Looking good Dennis. Ignore the noise that always seems to pop up. Keep the pics coming.

 

Trying to figure out who is blowing their own horn. The builder is sending the customer pictures, and the customer is posting them for us to see. Don't really see any horn blowing at all. We have all seen what nice work you do, don't crash someone else's party. We like pics!

 

So how about you start your own thread with documentation on how simple it is to set one of these up to take big power?

Those who stir the $h!t pot should be made to lick the spoon...

OP: Carry on, apparently all except one of us are enjoying it!

 

Its there, who's stirring the $hit pot now?

 

Thanks to all that appreciate the details Gary puts into his work and how much he shares with me the customer. I am sure there are guys out there who trusted another builder to later have that rear fail and not know why. I know my friend Bill had to have his rear redone after a nationally known vendor did a poor job on it. Seeing this detail makes me confident that I can run 600hp and the rear will not be the weak link.
As we all know the stock units in these cars in the low hp C3 era were not designed to take modern day abuse after 40yrs.

Anyone who can do this kind of work themselves, I think they would appreciate the finesse put into this build. If not, maybe they should look at why that is. And what in their ego makes them denigrate another.

We are getting close to the completion....so bear with me.

Dennis

 

Me I have had what I call a gear guy, who brings his engines or welding projects to me, and I have dropped off a few transmissions, and he rebuilt one of my stock diffs. Not that I probably couldn't figure it all out, or the tools you need to do it. Not everyone has machine shops. Some of my tools and shop equipment were stolen also, and slowly been replacing stuff.

I bought an assembled Tom's Differential Super 10 years ago, soon after he took over from Pepe down in Paramount. It has held up all of these years. Before he closed down, I got worried thinking he was retiring not hearing about a new facility, so I ran down and picked up the 12 Bolt conversion and had it lying around for years. Tom's no longer sells assembled unit to the best of my knowledge now and has discontinued doing things like polishing the diff cages. So I am about to take the next step in HP, so the 12 bolt has come off the shelf, and my old gear guy is not doing anything anymore, so I am thinking about adding rear ends to my skill set.

Therefore it is nice to have multiple brains and ideas on how to do something to tackle a project. I am sure guys that have shops that tackles these type things constantly, can do things like this in their sleep and some probably do it in their sleep with unsuccessful results. A lot of us learned from mag articles things or having someone teach us some things, like our Dad's, and some of us have figured things out on our own.

 

Me.

Trying to figure out how this guy is blowing his own horn and you weren't on your own thread...

For most of us, this machine work is well out of our league and we find it interesting. If it's boring to you, how about just leaving well enough alone and keeping the comments to yourself?

 

Amen.....and that was the purpose of me starting this thread.
Not many people get to see the insides of a tuned posi. And how it is done.
I am grateful for Gary sharing so much with my build. He could have just taken my order and taken my money like most others do.

 

Thanks Bill.

Hope you are getting close on your build.
I am available Sept and Oct to help put the body back on your baby.
It will be cooler weather than also....haha

Keep in touch
Dennis

 

Gary worked on my diff all day today and sent me these updates.

29 new pics brings my total pics to 200 for my build...awesome

Hi Dennis
Well I devoted all day to working on your diff. I have it now almost complete. I have the gears setup, solid sleeve fit, and posi final installed

I got the pattern very close with my setup bearings and dropped 002 when I went to the new bearings for final setup of the pattern. Once the pattern was where I wanted it I final installed the pinion, using a CR seal and solid sleeve. I have been using CR seals for a very long time and never had a problem, the reds seals are good too and I certainly could have used one but I just like to stick with what has always worked for me.

The pattern is center to toe which is where all Tom's vette gear sets dial in. This process involved many assembly and tear downs and took a good amount of time but I am happy with it. There is a nice gear mesh in both directions, the bearings are completely preloaded now as well.

A super 10 uses a solid sleeve and billet pinion yoke. You can see the pictures of both attached. Those I see online claiming to be Super 10's have stock cast pinion yokes and no mention of a solid sleeve so I can only assume they have a stock sleeve. This yoke was very tight, I had to lap it to the splines- this procedure is lapping not tuning. Typically they fit good out of the box but everything has to be checked these days.

