damaged differential advice

[John H.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Thanks Joe. I was hoping it would pop loose easily this time around. I will install the longer bolts to keep it from falling before I'm ready for it. Tim

Tim -

If you put a coat of anti-seize on the inside of the upper shell of the bushing before you bolt it back up to the "sombrero" formation on the frame, it'll come apart next time without a huge pry-bar.

[Tim D.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Thanks John. I really appreciate the photo. Tim

[Tim D.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Gary, no problem on the typo....got it....T/A=trailing arm

I re-read one of my previous posts on this particular discussion and realized I had numerous typos and mispelled words.

Tim

[Tim D.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Gary, I like your suggestion about prying the rear spring, but I am not sure what a 5' pinch bar is???

Do you happen to have a photo of it and/or how it looks under the spring and over the strut rod with the 12' pipe attached to pry and release the tension?

I used the chains and floor jack with a C-clamp to keep anything from slipping when I installed the rear suspension but the body was off of the frame. Yes, the frame did lift off of the jack stands so I rolled the rear of the chassis directly under the wooden header of my garage door and placed a 4X4 on the rear of the frame and it went up to my wooden header and that kept the frame from lifting. I don't have that luxury with the body on the chassis.

Tim

[Gary R.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Tim
Sorry, with all the hundreds of rebuild pictures I have I never took one of the bar. It's nothing more then a long pry bar, used by riggers and machine repairmen. It's 5's long with a bent up end to pry and lift machines. Any solid bar should work as long as it doesn't slip out, a piece of 1" pipe would probably also work. Some use a simple doug fir 2x4 as leverage, if I recall from an old Bair video that is what they used.

[Dick W.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Look at "B" http://tinyurl.com/439ekh4

[Tim D.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Thanks Dick. Now I see what they are. Tim

[Timothy B.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Tim,

If you used never seize on the crossmember bushings, loosen the crossmember bolts and grab the rear and rock back and fourth and I bet it gets loose. Just be careful that the bolts are threaded to hold it if it falls down.

[Tim D.]

Re: damaged differential advice

I want to express my appreciation to all who replied to my question. Thanks to all of you, my carrier is out of my car and it WAS the pinion that broke. It really was not that difficult of a job because of all of the great advice I received from everyone. I am going to ship it to Gary Ramadei upon everyone's recommendation. I have spoken with him several times and he seems like the real deal and a great guy.

I really fought with the cross member to get it off of the sombrero bushings during the restoration when the body was off of the frame. At that time, I replaced everything and I applied anti-seize.

This time with the body back on the car, the cross member popped right off. I did take everyone's advice and installed a grade 8, 7/16-14 longer bolt on both sides to catch it so it wouldn't fall. I also had my floor jack under the pumpkin and it worked very nicely.

I am looking forward to getting the differential completely rebuilt and putting the car back together.

Thanks to all of you for your knowledge and willingness to share and help!

Tim

[Tim D.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Also, when I removed the cover to drain the oil, I noticed the ring gear had damage to two of it's teeth.

Tim

[Tim D.]

Re: damaged differential completely rebuilt by Gary Ramadei

Hey guys. I wanted to give an update regarding my damaged differential problem. Many thanks to: Tracy, Duke, Joe, Domenic, Ray, John, Dick, Tim and Gary. As usual, you guys were a HUGE help!!!!!!

Upon several members advice and several phone calls I decided to send my axle carrier to Gary Ramadei in CT. for a COMPLETE rebuild. I must say I am extremely satisfied with Gary and his fine work. Gary is the ultimate professional! First of all, he is really a nice guy, easy to talk with and VERY patient. No question of mine was a dumb question and I had plenty of questions. He answered every question and explained everything to me in great detail. He did EXACTLY what he said he was going to do for the price he originally quoted me. His turn around time was extremely fast. I shipped the carrier to him from MO on October 5 and received it back at my house completely finished on October October 20. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly he got it done because I want to get my car back together and enjoy some nice fall driving.

