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So some background. A year and a half ago I bought a '69 site unseen from AZ. It was about a month or so after covid started and no one was traveling. I had it inspected by Lemon Squad and it got a glowing review, so everything is good, right? Actually its in pretty good shape. The previous owner removed the 350 and put in a 454 (a '71 vintage I think) as well as Steeroids and a bunch of other stuff up front. I'm not sure if its been an AZ car all its life, but no worrying rust. The one area it needs attention is the rear suspension.
Its my first Corvette, and first truly older car, so driving it was a blast. It tended to wander a bit, and it took me a while to realize that this wasn't normal, and to track it down to the rear suspension. In the mean time, it started making a bad rasping sound from the driver's rear, and then developed a camber issue with the tire. Looking around, the cap had come off the u-joint.
At this point I'm already saving for either a Ridetech or Van Steel coil over replacement for the trailing arms, so I really don't want to put a ton of cash into the fix if I don't have to. I've got a rear bushing replacement kit from Corvette Central (who sent it in a Volunteer Vette box ), and I have greaseless spicer u-joints for the half shafts. @Andy Tuttle was kind enough to send me a spare set for the drive shaft as well. Thanks Andy! Since I want to eventually put more power under the hood, I'm preparing for that as well, and I got a new differential from RaceVette with more splines. So I took the half-shafts out in early November, and the car has been sitting on the lift since then waiting for me to get more time.
And actually it isn't that I didn't have time, I got a honey do from the wife to finish the chicken coup before it got too cold.
So yesterday I finally got more time to work on the car. I stripped everything off the diff. The hardest part was reaching the u-joint covers in front of the differential. The previous owner put a performance cross-pipe exhaust on, so the only way I was able to get enough room was to remove the lower differential cover and put a wrench in there. Thank the Lord that the bolts weren't rusted in.
Now I'm ready to remove the differential cross member, but I pulled the bolts and hit it with the short crowbars that I own. No joy. Right after this its off to work and the HW store to buy a bigger crow bar.
Great pics and info!
After I rebuilt the stock front suspension I still noticed the wanderi g problem you spoke about.
After I removed the rusted mou ting bolts I had to soak both diff. crossmember cushions for several days on my '68 project.
It still require a 3' long crow bar with a 6' extension of pipe on the crowbar to pry the crossmember aloose.
I hope it goes easier for you.
Keep us updated with pics.
Thanks for the reply!
What/how did you soak the bushings? Just some standard spray on penetrating oil, or something specific for the rubber cushions?
L used standard pentrating spray (which may not have been the best idea).
If the cushions are cracked/dry/brittle rubber/badly rusted it would be good to install new cushions.
I'm pulling the drive and half shafts for a u-joint replacement, as well as the differential. While I have the out, I thought I would clean them up and paint or powder coat them. The car is a driver, so while I wouldn't object to pretty, the main reason is to protect them from rust. So on to the questions...
Paint or powder coat or something else?
If I'm going to paint them, is it best to do them with the u-joints out, or with them in along with the flange?
If its out, do I just use tape to protect the area where the u-joints are installed?
Is it (paint or powder) going to affect the shafts balance?
The differential
How do I protect the moving areas (where the various axles join the diff body)? I'm not going to disassemble it. I don't have the confidence I would get it back together the right way.
If I get it powder coated would the heat hurt the internals?
Is there anything else I should know? If it wasn't obvious this is my first time doing anything like this.
L used standard pentrating spray (which may not have been the best idea).
If the cushions are cracked/dry/brittle rubber/badly rusted it would be good to install new cushions.
Thanks!
So I visited the HW store and came out with a new persuader...
I was able to get the differential support out, but not without a fight.
I overbalance when it popped loose and ended up hitting my ribs when I fell over the rear lift arm. Hopefully they aren't too serious, but it sure made moving the diff around a whole lot of fun. So I worked that loose and separated the differential from the support. Next task was to put the tire back on the '81 my uncle has stored in our barn. It caught a screw or something.
Probably my last update for a couple of days. We have to run up to Dallas (about 4 hours) for a funeral tomorrow and I won't have a chance to get anything done. Next comes cleaning/painting/powdercoating/whatever.
powder coating requires high heat of ~375f substrate temperature.be sure your parts will handle..u joints will not. Protect threads to.
any black power epoxy preferred will do well..mid gloss may be more underbody appropriate 50-70 gloss
or…get the parts clean and liquid airdry clearcoat gloss or semi gloss to protect and look orignal as cast or raw steel.. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ual-l82-2.html
powder coating requires high heat of ~375f substrate temperature.be sure your parts will handle..u joints will not. Protect threads to.
any black power epoxy preferred will do well..mid gloss may be more underbody appropriate 50-70 gloss
or…get the parts clean and liquid airdry clearcoat gloss or semi gloss to protect and look orignal as cast or raw steel.. https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ual-l82-2.html
Thanks for that!
I think I'm going to go with painting at this point as I have an already assembled new diff and I don't want to take it apart to powder coat it. Cool label links too, that never occurred to me!
Looking great Petter! Glad to see the chicken "coupe" done so you can focus on this Coupe! Wait - it gets cold in Texas??? (LOL I live there a spell so I know)
So another update. I removed the rear end and the half-shaft/drive shafts. My father in law came over to help with the u-joints as he had experience. They took quite a bit more force than I thought they would.
When we were removing the failed u-joint from the half shaft, it turned out to be quite a bit more broken than we initially thought and requires that the half-shaft be replaced.
So I ordered a couple of 3" chrome-molly half-shafts from Dynotech after selling my diff to help pay for it. In the mean time i'm painting the driveshaft yellow/black and I'll post a picture of it when I'm done. I had a slight stroke last weekend, so progress is slow.
Thank you for the prayers. All I have is a little bit of a speech deficit and some loss of dexterity in my left hand. It could have been much worse. Small blessings are still blessings!
Long overdue u-joint & diff swap thread
), and I have greaseless spicer u-joints for the half shafts. @Andy Tuttle was kind enough to send me a spare set for the drive shaft as well. Thanks Andy! Since I want to eventually put more power under the hood, I'm preparing for that as well, and I got a new differential from RaceVette with more splines. So I took the half-shafts out in early November, and the car has been sitting on the lift since then waiting for me to get more time.
