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Dave, You are right that we should not discourage folks from doing all that
they can themselves. Working on our cars is a least half the fun of owning them.
But some jobs can prove more costly than paying labor when they go bad. Rearend
setup is not brain surgery. But it does require a great deal of skill and
knowledge to do it right.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 4:03
PM
Subject: RE: [Chevelle-list] How to
rebuild a 12-bolt rear?
Mike, I understand your point, and agree
to an extent. I'll admit I farmed out my own rearend years ago, as
I didn't have the tools (coming up with money for gears, posi, etc was hard
enough!).
I guess my original point is that I was
surprised that the early response was "dont try it! leave it to a
pro!" There's quite a number of DIY-ers on the list (like myself) who
like to see what it would take to do it yourself, even if the decision is
ultimately made to take it to a pro.
Upon doing 5-10 minutes of googling, I was
surprised at my relative lack of results in finding good, detailed
instructions on setting up a 12-bolt. I found an article
in a recent Car Craft, but it was for a Ford 8.8. I'll dig through my
Chevy High Performance issues again because I distinctly remember reading a
reader's letter to the effect of "thanks for the article on how to setup a 12
(10?)-bolt, we did it and it came out great!" Here's a link I found
online for 10-bolts: http://chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/148_0207_bolt/
I have a spare 12 bolt in my
basement. Maybe I should put my money where my mouth is and try to set
it up.. :-)
-Dave
Dave, I do complete restorations, build engines and trans, but I take
my rear end work to a specialist. It's not that I couldn't get set up to do
it, but it takes special tools and a lot of experience to get one
right.I do the disassembly, sand blast and paint the housing and carry it
all to my guys shop. He gives me back an assembled rear end, ready to
mount. It usually costs 3 to 4 hours labor. And they always work right with
no extra noise. To me it's well worth the cost not to have to worry about
this one area of a resto job.
Mike Holleman
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 11:16
PM
Subject: RE: [Chevelle-list] How to
rebuild a 12-bolt rear?
Come on guys, we can do better than
this, can't we? :-) While I've never built a rear either, I
and others on the list have built engines and transmissions, taken
the bodies off their frames, etc... and I can't imagine a
rear is THAT hard.
At minimum, you'll need a mountable
dial indicator for measuring backlash and I think you're gonna need a
torque wrench that does inch/lbs instead of foot/lbs. I thought
there was a decent article on this very subject in either Car Craft or
Chevy High Performance within the past few months. I'll try to find
it. In the mean time, check these out to get your feet
wet.
-Dave
I would not recommend you take it apart if you have not done it
before. As stated previously, you can do more harm than
good.
Tom
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