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Touched base with Corvette Paramedics and went thru their stash of rebuildable differentials and picked out a solid “LR” coded 3.36 geared unit. The wheels are in motion to completely rebuild the diff with new bearings, seals, steel clutch plates. Their not doing the work Gary R. Would do polishing and tuning but I’m following Gary’s advice as best I can. The driveshaft u-joints were obviously old so I brought it with me to have new U- joints pressed in. I could do it myself but at this point just assume pay them to do it. The front yoke looked sketchy to me and I knew the rear trans seal had a slight leak. Guess I hoped I could work with it but they confirmed the yoke needed replacing as does the trans rear bushing and seal. The seal I could probably do but the bushing ???
So I’m told to pull the trans to bring in for them to swap the bushing and seal. Another thing I haven’t done yet with a Vette.
How much of a PITA am I in for now ?
I may be w-wr-wrong, but I think you can support the trans. and remove ONLY the tailshaft housing which you would bring to the repair shop.
yes, the tail housing just unbolts from the trans, support the trans, pop the mount off and tail housing off. It’s a simple cheap bushing you probably do yourself with a seal driver.
Take a good look at the speedometer gear while you’re there. The gears are plastic and wear then leak. It’s cheap and easy to replace while your in there.
So I’m told to pull the trans to bring in for them to swap the bushing and seal. Another thing I haven’t done yet with a Vette. How much of a PITA am I in for now ?
I would rather take an *** beating than R&R a manual transmission in a C2/C3 car, WTF were the GM engineers thinking. In my 40's this was an easy task, late 50's not so much. I'm convinced the last one I did caused me great pain and led me into the operating room for an Anterior Cervical Discectomy & Fusion (ACDF) procedure.
I use to do this by myself with the car on jack stands, last one kicked my *** had to call in help as I just didn't have the upper body strength to man handle the transmission.
I have never pulled a tail housing with the trans installed so I can't speak to that, not sure that is possible.
yes, the tail housing just unbolts from the trans, support the trans, pop the mount off and tail housing off. It’s a simple cheap bushing you probably do yourself with a seal driver.
Take a good look at the speedometer gear while you’re there. The gears are plastic and wear then leak. It’s cheap and easy to replace while your in there.
I do plan to replace the gear because I’m changing the ratio from 3.08 to 3.36.
Going to see if I can borrow an extraction tool for the bushing.
I would rather take an *** beating than R&R a manual transmission in a C2/C3 car, WTF were the GM engineers thinking. In my 40's this was an easy task, late 50's not so much. I'm convinced the last one I did caused me great pain and led me into the operating room for an Anterior Cervical Discectomy & Fusion (ACDF) procedure.
I use to do this by myself with the car on jack stands, last one kicked my *** had to call in help as I just didn't have the upper body strength to man handle the transmission.
I have never pulled a tail housing with the trans installed so I can't speak to that, not sure that is possible.
I had a heart attack last year with this past Monday being the anniversary. It cut me in half strength and energy wise but I was able to bounce back.
I really don’t want to wrestle the trans out but if I can’t source out a tool to remove the bushing I’ll have too.
I’m 63 next month but we just had the power company take down 2 huge ash trees in our front yard last Friday, it was on me to move it all to the back and stack it to feed the Woodstock next winter. Think if i can do this I can manage the trans.
I’ve never seen one of those tools, I would just pop the rear case off. There is a pin for reverse you have to get aligned and 4-6 bolts, one gasket. I haven’t done one in a vette but other cars back in day after one too many burnouts and flying drive lines.
What trans? I bought one of those tools years ago to replace the bushing in my El Camino (7004R). It’s been a while but believe it works on other transmissions. I’ll look in the morning.
I'm pretty sure I posted in the "What did you do to your corvette today " thread as well as a thread I started about just this issue. "Tail shaft housing bushing clearance ". I removed the bushing with no special tools. I posted pics of the cut down hacksaw blade and all. Replaced bushing in my Super T10 with trans in car.
perhaps you should take a look.
this was just 2 weeks ago or so.
Haven’t forgotten.
still looking for that tool. The good news is I’ve found some things I had no reason keep.
not giving up
Thanks Don, I do appreciate it but after hitting 6 shops on Thursday and another 5 yesterday coming up empty I reached out to another last night who said they’d loan me the tools needed to get it done.
Got it done today in about 15 minutes taking my time though I did make 2 round trips to the shop doing the rebuild on my differential. That was good for about 150 miles but though a lot of driving that tool saved me a ton of labor not having to remove the exhaust and drop the trans to take to the shop.
The tool itself was of good quality and from what I’ve seen in my search it’d be one of the crazy expensive ones probably around $400. I made sure to return the tool clean and promptly because when a pro mechanic trusts you with one of his specialty tools you don’t take that lightly.
It made the task ridiculously easy. Once the bushing was out it wasn’t too bad but showed the odd wear pattern that you’d expect from the ball worn yoke.
It looks to have been replaced as was the seal but was doomed to an early failure because they put a ruined yoke back in when it should’ve been replaced.
That will be done that right way now.
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Diff being rebuilt, now I have to pull the trans