The internal components in my original 1964 rear end were pretty much all "toasted". Luckily, the case and cover were fine. Upon removing my rear cover to drain the oil for shipping etc., I found two teeth broken on the ring gear, the pinion shaft was sheared in two and there was some other collateral damage internally. I had plenty of new oil and posi lube in it. It appears it just finally got tired after 47 years of "fun". I don't know if the ring gear teeth broke and then it jammed up and caused the pinion shaft to sheer in half, or vice versa.....I guess I'll never know.

When Gary received it, he first let me know it had arrived safely. He quickly assessed which parts could be reused and which parts had to be replaced. He called and emailed me with the situation and gave me several choices and prices. We discussed the options and then he proceeded with the rebuild. I elected to have EVERTHING replaced with new American parts (posi case, bearings, seals, ring and pinion etc). My car had a 3:36 gear set and I decided to have Gary install a 3:73 gear set to give me a little more zip around town and still keep it the RPM's reasonable in 4th gear.

Initially, Gary told me he would stay in close touch with me via emails and photos documenting everything he did and the progress he made each day. He told me, he would send me more emails/photos than I may want to see, showing updates on the work. I said, "that would be impossible". Well, true to his word, he sent me 2-3 updates per day. I was amazed at the detailed photos of the project. He showed me every step of the way including close ups of the initial damage, good parts/bad parts, numbers, the products he used etc. Gary, is very 'old school' and so am I. Do it once, do it right and be happy for life. He is very knowledgable about Corvette rear axles and Corvettes in general. If anyone needs to have this type of work done, I HIGHLY recommend Gary Ramadei!!!! You wont' be sorry. Gary also gave me paperwork outlining the whole procedure from start to finish with tons of valuable information and documentation. In this Corvette 'hobby' we have all run into guys that don't exactly do it right the first time and some of them are jerks to top it off. In my opinion, Gary is very honest and the 'real deal'.

I have my car about 1/2 way back together and hope to finish today or tomorrow. I am anxious to get the car out on the road for a test drive before the snow flies. Gary told me I need to follow a break in procedure. He said to drive the car for 20-30 minutes and then let it cool for at least an hour. I think this is to 'heat cycle' the metal? Repeat this approximately 10 times and then change the posi lube and gear oil. After that is finished, it should last me forever.

Gary, if you read this post, maybe you could/would post a few of the photos of my project and chime in on the subject and perhaps explain the facts a little better?????? I don't mind at all if you post the photos.

I will report back again as soon as I get the car back on the road with an update as to how it actually performs etc.

Thanks again to everyone for their help!

Tim

[Russ S.]

Re: damaged differential advice

He sounds like a really great guy. I applaud Gary.

[Tim T.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Gary did my '63 diff earlier this summer. I followed his break-in cycle and couldn't be happier.
Tim

[Gary R.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Hi guys
Tim & Tim it was a pleasure working with both of you. Thank you for the kind words but most important to me is you're back on the road and enjoying the car.

Tim D,
I'll get some pictures posted on this build as I'm sure the other guys want to see what your diff looked like when I pulled the cover.

Thank you
Gary

[Gary R.]

Re: damaged differential advice

Ok here are some of Tim's 64 diff. This diff appeared to be stone stock except for the pinion seal. That looks to be replaced but it didn't really matter since the pinion was sheared in 1/2,the Dana posi was chipped and obsolete,and the RG had a broken tooth or two. Tim wanted to keep the original housing ( carrier) & cover. Typically with a street car-(non judged) with a diff in this shape it's more economical to use a later diff and build that. Tim wanted to stay with his and build it to hold more hp then a common diff would be. It came out pretty nice by the time he reads this should be on the road again!!!

5 line cap bolts, notice this diff had the later caps in it. I checked them and they were correctly fit so I was surpriesed to see them. Many 64's have the 63 type cap, these I thought didn't show up until '65.


Dana Posi - all done


Side yokes were shot. Many times I can reuse 63-72 yokes but not these.





Pinion




New polished and tuned posi, 10-17 spiders,solid steels used.




Finished, 373 gears, ARP Rg bolts,socket heads, ready for some abuse by Tim!! Big difference from when I opened up Tim's crate.




Hope this solves the mystery this 64 had! Tim enjoy the car drive it until the snow flies!