Jack aus Maine möchte mit seiner 66er C2 Europa bereisen - Tipps?

[Jack Panzica]

Day 4 of " The Great Journey " Rear End / Sombrero Removal

Happy New Years to All :woohoo:

Today's Goal was to finish the job of removing the rear end from the car. 2 hours time 1 hour work 1 hour crawl time ...lol

I needed to remove the cross member which requires the removal of the Sombrero Bushings / Nuts the hold cross member to frame. After 48 years of driving in the North East on salted roads and 300,000 miles , you would think all the nuts, bolts and rust would cause a great deal of problems.

Well , not one bolt or nut broke so far. The cross member to my disappointment , did not pop off. The bolts came right out

( I left them in when prying)

The cross member just came off with gentle pressure of the pry bar.

The most difficult part was getting the u-joint nuts off . The rear is locked up and you can not rotate the drive shaft. After dropping the rear down with cross member , I was able to do each nut .

The snuber bracket bushing was difficult because it is hard to put a wrench on the top bolt while you undo the bottom nut.

Tomorrow I will take the rear off the carrier and see what is left of the insides....

The job took 2 hours today 1 hour of work and 1 hour of crawl time on my back. It has taken me about 10-12 hours to get to this stage .

With a lift that time would be about 3-4 hours . Stay tuned for the opening of the rear tomorrow !

What I would like to be able to do later



Gentle prying , cross member came right off - bolts came right out



Cross member now free - both sides came off - no problems



Rear supported by jack as work on drive shaft u-joints



Rear End / Cross member now free of car in dolly



Sombreros after 48 years !





Rear End at Rest



Day 4 Parts Collection

[Jack Panzica]

Day 5 " The Great Journey " Oh my God ! Look at that !

Goals for today : Remove rear from cross-member and open rear end to see what happen to it.

A lesson to be learned. I have been driving this car for almost 300,000 miles in the North East and just about everywhere else. Winter and Summer , salt and rain. And not one bolt was rusted in or broke trying to take it out.

It is sitting for years that rust these cars. Cars that are driven may get surface rust, but it seems the heat and oil must perserve the parts in some way. Sure , they wear out, but I never thought in a million years that the bolts would come out of the rear carrier. But I used a little heat and also used a bolt-out socket by Irwin Tools. It cuts into bolt or nut will take out rounded parts.

I thought it best to use it first before a regular socket. I big breaker bar and very slow turning and out came all the bolts on the cross-member and rear carrier.

Once the cover was off, it was very apparent what happen as you can see. The drive pinion gear was able to move backward into the Posi unit. The ring gear looks OK ....Posi not so good....

Comments are welcome. Any 3:36 posi rears not being used ?

Heating up the cross member bolts. I used a big breaker bar and Irwin Socket (nut / bolt extractor socket) first before I even tried a regular socket



Bolts that I though would never come out , came out



Cover ready to be taken off , what will we find ?



Not very pretty







Day 5 Parts Collection

[Porter]

The basket looks familiar








, ........

[Yankeededandy]

Looks like something let go

At least a straight forward repair. You'll be back on snow tracks in no time.

Martin

[Jack Panzica]

Day 6 Rear End Removal

guten Morgen Bonjour and Good Morning ,

Today I will take off caps and Posi Unit and see what is behind the mess. Pictures later today

Jack

[Jack Panzica]

Hello, Bonjour, and Good Afternoon,guten Abend , and hyvää iltaa

Day 6 I thought you would be tired of looking at my car's rear end.

Picture taken in Nice, France on Corvette Vagabond 's European Tour.
Well I found the problem. Failed bearing of pinion gear or Posi Unit its self. The pinion gear was able to move forward hitting Posi causing damage and pieces breaking off.

The fact that I was only going 10 mph saved my car from extensive damage had it let go at 70 mph. Nothing left to do but replace the unit. I will be looking to put a 3:36 in instead of the current 3:70 which is more inline with my high speed driving on highways in the US and Europe.

Thanks for coming along. I will keep you posted on further work on car as I put it back together.

If you would like to see more photos , please like the https://www.facebook.com/CorvetteVagabond page and enjoy or

https://www.corvettevagabond.com for many stories and car collections.

New Units



Table



Patient



Taking out bolts caps off but that will not help take out Posi




Pieces of Posi







Time to replace the unit, here is bearing difficult to see but a mess

[Jack Panzica]

I should have listen an "Taken the Money"

I should have listen and taken out the rear ...sooner......:cheers:

Jack

[Markstingray]

Jack, you are a hero!

Working on your vette with your own hands is the masterclass
for vintage car lovers.

It might be a pain in the ass while you are working on it.
In the end I think you will feel like a

Good luck with your project and thanks for sharing it!

[Jack Panzica]

Guess what? Last night I went out to garage to take a look at the struts, and what do I see? The bent one is 1 1/4 & the straight one is 1 3/8

Now it all comes back to me, in 1971 I had the rear changed, the mechanic must have broken the original rod and put in the later design.

Should I replace the old bent original with the later one (stronger ?)
For a matched pair?

Or just order a new correct rod with bushings installed and put bushings in old correct rod that has the right camber setting with the bend.

Gary Ramadei is working on finding and building me a rear end. We may use some of my old parts, the more I look at 3:08 and 3:36 the more I like my 3:70. I only go above 110 mph on the highways......

Jack


Strut Bracket Intact and free of rear and spindle

[zuendler]

Order 2 new rods with new bushings, have mine from Willcox.
They aren´t that expensive.
The cheaper way would be ordering one rod and replace the bushings on the other one.
(But pressing those bushings into the rod is fun too )