After a lifetime of drooling over them, I finally picked up this L76 C2 last month and it feels good.

It’s a pretty nice driver, free of any major rust that I can find – so just what I was hoping for. Since we got it we’ve had a few dry days to get out and enjoy it and we’ve put a couple hundred of fun miles on it. We’re lucky to live close to some nice shoreline roads – some with lots of curves and small hills so it gets to stretch it legs a bit. Right away I noticed the steering wasn’t quite right. A bit twitchy turning into corners, especially left hand corners, then it would tend to wallow around a bit in the corner. We would occasionally hear/feel some kind of rubbing noise in left corners, sometimes we’d hear a knock. Of course there was no sign of anything rubbing. I put the back of the car up on jacks to check it out. Everything looks fine, with a lot of newer suspension and brake parts. However the driver’s side rear wheel had about 1/8” of movement from top to bottom, and the passenger side at least 1/4". I’m totally new to C2’s so I started searching for info – and of course it seemed like the trailing arm spindle bearings were the issue. Fortunately, the trailing arms had been recently removed and the front bushings had been replaced so I didn’t run into any rust issues while removing them. These were still a PITA for this noob to pull. The second one was much easier and faster to pull than the first. Once I disconnected the halfshafts I could spin the axles, and the bearings felt like they were running in gravel.


It seems like Van Steel and Bairs are the go to places for trailing arms on the forum. I called up Bairs and they didn't disappoint on the phone so I ordered up their shipping boxes. The trailing arms are scheduled to arrive at Bairs on Monday. They said it would take them about two weeks to rebuild the trailing arms and another week to ship them back. In the meantime, I’m cleaning and prepping for the installation. Bairs has a rear suspension mount and bushing kit that I’ll be ordering up. Everything looks pretty good with the exception of the driver’s side upper shock mount. The hole is slightly elongated and just plain ugly.

The hole measures about .500” wide by about .580” tall. I’m not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?

 

I can't remember if there is enough access to drill it out with a right angle snubby drill bit. If so, I would ask a machinist to make a bushing to fit the hole and the shock bolt. The hole could also be dressed up with a welder and re-drilled to size. I am sure someone will chime in that has fixed the problem. When replacing the shims, consider using the later slotted shims in stainless steel. They are much easier to install. They are not NCRS for that year, but the install is so much easier. Nice car by the way. Hope you get it back on the road soon. Jerry

 

The best fix is to weld the oval part of the hole, dress up the faces and rebore the hole in the correct size.

 

Thanks for the advice and the compliments on the car. The shock mounting hole on the back side of that clevis is also elongated, and harder to access. I have a small MIG welder, but my welding skills are so bad I can frighten small children by showing them one of my welds. That small welding job would probably be more suited for a TIG welder anyway. I'll give it a look, but I may have to re-assemble it as is and find a shop that can repair it properly - or buy a TIG welder and give it a shot.
I just noticed in the catalog Bairs sent out with the shipping boxes that they show a frame bracket, P/N FS93L, as a LH rear shock mounting bracket. I wonder if it would be easier and a better fix to cut the damaged bracket out and weld in a new one. Has anyone here done that?

 

Just got off the phone with Bairs. They've torn down the trailing arms and said both trailing arms have rust holes and should be replaced. On the right side the bearing race had spun in the bearing support and it needs to be replaced. That was probably the "rubbing" noise we were hearing while driving. The spindles look good. It seemed like they felt bad telling me about the problems. Although I was a machinist/toolmaker and Engineering tech and I've been wrenching on motorcycles/boats/cars since I was 14, being so new to C2's I'm just glad to have these guys rebuilding them. Their prices seem very fair for the work they do. I'm also glad I stopped driving it when I did. Putting anymore miles on these trailing arms couldn't have been a good thing.
I was looking over the halfshafts on Saturday. It appears one of the flanges that U bolts to the diff has been hammered on pretty hard, then someone attempted to grind off the hammer marks. One of the U joint caps has a hole for a grease zert - with no zert. There's a retaining clip partially covering the open grease hole. I might send the halfshafts in to Bairs as well.
I've ordered up the rest of the parts that I know I need so far. The good news is I'm getting to know this car pretty well early on. The weather is crappy here and I wouldn't be driving it anyway. I'm happy to be working on it now getting it ready for the warm weather.

