonight or I may never know what it was!

 

[6880 Mike]

...I guess a part of one of the parking brake shoes could have broken off and wedged in there somehow...

Or one of the springs.