Tell me it is a good thing to have gray metal fake in your rear end oil

[navy2kcoupe]

Jack, I've always said "Good, Fast, and Cheap. Pick any two." If you pick good and fast, it AIN'T gonna be cheap!
Sounds to me like you've settled on good and "less expensive", so it's NOT gonna be fast! Just keep pluggin'
away and you'll eventually get to the end. Appreciate the write ups and pictures. It's nice to see what (and how)
others get different jobs done.
Andy

 

[jackfit]

Day 3 of the Great Journey Happy New Years 2015

Day 3 "The Great Journey moving along"


Happy New Year to one and all !


Garage on got to 48* today, not bad, since it was 18* when I turned the heat on. Started at 4 PM , lots of other errands to do.


Stopped at 6 pm about 2 hours work today. After all it is NYE.


Today the goal was to remove the strut rod bracket intact. The rods are attached to the TA and the strut mount must be knocked out of the TA in order to release rod from spindle assembly.


I had also hoped to remove the snub bushing which would have allowed me to disconnect the drive shaft. That was not to happen , ran out of time and I could not figure out how to attach a wrench to the bolt that hold the snub bushing, The nut is easy to get to, but without locking the top of bolt , it will just spin.


I will just crack nut or cut it of and pull down snub bracket. Disconnect drive shaft and then the FUN Begins. See that Crow Bar, Soon we do the " Sombrero Dance"


Cheers Jack


We may need this soon !





Home made "Shock Knocker "





Punch to finish job after heat and a few hard whacks with a hammer





Rod now free of spindle assembly





High Tech Tools Shock Mount is out and looks a little bent after 48 years







Strut Bracket Intact and free of rear and spindle





Day 3 Parts Collection





The "Sombrero Dance " Tomorrow if I can move....

 

[jackfit]

Day 4 of the Great Journey Happy New Years 2015

Here's another link to the "Sombrero" article:


http://www.lbfun.com/warehouse/tech_info/body_&_frame/SombreroDance.pdf


s:

Thank you, John and Happy New Years


Day 4 11:15 am New Years Day


The "Sombrero Dance " Today ...I hope the nuts turn ! I read the article , my pry bar is not Super Charged as in the article....lol


http://www.lbfun.com/warehouse/tech_info/body_&_frame/SombreroDance.pdf







I will be back with update & pictures in a few hours :cheers:


Jack

 

[jackfit]

Day 4 of the Great Journey Happy New Years 2015

Day 4 of " The Great Journey " Rear End / Sombrero Removal


Happy New Years to All oohoo:


Today's Goal was to finish the job of removing the rear end from the car. 2 hours time 1 hour work 1 hour crawl time ...lol


I needed to remove the cross member which requires the removal of the Sombrero Bushings / Nuts the hold cross member to frame. After 48 years of driving in the North East on salted roads and 300,000 miles , you would think all the nuts, bolts and rust would cause a great deal of problems.


Well , not one bolt or nut broke so far. The cross member to my disappointment , did not pop off. The bolts came right out


( I left them in when prying)


The cross member just came off with gentle pressure of the pry bar.


The most difficult part was getting the u-joint nuts off . The rear is locked up and you can not rotate the drive shaft. After dropping the rear down with cross member , I was able to do each nut .


The snuber bracket bushing was difficult because it is hard to put a wrench on the top bolt while you undo the bottom nut.


Tomorrow I will take the rear off the carrier and see what is left of the insides....


The job took 2 hours today 1 hour of work and 1 hour of crawl time on my back. It has taken me about 10-12 hours to get to this stage .


With a lift that time would be about 3-4 hours . Stay tuned for the opening of the rear tomorrow !


What I would like to be able to do later





Gentle prying , cross member came right off - bolts came right out





Cross member now free - both sides came off - no problems





Rear supported by jack as work on drive shaft u-joints





Rear End / Cross member now free of car in dolly





Sombreros after 48 years !








Rear End at Rest





Day 4 Parts Collection

 

[navy2kcoupe]

YEAH! Now the fun part begins! I wouldn't have been able to stop right there,
I would have HAD to open the rear up to see what the heck went wrong!
Anxiously awaiting word on what you find...........
Andy

 

[jackfit]

Day 5 of the Great Journey

Day 5 " The Great Journey " Oh my God ! Look at that !


Goals for today : Remove rear from cross-member and open rear end to see what happen to it.


A lesson to be learned. I have been driving this car for almost 300,000 miles in the North East and just about everywhere else. Winter and Summer , salt and rain. And not one bolt was rusted in or broke trying to take it out.


It is sitting for years that rust these cars. Cars that are driven may get surface rust, but it seems the heat and oil must perserve the parts in some way. Sure , they wear out, but I never thought in a million years that the bolts would come out of the rear carrier. But I used a little heat and also used a bolt-out socket by Irwin Tools. It cuts into bolt or nut will take out rounded parts.


I thought it best to use it first before a regular socket. I big breaker bar and very slow turning and out came all the bolts on the cross-member and rear carrier.