 

I am glad you are sorting out your problems. No doubt driving the car with the race spinning would have made your spindles unusable. In extreme cases, the spindle could snap and cause auto body damage from a wheel falling off. Regarding your drive shaft and half shafts, I have had great luck having them serviced locally. Check out some truck shops or four wheel drive shops in your area. My shop removed the joints, blasted them, installed new joints, balanced the drive shaft and painted them. I dropped them off in the morning and they were ready in the afternoon. Good luck with your new acquisition. Jerry

 

While the car is apart I would definitely do all the u joints. Any good shop can do the universal joints. I used a spring shop to press in mine. Then the second car used a Tire Shop that has a great reputation and had a press.

 

Thanks for the advice folks.
I started looking over the half shafts thinking I would replace the U joints myself, but I noticed one of the U joint end caps spinning in its yoke when I rotated it. Those end caps should be press fit in the yoke, so that was the end of me doing them. That yoke will have to be cut off of the halfshaft and a new one welded on. I took them into to Driveshafts NW who have been around here since the 70's and done some nice work for me in the past. I'm hoping I don't find too much more that's messed up while I'm in there - after paying for the car and the trailing arms my wallet is looking pretty thin. I'm lucky to have such an understanding wife.

 

It would probably have been cheaper to find a good used half shaft, lots of them around.

 

I went through all of this last summer on the split window and don't envy you, hopefully its a once in a lifetime job... I used zerkless U-joints all over as I got tired of cleaning up the gobs of grease that inevitably coat the underside of the car with the old-style joints... Really, really examine any reproduction hardware you are considering.

The spring perch repro bolts were too long and may have caused cracking and the repro strut rod camber bolts and offset cams and special spacers were pretty awful too. I cleaned up and used the original items in these cases.

As I said here (I guess in another thread) now is the time to measure your stub yoke play on each side of the differential, its a bit tricky to do but if the play is excessive you'll want to know it now. You have to have the half shafts unbolted to do it right...many lift up and down on a suspended rear wheel with everything connected and if they feel play or hear a light clunk they thing the differential is going out, you can't judge the play with that method. Here are some general guidelines:

 

If your driveshaft company is not familiar with pressing the outboard u-joint into the rear spindle u-joint flange they can bend or crack it if they don't use a spacer to keep it from bending at the thin part between the bolt holes. Even after I told my local driveshaft shop, they still bent mine.

 

Frankie the Fink -
This is exactly the kind of advice I can use. Thank you.
I totally agree with using the original fasteners/hardware if possible. We bought my wife's 68 Mustang Convertible from the original owners in 1987, and I've tried to keep it original as possible. It still has all of its original running gear, and with a few exceptions it's all stock. The stuff I replaced I restored and stored it away in case I ever want it all stock again. I guess I've been spoiled by having this Mustang so long. I expected this Corvette to be in similar shape as it's about the same vintage. It'll get there, and I've been enjoying this project so much I don't think I've even cussed yet, and I'm learning a lot about the car. Here's the 65's garage mate.



I pulled out my mag base and an old dial indicator and checked the end play of the stub shafts. I was surprised how solid the axles felt at both ends of their travel. They had a nice solid clunk when they stopped at each direction. The passenger side has .021" end play.

The drivers side is at .020"


Bairs called this morning. I gotta say their communication has been excellent. I've been talking with the guy that actually did the work. They received the trailing arms on Saturday, and called Monday morning with the estimate. Today they said the trailing arms are finished up and will ship out today - so that's about a 2 day turnaround. I've still got a lot of cleaning/painting/prepping to do before it gets put back together, The strut bushings - and the rest of the hardware I picked up from Bairs - will get here on Wednesday.

