W3EOS

Hi Gang,
When I bought my '79 L82, there was a noise in the rear. I thought it was a bad tire. Took it to a local shop to have it checked out and guy said the differential was shot. Gave me a quote of $2100 for rebuilt differential and installation. I suspected this was going to be an expensive hobby, but I'm still in shock! Does this sound reasonable? Checked out online suppliers for rebuilt units and they seem to range from 800-1100 bucks. $1000 labor? I'm going to another shop for another estimate but I need some advice fast!
Thanks,
Jim

bobs77vet

i paid about $1200 for this 1 1/2 yrs ago, find out specifically what parts he is replacing .....and if he is replacing all the u joints you can add another couple hundred bucks to the equation

MEGALADON

CKECK with GTR1999, a forum member here, he does awesome work.
Or you can call vansteel and see what they say

W3EOS

Yeah, I just don't know or, if he mentioned u-joints, I didn't pick up on it. As I said, I went in thinking tire replacement and heard $2100. He's going to order differential tomorrow, I'm calling first thing and (1) ask him exactly what is included and (2) hold off on ordering until I get a second estimate. Unless I hear from forum members that this estimate is reasonable, that's my plan.
Thanks again,
Jim

W3EOS

That's another resource I can check with.
Jim

bobs77vet

i bet with the new rear bearings,the HD trailing arms, new struts, shocks and the rebuilt differential i have spent $3500 in my rear end. these cars get expensive back there really fast.

W3EOS

Thanks, Bob. After the initial "high" of finally owning a vette, I probably needed to come down to earth and find out what this "fun" is going to cost me. I am in love with this car and fully expect to repair/replace whatever is necessary. But I don't want to just give my money away.
Appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Jim

W3EOS

By the way, although I've lived in Illinois for the past 41 years, was born and raised in Delaware, near Rehobeth. Family still lives out there and I get back a couple of times a year. Also have relatives in Altantic City area.

Sprzout

Jim, I know exactly what you mean. My dad and I have in addition to the C3, a 1967 Jaguar E-Type. That is a GREAT car to own; it's fun to drive, it's fun to just have people stare at the car when it's parked.

However, any time we need to buy parts for it, everyone assumes that the screws/bolts/nuts is metric, or that because we say the name "Jaguar" the parts/labor needs to be 3 times as much as for a regular American car.

Sure, it's got its own quirks, but when you've got an engine that was basically the same block/engine from 1949-1987, there's lots of standard parts for it!

As for your issue with rear diff, that sounds a little pricey. I mean, Year One's got performance differentials ranging from about $425-$600, and overhaul kits for $114-$140, depending on the differential.

Now, granted, I'm not exactly certain all of what's being done to the rear end, but let's assume that he's getting a brand new differential, and he pays in the neighborhood of $600 for the parts. Is the rest of it going to cost $1500 for labor?

Yeah. DEFINITELY get a second quote on that! Sounds like he might be trying to soak you because your car has "Corvette" on it.

Gordonm

Can you do some of the grunt work yourself. It will save you a lot of $$$ if you can remove the diff and some other components. It will also teach you a lot about the car. There is a lot of labor charge for removing some of the components. It is not hard at all. Just dirty and some of the parts can be heavy. I could not afford this car if I had to have the work done by someone else. I have also been rebuilding cars for 25 years. There is plenty of help here if you run into any problems.

Gary79

$2100 seems high, but I'm 53 yrs old so everything seems overpriced. I pulled my diff myself, took it to a shop for a rebuild. i bought all the parts beforehand, as this was the arrangement with the mechanic & shop. rebuild kit was $200, another $200 for axle yokes(got mine from Bair's), $200 in labor, total $600. the axle yokes were ordered after tear down showed them to be bad. you'll need these also, I hope the $2100 includes these already. the more you can turn a wrench the cheaper this hobby is. as for u-joints they shouldn't drive an estimate up too far, there are 6 of them at about $10 apiece +labor.

W3EOS

Both of you guys brought up an option that I have been considering since I found out the price of having the shop do it. Do-it-yourself is always a possibility, and I'll soon have all winter to work on it. As with lots of my projects, it's always nice to entertain the idea of letting someone else do the work, until I find out how much it's going to cost for that luxury.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Jim

GUSTO14

Jim,

I don't know how experienced you or your shop is with the Corvette IRS, but this noise could be related to any of a myriad of issues. Everything from a bad U-joint to a wheel bearing to even a differential. I would recommend that you first confirm that your differential is shot before you conclude this is gonna be expensive.

I recommend that you get a Corvette specialty shop or someone experienced with this rear to take a look at it to at least confirm the diagnosis. The cost of these repairs go from relatively inexpensive to quite expensive. If you've already done this or are comfortable with the capability of you shop… forget everything I said…

Good luck… GUSTO

big_G

Very good advice!

W3EOS

Your point is well-taken. Differential fluid is full of metal shavings. Ran all of this past a friend of mine who is a Corvette junkie (unfortunately, he lives 1100 miles away) and he said the differential was eating itself up.
My wife didn't really want to go to Cancun this winter, did she?
Thanks for the input.
Jim

WayneLBurnham

Once when I had the Tom's Diff put in shortly after getting the car, later after a wreck, because I was afraid something could have happened to the high dollar TD (it hadn't - I paid a lot for groundless fear).

However, just replacing the differential with a new one, and putting new half shaft u-joints on while you're at it, is not that bad a deal - little adjsutment type things, more R&R than anything else. Just make sure the puppy is secure when you get under there!

BTW, getting newly rebuilt entire BB half-shafts from someone like VanSteel or wherever you're looking at diffs is not that expensive and easier than fighting with popping out those ujoints without bending the yokes.

MYBAD79

That's correct, you'll have time enough during the winter and here you can get all the neccessary info during your project...

I had noise "back there" and the differential was not causing it - there is so much that can make noise: U joints, wheel bearings, worn bushings .... in my case it was loose and rotted parking brake hardware

This is definately a job you can do yourself, disassemble and post your findings (photos) here.

Re and Cheryl

Cool! I live in Dover DE. Hoping the weather will cooperate for the Vette show in Ocean City this weekend.

mandm1200

A good thing about doing it yourself is that you'll save a lot on labor. That saved 'money' can be used as parts money on this project or used later. I don't think changing the rear would be as technical as rebuilding it. The toughest part is getting the bolts loose. A helper would be nice to lower the differential.

Sprzout

One of those ATV/snowmobile jacks works wonderfully at helping to lower IRS/diffs. The Jaguar guys do this all the time when brakes need to be changed, because the pads/calipers are located right next to the rear diff.

Cheap tool if you have to get in/out of the diff area a lot; Pep Boys sells them for about $100; same with Costco (when they have them in stock).

These are also handy in lowering the transmission out of the car, if you're leaving the engine in the engine bay, since they're generally a big, flat surface area to help spread the load...