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Next I might pull the rear cross member out to replace the bushings and then i should be ready to start sandblasting a few parts!
Any other "while I'm at it" endeavours you guys think I should take on while I have both suspensions out of the car? (not that this won't keep me busy for a long time )
Not a lot of exciting updates but figured I'd share the progress on the Vette. Today was clean up day!
Still have to pull the upper control arms and tackle the trailing arms but pretty happy with how it's going so far! Couldn't do any of this without all your help
In my opinion the mono leaf spring is a decent upgrade over the steel spring (and about thirty pounds lighter). The steel spring because of its multi leaf construction has some inherent damping quality built in. You don't get this with the mono spring so you need stiffer shocks on the back. Bilstein HD at the front and sport at the back is what I used.
Be careful in your selection of a mono spring as some jack the back of the car up too much.
Still undecided about rear suspension. I'm tempted to go 330/bilstein sport @Haggisbash mentioned above (I got Bilsteins HD for the front), or just leave it alone since my leaf spring seems to be doing just fine. Thoughts?
Today was body mount day. Had to make a cage nut for #3 and replace both body reinforcements and cage nut on #4 but otherwise seems to be going smoothly
I've also been tinkering with the diff but unfortunately the new yokes don't seem to have addressed the yoke play (at least I don't think so, I have another thread going on describing this issue in more detail). Seems like a rebuild might be in order
You have some good pics of the differential that show exactly where you were measuring end-play
(The car show pics look good considering they were "Drive-by Shots")
Have you looked for specs. about what the end-play should be between the yoke shaft face and the hardened pin?
You have some good pics of the differential that show exactly where you were measuring end-play
(The car show pics look good considering they were "Drive-by Shots")
Have you looked for specs. about what the end-play should be between the yoke shaft face and the hardened pin?
GTR1999 has been helping me with yoke play. Above .05 appears to be around the threshold to consider a vendor build. Nowadays they can set them up to .005” or so. I’m going to make some phones calls and find someone in the area that could help with this - not a job I’m ready to take on my own.
Since I want to make upgrades to the power plant within the next year or so, I’ll probably need the diff rebuild anyway, we’ll see
to think this all started with replacing some bushings and now except everything but tranny and engine is out of the car
Last edited by antpgomes; Aug 29, 2021 at 08:20 AM.
Today was front suspension installation day. The spring compression tool I bought didn't work on the inside of the spring so I had to MacGyver a steel plate to keep the spring aligned at the top but otherwise wasn't too bad a job. Doing bushings on the control arms was definitely a lot harder
Today I ventured a bit into body work...my front bumper paint was in pretty bad shape and there was a random black stripe in the middle of it, figured I'd tinker with it although I'm still planning on getting the 80-82 style bumper down the line. While at it, I chopped off the rubber bumpers and going to 3D print some low profile replacements
A couple spots on the one side needs to be reinforced with fiberglass around one bolt hole - the first attempt at using fiberglass was quite messy, have to do some reading and watch some videos to learn how to properly use it.
That's it for today. Waiting on my diff mounting bushing kit to arrive before I can put the rear end back together
)
