TobyZ28

GU5 1995 Z28 with 4 channel abs/trac control:

Brought the car in to a reputable rear end shop to get 3.73's put in and ended up finding some surprises... The Auburn was toast, the passenger side axle shaft needed replacing and new bearings all around.

They ran into some issues with the replacement axle shaft not fitting properly. Hopefully I can articulate this well enough!

• The shops saying my rear end "appears to be from a 98-02" and needed a different axle shaft as the 98's-02 were different than the 93-97.
• This was a total surprise as i've had the car since 2000 and never had the whole axle replaced (MAYBE the previous owner did some funny business to the rear before selling the car??)
• I believe they ordered the newer shaft from the 98-02's to put in as a result, and ran into the flange being offset differently than the old axle shaft. There was immediate rubbing when they did a test drive.
• I'm not sure how they concluded the rear end is different than stock, sounds like i can maybe verify this from the casting stamp/other info put on the rear end?
• The shop does stand by their work and want's to solve this properly so will be tackling this next week (at no extra charge).

The car is still still in the shop, and being used to doing almost everything myself on the car i'm a little worried! My gut says they identified the rear end incorrectly and ordered the wrong axle shaft, however I find it hard to believe they'd do that being a shop that specialize in rear ends, and that the axles are all stamped so they can be identified easily from the factory!

Anyone have any ideas on what might be really going on?

FirstYrLS1Z

per GM parts layout catalog,Traction Control option is called out as NW9.

95-97 housing GM# 26038491
98-02 housing GM#12471186

95-97 axle shaft GM#26063144
98-02 axle shaft GM#26059972

'Auburn is toast' doesn't simplify a potential answer as 98s' were Auburn.

What's 'rubbing' ?

rngilliland

The difference in the axle shafts isn't very much. Probably not more than 1/8 inch. I don't remember which one is longer. The reason the shafts were changed is because the brakes are different. If you have the 93-97 rear discs then the 93-97 axles will work best. The year of the housing shouldn't matter. The main thing is to have the caliper centered over the disc. Sometimes there are shims between the axle housing and the brake backing plate that GM used to center the caliper.

TobyZ28

Thx, just got the car back from the shop - they ordered the LS1 axle shaft instead of the LT1 for the rear hence the rubbing. They shimmed it for now, but want my car back and will throw in the proper 93-97 axle shaft and remove the temporary shims

The front desk guy wouldn't quite admit they made a f'up and insisted my rear was "weird" for the car- but I think based on the evidence they incorrectly identified my rear axle as an 98-02!