Tom never used a sleeve, instead he loctited the bearings in position. I can't knock that since he has built them for over 40 years but I like to use the solid sleeve in the super 10 and 12's. In extreme use the stock sleeve can compress, the solid will not. These have to be fit and the surface grinder is the way to do it, trying to face a few tenths in a tool room lathe is not the way to do it.

Next up I will fit the axles but that's for next week. I am taking Sundays off from now on and I still have over 60 hours in a week.

 

details of installing the pinion seal and then the yoke

 

finishing the yoke attachment and comparison of a solid sleeve vs the stock crush sleeve

 

Getting close to being completed.
Gary shows here the difference between the full cage roller bearings for the axles and the common ones in rebuild kits.


Hi Dennis,
I had a small open window for the grinder today and decided to kiss grind the faces 002" each for a flat surface. I installed new correct axle bearings which are like the original Torringtons GM used on vette diffs, they have full compliment rollers. I attached a picture of the caged bearings that some of the master kits come with and typically what I see in a vendors rebuild. They will work but I like the original full compliment better. The difference of course is pricing. By using all the parts in the common kits the rebuild can increase profit, no surprise there and not bad unless the parts are not the same as in this case. Same deal by using the inferior plain fully threaded Grade 8 fully threaded ring gear bolts from the kits instead of the much superior ARP RG bolts which you do have in your build. I can only guess others never tell the owners just what they install, let alone show them pictures of their complete build. What the customer don't know won't hurt them I guess is the logic, I want you to know what I did and used in your diff.

I also forgot to send you all the pictures from the steel cap install. Those are attached here for you as well. I chamfer the cap ID to housing pad for a little more clearance. I do it on all the steel caps, I just didn't see these when I sent you the earlier cap pictures.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I will fit the axles and send the pictures once I am done. The diff should be ready to ship this week if you want me to.

Thanks

 

bearing and axle pics

 

additional pics of fitting the solid cap showing side clearing

 

I got the last 12 bolt Tom's rear end builder built. I believe 2006. It is a work of art.

 

I'm looking to start this soon.
Thanks for the thread.

 

Sounds great. I never saw any of his work but understand he was responsible for a lot of Tom's work. That was the reason Tom stopped building when he passed.
Share some pics of the inside if you have any.
That would be cool to see.

Bman

 

Got the latest pics from Gary of my completed Super 10.
He installed and set up the axles. Finished the little details and installed the cover. Almost ready for shipping.....

From Gary....his detailed narrative....

Hi Dennis,
Well I didn't work on your diff last night, instead I took out my 72 to a car show since it was a very nice 80* without humidity!

Today I fit the axles and cover.

For the axles I previously just kiss cut them 002" to get them flat, remember I had them hardened and cryo'd so I wasn't going to face them to set the axle endplay. Now I know some will do just that but the proper way is to grind the c-clips to size to set the end play to 005-007" Yours are right at 005-006". These are held in with "C" clips the stock 17 spline axles are held by snap- rings most of the guys on the forums don't really know the difference and that's ok, but these are real c-clips.

With the axles done I installed the new seals and lubed the axle bearings. I stamp in my initials and date on every diff I build, I was brought up to take pride in your work and if you couldn't put your name on it then you shouldn't being doing that work- whatever type of work that is. It's just a simple reminder of why I put the time into each build. I would like to say you got special treatment but I do this on every build I take in and that's a lot of pictures.

With the HD cover the bolt pads vary so I fit the bolts to holes for full engagement, using the common 1.250 long bolt on the top and bottom holes will leave it with 2 or 3 threads engaged something I don't like so now it has full engagement at every hole. Topped it off with a new cover vent and wiped down the RTV. I will let it sit overnight to let the RTV cure then I will wipe it all down and shoot another top coat and it will be done. Before I send you the paperwork take a guess at the total # of hours I put into it for you. I'll let you know when I send you the final pictures tomorrow or Sat.

I would use this diff in any one of my vettes in a second. Some of the guys who saw it in process would also buy it in a second.

 

cover and vent tube....cap screws

Love the look!