Part 3: Rear Suspension Part 1

The major job on the car is the rear suspension, up until now the front end and motor was already finished. The rear being all original was sagged out and all the bushings were completely worn out. The back end danced around from left to right when driving so everything needed to be rebuilt. Luckily aftermarket suppliers make it easy to source parts.

The rear spring bushings above are completely compressed and do nothing.

Even though it looks like the spring still has an arch to it, when the full weight of the car was on the ground the spring was flat.

With the spring out, you can see how grimy and dirty it was. The differential had been leaking for a while.

The shafts are out, they were pretty easy to remove. It was just a pain having to keep putting the transmission in park / neutral every time I had to remove a u-joint bolt.

The differential is heavy. It is all made of cast iron and is bolted to the crossmember above. I tried to unbolt it but the bolt heads are hidden inside the crossmember.

These are the alignment bars and their mounting bracket which is bolted to the differential cover. They control the camber of the rear wheels.

With the differential and crossmember dropped, you can see the two center holes in the crossmember. That is where the bolts are connecting it to the differential.

The driveshaft is pulled out revealing a straight shot to the transmission output shaft.

The rear gears. The teeth and pinion looked good, just standard wear on the contact surface so there was no reason to replace it. Also, the bearings were is good shape. The springs are for the posi-traction unit which came stock in the C3 Corvettes.

I was a bit surprised to see very little oil in the differential, but it makes sense since it leaked all over everything in the rear. Luckily nothing was damaged.

Everything all painted up.

This is the drivers side trailing arm, it houses the rear axles and emergency brake set up. These bearings were replaced by someone, they were a different brand and in some what decent shape.

This is the passenger side trailing arm and it has seen better days. This side was all original factory bearing and you can see the seals failed causing all the grease to leak out. This side sounded like broken glass when you spin the axle.

Factory parking brake assembly. Both sides were rusted out and it explained why the brake never worked.

Everything is out of the rear end. The underside was then coated in truck bed liner to seal and protect it.

The car sat like this for a few weeks while we waited on parts. During that time everything was degreased and repainted.