 

I’m enjoying this thread as I have a lot of chassis & suspension work ahead of me. Please update us with pics and info as as you wrap this up. Beautiful C2 by the way!

 

My lower shock mounts don't look too badly corroded, but they are far from pristine. I'm considering re-using them. This car is a driver, not a Top Flight car. Are these pieces we would rather re-use or replace?
Also, both of the shock mounts have a metal spacer that is about 1/4" thick - pictured. I don't see this spacer in the assembly manual. Is that spacer supposed to be there?
And the nut has an attached freely rotating washer. It's hard to tell from looking at the assembly manual - is that the correct fastener?

 

When I did my 71, I gently wire wheeled them and clear sprayed them. No issues.

To me they look good .

 

Yes, wire wheel those shock mounts (or dip in Evaporust) and if the threads look good, not stripped or elongated, I would use them, I reused my originals. The fasteners on this piece are torqued pretty high so you need good threads. I don't recall a washer other than the cupped washer whose concave side faces inboard; I tend to trust the AIM rather than what might have happened to the car over 50+ years. BTW those mounts are side-specific, don't mix them up.

 

Upon reassembly, I added a bit of anti-seize on them. The first time I removed them on my 68 I had to use a 20 ton press and two people to hold it in place. Jerry

 

Yes! I put anti-seize on the leaf spring perch bolts, the front trailing arm bushing bolt, the shock mounts, the shock absorber mounting bolts, etc. Can't recall whether I did so on the half-shaft bolts torqued to the spindle flange but I prob did.

 

This is what I found on my 65 lower strut rod/shock mount.. Amazingly I did not notice any issues. I'm sure it was just a matter of time.

 

Thanks for the good advice on the anti-seize. I'll make sure to use it.
Woods - that's a nasty looking hole - glad you found it before it bit.

During the holidays, shipping times have been increased, but I finally got everything that I ordered up. I had measured the top of the fender lips to the ground before I pulled the car apart, and from side to side it measured about an inch different. The original rear spring was long gone and a JRS spring was in its place. It was obviously a few years old, and since some of the rubber spacers were coming out of the leaf assembly and the car was not sitting level I thought while it's apart I'd also replace that rear leaf. Since I had Bairs had rebuild the trailing arms I called and talked with them about their leaf spring. When I asked, they said that their vendor no longer curls up the edges of the individual leafs. I asked them why they weren't selling Eaton springs and their answer was they felt they weren't consistent enough - although I've read a lot of good about Eatons springs on the forum. I went ahead and ordered the Bairs leaf, and after I got it, I'm not sure it was the right decision. Their spring is a 9 leaf, but all of the leafs are curved.



After chasing out the threads in the diff I decided to install the new spring. Not the most fun job, and it's good to have an extra set of hands available. After I lightly snugged up the bolts I got up to take a look at it, and it wasn't good. The round leaf spring assembly bolt head that locates into the pilot hole in the diff was the only thing touching.


That bolt head height is 3/8", the same as what's on the JRS spring I took out. That said, I suspected the JRS spring bolt head was also interfering after I pulled it and inspected it. I believe with all curved leafs, it's a lot easier to see the interference. I measured the depth of the pilot hole in the diff, and it's only 5/16". I'm pretty sure the diff has been replaced. This car is a 65, and the stamped numbers on the bottom of the case look to be CZ7 8 64 - so I think the diff is a 64. I'm wondering if the 64 diff has a shallower pilot hole, or if maybe the leaf spring step in the diff was machined deeper at some point, leaving that pilot hole shallow. I pulled the new leaf back out to check out the issues. On the bright side I guess it's good exercise for an old geezer to R&R that thing.

Questions:
I see that Eaton offers a 9 leaf with all curved springs, so I think this one from Bairs should work. Do they bolt up the same way as the 6 curved/3 straight springs?

Also, what about that shallow pilot hole in the diff hitting the leaf assembly bolt head? I know I could grind 1/16" off of it and make it fit, but that's not my preference. I would prefer to know why I've got the interference - is the 64 diff pilot hole a different depth than the 65?