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I'm ready to give up in defeat! One side of the diff crossmember just will not release from the rubber mounts and the sombrero hat. 4 foot Crowbars, PB blaster, weight lifter son, pickle forks, sledge hammers, air hammer, heat gun, etc. etc. Other side was easy. At this point we have succeeded only in denting the diff crossmember and twisting & bending it's mounting plate where the sombrero is. After 3 days of this I am ready to give up and sawzall it out. Or burn the rubber out. It's got my project stalled.
Any last minute suggestions? Can either one of these be saved?
Anyone have a respectable diff crossmember I could purchase?
Last edited by leigh1322; Jun 26, 2020 at 03:03 PM.
I'm ready to give up in defeat! One side of the diff crossmember just will not release from the rubber mounts and the sombrero hat. 4 foot Crowbars, PB blaster, weight lifter son, pickle forks, sledge hammers, air hammer, heat gun, etc. etc. Other side was easy. At this point we have succeeded only in denting the diff crossmember and twisting & bending it's mounting plate where the sombrero is. After 3 days of this I am ready to give up and sawzall it out. Or burn the rubber out. It's got my project stalled.
Anyone have a respectable diff crossmember I could purchase?
Bending this mounting bracket doesn't look good. Might take a frame shop to repair this.
Differential crossmember? Contact J&D Corvette in Bellflower, Ca. They've a lot of rust free California frame parts.
When you're trying to remove the right side, have you loosly reattached the left side? Keeping the x-member level will keep the cup on the other side from binding on its sombrero hat. Then retry all the stuff you've already done and the other suggestions here. Mine came loose using a pickle fork and chisel, but it did take multiple attempts and lots of PB Blaster.
You're right Derek it was stuck so hard I kept checking to make sure the bolt was out!
I bought a big 8 inch 3 jaw puller and it's finally out ! Hoo-Ray!
But not the way you expected.... 3 Jaw Puller at work
Diff Crossmember finally out, minus one bushing!!
Crossmember bushing is still attached to the frame.
That's right, It was easier to pull the bushing out of the crossmember; than the crossmember off the frame.
At least now I can get to the bushing and I will be peeling it apart and cutting it off in layers I suppose.
I am very interested in how much rust was in there binding this up so hard!
Last edited by leigh1322; Jun 28, 2020 at 05:03 PM.
My new 8 inch puller had the other cross-member bushing out in 10 minutes. So much easier when you can stand up!
Now for a good look at this one so I can figure out how to peel the other one apart one layer at a a time.
Outer steel shell is 2 pieces. Tabs are attached to that. Crossmemeber hole is tapered 1 degree and rubber compresses to hold it tight.
Inner steel shell is more of a very thick one piece steel cup. Sides are tapered 3 degrees for a snug fit to the sombrero. Very thin rubber coating on inside. Assuming the sombrerro is tapered as well. Rubber is .250-.400" thick and will have to be be drilled out to remove outer shell and have access to the inner cup which is stuck on my frame.
The steel cup itself is very thick around 0.230". Not looking forward to cutting the cup in half if that is what I have to do to get it off!
Well I will wait until I can flip the frame and work on it standing up!!
OK last crossmember update in case anyone else has trouble.
I finally got the offending stuck bushing off. Hoo-Ray!
It had some serious red & black rust on the inside, like 1/16" + inch thick hard scale. I had to split the inner shell of the bushing to loosen it's death grip.
Getting to the inner bushing required well .....some creative destructive disassembly...... My disassembled crossmember bushing
So I have no idea why so much water got into this mount and not the other one, to cause so much trouble.
The best advice I can give is to use a 8 inch 3 jaw puller, and if that doesn't do it then...Do not twist the crossmember! Keep it level!!!
And break out the sawzall, the 4" grinder and the dremel tools.
WOW Leigh! That was a tough row to hoe! Glad you got through it! Will keep watching as you progress! Andy
Originally Posted by doorgunner
Reassemble with a grease/antisieze paste that will not cause new ruuber bushing to soften and metal to metal will not seize again.
Gunner - wish you'd a mentioned that a while back! LOL.. Thankfully I haven't got the differential mounted yet. I will pull the crossmember (if it isn't a endevour like this! ) and lube it with anti-sieze!
ok...as in my recent 'new owner' description... a tool to solve a problem.....had the same problem disconnecting this... two 5 ft crowbars would not seperate these. almost pulled the car off the jack stand up on the four post lift!
then I realized most efforts were forcing the joints to act like those Chinese finger torture tubes..as you pull they tighten. Just like trying to pull a vac hose of the nipple rather than push it off.
One of the tools I made...only took too 3-4 hammer blows and it popped right off after having spent two day fighting them. Basically a giant pickle fork.
A piece of angle iron cut as a wedge, then welded together to perfectly fit between rubber edge and top crossmember
giant picklefork to separate diff crossbar bushes
amazingly one cup still had balck paint in it so no air had touched this surface in near 50 years. The other was near solid rust
Need Diff Crossmember advice
