content removed

 

Clean work as usual Gary!

 

This looks proper! I love your standards. I am so pleased to have one of your builds. Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

It's hard to believe a snap ring so small is responsible for so much , if that snap ring breaks and they do your screwed .

 

Yeah that little snap ring actually holds your IRS together in a corner.
And on the highly loaded outside tire.
It's a good thing the geometry has the lower strut rod taking 80-90% of the cornering force.
But in a 1G turn, that would still mean about 300-600# of load pulling on that little snap ring!!!!!
And trying to yank the yoke out of the diff.
Better be a good one!
And have it in a good groove correctly!

The poor strut rod would have to deal with the rest of the 1500# load, under compression.
No wonder those little rubber bushings there don't last too long!

 

Irs- independent rear suspension??? Please decipher

 

Gary

Last year I bought a Dana 60 for my Camaro,after reading some of your post and your opinions about quality of parts and quality workmanship. I’m wondering if I wasted my money? would you please advise?
Also, in September I bought a 69 C3 it looks like the differential is only thing that hasn’t been touched,427 four-speed is it just the 373’s that aren’t available anymore? I don’t know what ratio I have. I haven’t had a chance to check it yet or if I even need to rebuild just curious in case I do.

 

Dana 60 are strong diff's. I can't say if you wasted your money or not. Camaro z28 came 12 bolts which held up fine.
The 69 diff if original has some things that weren't the best but again without inspection it's anyone's guess at what you have. 370 was the GM ratio, 373 was never used from the factory in a vette, but it is an aftermarket gear.
The 373's that are not available anymore are from US Gear, there are imported 373 gears. The 12 bolt vette 373 gears are gone, except for those sitting on my shelf.

 

Thank you very much I’m breathing a sigh of relief. The diff was built by strange engineering, which I know they have a good reputation, but reading your post. Who knows where they got their parts from.
So if my Corvette dif should need rebuilding, As long as I don’t want 373 we should be good to go Or are all the parts coming from overseas quality unknown?

 

Again, I can't say what you have with the DANA 60.

The 69 vette diff, if it needs rebuilding, I guess the first question is why. Is it broken, leaking, making noise or you're concerned because it's over 50 years old?
How it is built is the next question. There are plenty selling rebuilt diff's that are basic bearings and some replace the clutches. A one size fits all approach won't work for those who start building the car past the levels they were when new.

To clarify on the parts used today, they vary as well. I still use USA made bearings from Timken and others. The clutches are made in Mexico. New posi cases are made in China and assembled in Mexico. New spiders are USA made or they were the last I spoke to Barney at Eaton. He may be gone now too.

US Gear sold out 3-4 years ago, and a year after that shut down for good, sold all the machinery, and they were the last USA made gears left. Corvette gears come from Richmond, Yukon, and Motive - all imported.

Nitrogear doesn't say where they get their gears or who makes them. I have contacted them directly at least 3 times with that question and never got a reply.

US Standard Gear sold by Rock and others are Yukon gears and according to the info that was posted they are gears that don't meet the criteria of Yukon gear so they are sold as US Standard Gear. There are others, basically reboxing Yukon gears. I have set up all of them. Some like Motive only have 355 & 370 vette gears. Yukon and Richmond offer more rations. Yukon prices has skyrocketed it seems since US Gear shut down. I still stock some US Gear and those 12 bolt 373's, all will be used for future builds when I get interest in them.

Axles- new are Chinese, rebuilt are usually USA made from more than one place. Quality control is not good on many of them. Some are very good, some are not. One place I had a 50% rejection rate with, and I always got stuck with the return shipping of bad parts. I got off that train and have had much better results since.

So, if you think you need diff work on your 69, before spending any more money, learn as much as you can first.

 

I wish that I would have had you refurbish my rear ends for me years ago when I was breaking posi housings every year or two. I saw the problem and wondered why they didn't use a bigger pin diameter. It just needed more support instead of elongating the posi pin hole and cracking the posi housing. Then I heard about Tom's and went to the stage 6 or 7 with the best yokes and richmond high nickle 4.11 and US 3.55 gears in my other spare rear end for road racing Of course the HD rear end cover.

I still feel sorry when I do a max take off always wondering if it's trailer time home. I have tom's outers and good half shafts.

Installing the 520 pound rear spring

 

Again, thanks for all the info it’s not broken leaking or making noise so far I said I got it in September but I’ve only driven it may be a total of 20 miles on two different occasions So yes, my concern is it 50 years old don’t plan on racing or driving It hard just as a daily driver in the summertime

 

Gary, thanks for sharing your knowledge!

I've built a lot of DANA axles in the Jeep world, so I'm pretty familiar with setting up gears. what's different about the C3 setup compared to your standard Dana? Appears to be similar to a C clip axle ? Looking to get a better understanding for when I have to do this.

 

The C3 diff is pretty much standard GM diff. The parts are specific but it is similar to others, using a crush sleeve and side shims. You still need to get the pattern dialed in. The axles use snap rings instead of clips.
The difference is in the way it's built. Stock, GM manual type builds address nothing in regard to the weak areas they had to begin with. You can replace bearings and maybe the clutches and call it rebuilt or you can build it to your application, addressing the known weak areas depending on the year.