camarogeek

I'm in the middle of swapping out my rear end as my differential threw a bearing and I want better brakes, different gears and a limited slip. I figured while I'm under there and have everything apart might as well as spruce it up. I'm going to sand away any underbody rust I can get to with the rear end jacked up. All suspension arms will be removed and painted. Underbody is getting white paint, suspension components are getting black. Wheel wells will be cleaned, sanded, underbody spray applied where it isn't and then painted black. I'm picking up the donor rear on saturday and that will get sanded and painted as well. I've got new shocks and sway bar links to put in with the rear. Springs are going to get repainted and reused - started working them over with some steel wool tonight.
I'm on somewhat of a time crunch as I'm working in the driveway. The weather could turn at any time and working in the cold and snow is no fun (we already had one storm). Luckily the rear is mostly dropped and out. All that's left is the control arms and brake lines. I picked up a work light to get in some time after work during the week and I'll be going at it this weekend and finishing up next weekend if all goes well. I figure I'll post a few before during and after photos of how far paint and elbow grease can go in sprucing up the appearance of the underside.

jit11375

sounds good man can't wait to see those pictures...goodluck...its been nice in new york for a couple days, hope it lasts a lottt longer

camarogeek

The forecast looks like it will be good weather to work this weekend. Work has been rough this week and I haven't gotten much done but I have my weekend cleared. I'll take some pics saturday when I'll most likely start working on it again after i leave early to pick up the replacement rear.

This is what I found in my differential after it started grinding that prompted the swap and the other refreshing I decided to do after I got a close look at the underbody while taking apart my current rear.


I think it's pieces of the pinion bearing as the differential bearing and gears were all pretty good looking as was the carrier.

camarogeek

I picked up my replacement rear end today. I was happy to see it had been painted at some point in its life and looked to be in good condition overall. Didn't pop the cover but seems like when they said it was a posi 3.42 they were right based spin tests of the new rearend. Disc brakes and lines were intact; i need to paint the calipers. They cut the shocks off and left me with bolts to remove and also cut the panhard which was much less rusted than mine. I wish I had said something about wanting it like I did for the brakes - maybe it would have been saved. No sway bar so I'm reusing the old one. I'm glad I got new moog end links.

I finally got the rear out. I ended up cutting the brake lines on either side of the junction, got the ebrake disconnected and unbolted the lca's. I was able to get the brake lines out of the donor rear cleanly so I'm hoping to get the stubs out of the old junction and have little to do in the brake department. I left the driveshaft attached dragged it out with the rear. Once it was out it only took a minute to get it separated.

I hit my sway bar and panhard rod with the wire wheel then some anti rust liquid. Tomorrow I'll paint them. I also hit any big rust spots I could get to with the wheel as well as most other areas just to knock dirt and whatever off for painting. As the front is on the ground I went down as far as I could but stopped when the angle grinder was only a few inches from my face. I started painting the underside but the paing I got which was rustoleum was way too thick and was drying way too quick with the breeze. I thinned it down a bit but the solvent I used ate the throwaway foam brushes I had picked up. The wind was picking up pretty good so I decided to halt painting activities as even though its the underbody I don't want a million leaves stuck to it. Hopefully tomorrow brings less wind and I'll pick up some cheap bristle brushes to finish the painting with.

Here are a couple of pics of the rearends as well as the underside.

camarogeek

Quick question - anyone know how the torque arm comes out? Seems to be just stuck in a bushing at the engine end but I couldn't wiggle it free. Would be a lot easier to clean and paint off the car.

camarogeek

So today I spent most of the day sanding, cleaning and painting. I did poop out as my wire wheel for the angle grinder was toast and didn't feel like picking up another one. I could have gone further towards the front of the car but its a little scary being on your back using even just a wire wheel when there are only inches between you and the underbody. Also this project was about the rear end - not a complete restoration though my car could use it. I did manage to get most of the areas directly accessible where the axle would normally sit and got the tunnel painted up to about the attachment point for the e-brake cables. I wanted to start taking off heat shields and disconnecting the holders for fuel and brake lines but I knew I would never finish if I started taking too many things off.

I got the lca's off, sanded a bit and painted. Sanded and applied rust remover to the springs and painted those. Painted the panhard bar and swaybar which were given rust treatment yesterday. I was hoping to put everything back together today but the paint is taking its time to dry. I got the fill plug out of the new differential and loaded it up with fluid. Before that I did pop the cover off - looks like a torsen unit and nothing majorly bad looking inside though the fluid remains were darker than I was hoping (the salvage yard I got it from had drained the fluid to make sure it looked good but they also seemed to have cleaned off the magnet which makes me a little suspicious).

All in all a productive day - perhaps I'll have some energy tonight if the paint dries enough and start putting stuff back together. Also need to get that fluid in. If anyone has any tips for lining up the torque arm that would be helpful but the rest seems to be just tightening bolts and remembering where things went for the most part.

Here are some pics of the results. It could have probably used another coat but its more than it had and much better than if i had just swapped the rear axle out.

camarogeek

Yesterday and today I got everything put back together. Was slightly discouraged yesterday when I went to move the rear end under the car and noticed a pool of fluid under it. Seems the pinion seal is on its way out. I pressed on anyway and got everything in place and mostly tightened down yesterday. Today I finished the drive shaft bolts, bled the brakes and put the wheels on. I also added fluid to the differential and it only took 6oz or so to get it up to the fill line. Everything seems to work fairly well but one of the calipers is not releasing completely and grinding the disc unnecessarily building up heat.