Pelayo114

I took my vette to a vette shop and found out that my entire rear end needs a rebuild. Wheel bearings, bushings, differential and all. Maybe even the parking break shoes. Also heard something about the half shafts.
They wanted to charge me about $2000. And I have no where near that much since I'm still in college and broke. So me and my buddy decided to do the rebuild ourselves since he rebuilt his posi rear end.
Does anyone know of any instructions on how to go about this? Everything is still on my car. I don't know what I would need and how I would go about starting on this or anything. I seriously need some help please. It'd save me a lot of money and would help me get my vette back out on the road.

Mark Riles

Is this a daily driver Corvette or can it sit without the rear end or trailing arms for a long period of time? Be clear this is a very big project. It is a very difficult project and it's obvious you are going in blind. There are specialized tools you will have to have to replace the bearings and make sure they are installed correctly. The trailing arm bushings require a special tool. The rear end is not forgiving at all and that's assuming you don't need new yokes and gears which you probably do. Son I am all for guys learning by doing but this hill is steep and slippery and the rear end and trailing arms are not the best learning tool. We'll all help you as best as we can for those of use who have done this work but make sure you have a smart approach and take it in well planned out stages. Before you order parts you need to know what to order. That means you need to remove and inspect everything. Drive shaft and half shafts, rear end and cross member, suspension components and trailing arms, brakes and emergency brakes. Break it up into those categories and work through them one at a time and confer with us one at a time. Maybe one thread per category. Take lots of notes and pictures and post them here in each thread as you work. Do you have an AIM for your Corvette?

Rally68

First thing you need to do is figure out how much you can realistically spend, and then make a list of what you would need to buy to get started so you can see how far you're likely to get. Do you have a full set of tools? Next, if you can, get a second opinion; find a local guy--doesn't have to be a mechanic--who knows C3s, and see if he'll look the car over for you. Even if he concurs with your original mechanic that all this work is needed, you will almost certainly gain some valuable knowledge from this exercise.

The procedures for all these repairs can be found here on the forum, or elsewhere online; there are even youtube videos that show some of them. I did a complete rear end rebuild myself, including a rear gear change, and I'm no mechanic...it can be done

Pelayo114

Damn, so you guys think this would best be done at a shop somewhere? I'm only 19 and so is my friend. I don't really have budget right now because I'm just looking for what kinds of things I would need for this task.

2box

If You want You could do what I did. Get it done in stages. I took the trailing arms out welded and painted myself and got the bearings set by JD Corvettes in Bellflower around $130.00 + parts. Then I took the differential out of the car and cleaned and painted and got it rebuilt by a local guy here in LA for around $150.00 + parts. Most of the other stuff in the rear end can be replaced by the regular Joe like You and me. Get Your hand dirty a bit and farm out the difficult choirs. good Luck.

rainmaninwa

Hey Pelayo114:

First... dont panic...

How about telling us a little about what you think is wrong with your Vette. Obviously, if you take your aging classic into a specialty shop and say "fix it", you can expect to get a full list of everything they can see to replace... Which as you see is most everything. So, what is going on with your Vette? Why did you take it into the shop? Noise... Hopping when going around a corner, no parking brake, bad brake performance in general, vibrations at speed, etc, etc...

Then prioritize what you want to do... With the exception of the brakes (regular, not parking) or something is acting up just awful, (differential grinding, squealing etc.) then you can figure out what needs to be done first, second, etc.

Then prioritize based on your budget, available time, what needs to be done. Etc.

I agree with all the above posts. Maybe you can't reasonably expect to do it all, or all at once, but you can do a lot of it. But... You have to have time, tools and another ride to use while its being fixed...

Good luck.

Easy Mike

What - exactly - was said at the shop? Is a rebuild recommended or were you told you literally need a rebuild? Two different things.

Are you having problems driving the car? Why did you take it to the shop?