Ok, I was reading my manual (Chiltons or Haynes... One or the other) and it told me to drop the spare tire and carrier (made sense), rear leaf spring (makes sense), the entire exhaust system (a PITA because mine is welded up until the cat), lower the tranny (another slight PITA) and some other things. Now I read an article by Ski_dwn_it (https://www.corvetteforum.com/techti...=218&TopicID=2) that shows me otherwise. This leads me to believe there may be a few other shortcuts out there. Any help guys? Also, what rear end fluid do you recommend?

 

Oh BTW, I'm replacing it with another D36...

 

I can't help you with the swap but I use Mobil 1 diff fluid..pricey but I've never had a problem and I beat on it pretty good...

 

I basically followed Ski_dwn_it's proceedure, IMO the hardest part was removing the exhaust.

I use mobile ONE and add friction modifier.

Mike

 

Have you some beer handy.

 

I followed Ski it downs article too and it worked as a handy reference. Here are some other tips I found out while doing this. Once you have the spare tire carrier and muffler Y pipe out of the way, take a picture of the rear carrier area for reference. Count the little 1x3 inch spacer plates that sit at the center of the mounting blocks. Write down how many are above and how many are below. It may sound cryptic now, but will make sense when your doing it. I also added a drain plug to my diff while I was changing it out. Someone sells a kit for it. And someone on here send me a picture of where to drill the hole, and I bought a drain plug at local auto parts store. I also chose to change/update the U joints as mime were over 100k. I also went all out and bought the C beam plates that make putting the C-Beam in a snap. You dont have to lower the Tranny, at least I didn't with an automatic. I also chose to update to Poly bushings. That was hard part, as I needed a press and a drill to get the old ones out. Inspect your leaf spring for cracks, splitting, delaminating. Only clean it with dish soap and water, no fancy amonia sprays or degreasers. You will definitly need jack stands and hydraulic jacks. Both for the body and the rear and the disks brakes. You will find that you have to jockey the disk ends up and down to get things to line up. Good Luck.

 

Thanks for all the help so far guys, nice to know that other people have completed this without a total pain-in-the-neck. Oh and by the way,
I wouldn't DARE start this one without Warsteiner . Anyone in the area is free to enjoy one with me if 'ya help! I've got one wrench workin with me but he's an import guy (no need to flame, he drives a 12 second twin turbo 300ZX).

 

Step 1: Buy the proper shop manual.

 

I already have a haynes and a chiltons, I wanna get the total shop manual someday... Also, what did you use to compress the rear leaf spring?

 

Just put your floor jack underneath the spring ends, remove the bolt and let the pressure off the jack. One time on each end. I cut a piece of wood and duct taped it to the spring to prevent damage.

 

How about compressing the rear leaf spring. The manual recommends this proprietary GM tool, what did you guys use?

 

I just got a set a lowering bolts for my rear leaf spring, they are longer than stock so I don't have to compress the spring any before they start threading on. They are also long enough I can release tension on the before I run out of threads. Still run the rear at stock ride, the bolts are just for ease of maintainence in my case. 90 Z51 rear spring, not much arch to it.