Once the cover was off, it was very apparent what happen as you can see. The drive pinion gear was able to move backward into the Posi unit. The ring gear looks OK ....Posi not so good....


Comments are welcome. Any 3:36 posi rears not being used ?


Heating up the cross member bolts. I used a big breaker bar and Irwin Socket (nut / bolt extractor socket) first before I even tried a regular socket





Bolts that I though would never come out , came out





Cover ready to be taken off , what will we find ?





Not very pretty











Day 5 Parts Collection

 

[Toms007]

That is nasty looking Jack. Hoping that the metal fragments didn't take out the ring gear. Or are you planning on replacing most of that anyway?

 

[jackfit]

Get me a 3:36

That is nasty looking Jack. Hoping that the metal fragments didn't take out the ring gear. Or are you planning on replacing most of that anyway?

I would like to go back to the original 3:36 that the car came with. I made it faster in 1971 with the 3:70 and M-20 wide ratio. Not much light to light racing as when I was younger (last week).....

I will be looking for a 3:36

Jack

 

[Toms007]

I'm thinking that would make it much more friendly, and allow you to pass a gas station or two.

 

[navy2kcoupe]

YEOWWWWWWW! That's not very pretty to look at, and when you DO look at it,
it looks to be pretty expensive! If the pinion gear was moving back into the posi
unit, that would mean that the driveshaft was also moving backwards. Maybe a
good time to look at the rear seal on the transmission, or maybe just replace it
as a preventative measure.............
Keep us posted on the progress! Looks like you were very lucky it didn't trash
the whole unit.......
Andy

 

[jackfit]

Day 6 of the Great Journey

Today I will take off bearing caps and Posi unit and see what is behind the mess.

Posts and pictures to come later today.

 

[jackfit]

Day 6 of the Great Journey

Hello, Bonjour, and Good Afternoon,


Day 6 I thought you would be tired of looking at my car's rear end.


Picture taken in Nice, France on Corvette Vagabond 's European Tour.
Well I found the problem. Failed bearing of pinion gear or Posi Unit its self. The pinion gear was able to move forward hitting Posi causing damage and pieces breaking off.


The fact that I was only going 10 mph saved my car from extensive damage had it let go at 70 mph. Nothing left to do but replace the unit. I will be looking to put a 3:36 in instead of the current 3:70 which is more inline with my high speed driving on highways in the US and Europe.


Thanks for coming along. I will keep you posted on further work on car as I put it back together.


If you would like to see more photos , please like the https://www.facebook.com/CorvetteVagabond page and enjoy or


https://www.corvettevagabond.com for many stories and car collections.


New Units





Table





Patient





Taking out bolts caps off but that will not help take out Posi







Pieces of Posi











Time to replace the unit, here is bearing difficult to see but a mess

 

[jackfit]

As the Bounty Hunter Mercenary said in "Chronicles of Ridic "

I should have listen an "Taken the Money"


I should have listen and taken out the rear ...sooner......:cheers:


Jack

 

[Toms007]

I'm a fan of the "new units, rear ends".

 

[kpic]

Definitely fine units..

It seems the paste should have been magnetic.

 

[jackfit]

Definitely fine units..

It seems the paste should have been magnetic.

The gears seem fine, it is the case from the posi unit ( aluminum ?) that is paste !

 

[navy2kcoupe]

How are you making out with this project, Jack?
Any decisions on whether to rebuild or get another one?
Andy

 

[jackfit]

Two different strut rods!

---

Guess what? Last night I went out to garage to take a look at the struts, and what do I see? The bent one is 1 1/4 & the straight one is 1 3/8

Now it all comes back to me, in 1971 I had the rear changed, the mechanic must have broken the original rod and put in the later design.

Should I replace the old bent original with the later one (stronger ?)
For a matched pair?

Or just order a new correct rod with bushings installed and put bushings in old correct rod that has the right camber setting with the bend.

Gary Ramadei is working on finding and building me a rear end. We may use some of my old parts, the more I look at 3:08 and 3:36 the more I like my 3:70. I only go above 110 mph on the highways......

Jack


Strut Bracket Intact and free of rear and spindle

 

[Tom Bryant]

Just an Opinion

I have had both a '65 327/300 and a '67 427/390 with a 3.36. I consider that to be the best all around gear, especially if you are using the car for touring like you do. A 3.70 just seems to spin the engine too fast for me at 70 mph on the interstate. Around town or on country roads it is great. The 3.36 is easy to pull away from a stop and acceleration is good. It isn't quite the same as a 3.70 but the easier cruising at road speed is worth the trade off to me. One added benefit of the 3.36 is that at 70 mph the tach needle is at 3000 rpm. Both are pointing 90* straight up. Kind of cool.

You might be able to live with a 3.08 if you have the wide ratio 2.54 low gear trans. I don't think you'd like it in the long run though. I don't like to slip the clutch to get moving.

Tom

 

[Toms007]

Is there a 5 or 6 speed that will swap in there without much trouble? If so, then the 3.70s would be ideal for his type of driving.