That’s disgusting, I wonder what’s inside the pumpkin?

MS - is that the axle seal, dried out and falling apart?  Or, ...?

What do you believe the 'crud' is from? 

Last edited by BobE (2/18/2024 9:59 AM)

BobE wrote:

What do you believe the 'crud' is from? 

 
Could be homogenized gear oil and water.

I pulled a spare rear axle assembly out of my boat shed and disassembled it.  It had a trashed pinion bearing but otherwIse in good shape, and alot cleaner inside and out. 
So, my crud problem went away.
It will get cleaned to bare metal and repainted and a 3.25 ratio pumpkin will go in it that I bought from Gaba. The gears are new, very low miles on the rebuild. I am not concerned that it is a single track rear end. This car is just a cruiser.
New Timken bearings and seals, 100% new brake components will be installed making it like brand new.

My plan to “just get the brakes juiced up so I can drive it onto the lift” have been gobbled up by the WYAIT Monster, but I won’t ever have to go into the rear end again.  My surgery got postponed to 3/13 so that gave me a little more time to get it moving under its own power.

The stuff I used to get done in a day now takes me a week!

RPM, aka Bearing Bob wrote:

MS wrote:

The stuff I used to get done in a day now takes me a week!

 
You ain't the only member of that club.

Ditto.
 

MS - why not swap the internals of this carrier with the one that's in the car now? 
Any idea what caused this crack?  
 

Oil or trash left in the hole would be my guess.  Its why I always clean all bolts and bolt holes and blow the holes out with compressed air.  Few realize the risk in not doing that. 

I bolted the cracked third member into the restored housing today. I cleaned the crack with brake cleaner, RTV’d it, then removed and put red loctite on the bolt and put it back in with 35 ft/lb on it.  We’ll see how long it goes before creating a problem.
My concern is it will disintegrate halfway between Texas and Bakersfield.

Thought the convertible was a cruiser?

I ran the stock single rib case for 13 years with 3.25 and Currie traction lock.

If it wasn’t for the short ring gear bolts (1”) and absence of Lok Tite, I’d still be running it.

The only replacement I could find in my neck of the woods was a rusted out axle from a Granada.
The axle was the only surviving part of the car…no lie.
I now have the reinforced carrier and extra fill hole, just by chance.

Could you Heli-Coil repair?

Nos681 wrote:

Thought the convertible was a cruiser?

I ran the stock single rib case for 13 years with 3.25 and Currie traction lock.

If it wasn’t for the short ring gear bolts (1”) and absence of Lok Tite, I’d still be running it.

The only replacement I could find in my neck of the woods was a rusted out axle from a Granada.
The axle was the only surviving part of the car…no lie.
I now have the reinforced carrier and extra fill hole, just by chance.

Could you Heli-Coil repair?

No, because all a Helicoil does is in effect make the bolt larger.  The crack remains, and now you'd removed material from an area which was already weakened.  The only real fix would e to weld it up and remachine it.  Welding cast iron properly is extremely difficult.  It tends to have pockets of oxygen and other impurities that cause it to pop as you weld.  You also need to use a high nickle rod, which is hard to machine.  Ideally you want to bake it before and after welding to remove entrapped stress.  The welding may also distort the housing, and require more corrective action.  None of that is worth it IMO for an 8" case, as millions were made.  You'd be better off just to buy a replacement.  I also think there are now new cases available for a fairly reasonable cost. 

MS did the only sensible thing IMO.  In a low powered street car I highly doubt it will ever be an issue. 
 

MS wrote:

BobE wrote:

MS - why not swap the internals of this carrier with the one that's in the car now? 
Any idea what caused this crack?  
 

 
Only thing I can figure is the bolt was overtorqued when installed. I would prefer to have the later model ribbed case and a fill hole on the differential case if I am going to put any time/effort/$$ into the differential.

If it is a cruiser, I would think you'll get thousands of miles out of it.