Big Day........long time coming !

[Dan Barlow]

So last september or so at the last ecta event , I was driving Blue 92 down the taxiway to my job that weekend at the starting line and I hear that low brake pad warning sound . Very embarrassing with all the car guy and girls there . But , it comes and goes and I really had no time or tools to fix it . And it is pretty much interstate all the way home so.....the rotors should be fine . I get home and take the rear wheels and calipers off . Pads are fine . I replace the u joints it the driveshaft . Which requires dropping the exhaust. Still have the noise check the ones in the halfshafts , they seem tight . Also checked the dront pads , they were fine .So , I determined a while back it was the rear hubs . They are alot like the front hubs on a front wheel drive or a GM truck on the front that is 4x4 equipped. These things are around $150 a piece . Not the end of the world but I really haven't had the time to get it done . Well , besides the noise that would come and go , I noticed that the rear got twitchy . And the first snowof only two little ones we had in Indy last winter , man what a surprise . The old $2750 vette was so stable and this thing was absolutely trying to kill me . I couldn't even go 45mph without that backend going back and forth trying its best to pass me . I had to actually get of and take surface streets to work . Then it got worse. Started doing it during heavy rain . I figure its because the rear tires are going toe in to toe out unpredictablely .And I think maybe the alignment too . Maybe another corvette with more experience than I can explain this better the I . But hey , it stopped raining overnight (at least for now ) so here goes nothing . Lets say jacking up the car starts at 10 am.

[Loren]

Will be thinking of ya...I wonder if, with the car jacked up, you could feel any looseness back there.

[Dan Barlow]

Just got to the point of being stumped so out comes the haynes manual because I found these headless bolts holding the ( what I earlier called hubs) bearing assemby on . I know the other side has regular bolts so it should be easier .

[Dan Barlow]

[Dan Barlow]

FALSE START ! It turns out the I must have been looking at the hubs on the other vette . It has them going in from the front . This one has them coming in from the back . Looks like alot more work. With the wind coming out of the east it usually means whatever weather you had . Your going to grt it again ( rain ) and I already have one put of commission vette in the garage so ...... I think I'll just work on it today .

[fatguyzinc]

be happy at least its the C4 where you just replace the whole hub
and not a C3 where you need to set and shim the new bearings...
ask me how i know thats a 2 day job that takes $300 worth of
specialty tools....

oh well, it was still better than paying our local "corvette specialty"
shop $800 per side if i took down the rear control arms, and $1300
a side if i drove it in.....

[Dan Barlow]

Oh my ! Hope my daughter never has to do that on hers !

[corvettedad]

be happy at least its the C4 where you just replace the whole hub
and not a C3 where you need to set and shim the new bearings...
ask me how i know thats a 2 day job that takes $300 worth of
specialty tools....

oh well, it was still better than paying our local "corvette specialty"
shop $800 per side if i took down the rear control arms, and $1300
a side if i drove it in.....

Ditto on the C3!! Did the pad thing and the u-joints in the drive shafts and still had the squeaking. Carried it to a well known Corvette guru in Mobile AL about 80 miles to have him verify what I thought it was, good thing because he found I also had some bent strut rods. Not having the time or the special tools mentioned I told him to just fix it which turned out to be a good decision because someone had been it before and there were some spacers missing on one side. Cost me 1500 to rebuild both sides, bead blasted and painted, new bearings and bushings, new strut rods, rebuilt the e-brake and 4 wheel alignment.

[Hemi Joel]

It looks like a interesting job. Good luck with it. I never worked on irs, but did a wheel bearing on an ifs 4wd truck. The steel bearing was really seized in the aluminum upright, that was a bear of a job to get loose.

[Dan Barlow]

Should have got this done over the week end but , I have a friend that is moving to Colorado Springs and I thought it only right to put this off a little longer . Now I'm getting scared to drive it so now we're at the point of it HAS to get fixed . Thinking on taking off thursday and fri to knock it out .Going to roll the red vette out I think. We've been getting rain for days and it looks like we'll keep getting some rain most days this week so , yeah an inside job .

[SuperBuickGuy]

C4 is easy compared to C3. That said, outside of getting the &^*^$!!!!!!(**^^^&&&&&& arns off, it was a pretty easy job. It does make it a lot easier (and faster) on the C3 if you get the setup tool.

[Dan Barlow]

So here we go again . Last time I started it was basically going to be a race to see how fast I could accomplish this job . This time since I know that unlike $2750 vette this one has the bolts coming into the hub / bearing assemblies from the back . I took today and fri off and have sat . It's going to be a complete washout outside so..... nothing to do out there and the car has gotten to dangerous to drive period with the wheels changing the degrees that they are pointed in , without any way to predict . This has become my biggest fire , everything else will have to wait . Here goes nothing .......
ppuuffft !

[Dan Barlow]

Found a bad U joint by the right hub spent 3 hours tracking down 4 of those , cause if your going to do one , the others are just as old probably , might as well knock them all out . I don't want to have to be under here again . Picking this back up tomorrow .

[Dan Barlow]

Well , those u joints were the wrong ones . Ran the gamut from AutoZone to Napa . Nobody lists the right ones . So after I got one out I took it to Napa and got 4 of the ones that matched . Unfortunately after getting 1 of the clips holding the joints in the shaft I forgot about the other side and drove the u joint out . Not a problem on a steel shaft but mine are aluminium . So now no ridge in one side to hold the clip . Ebay to the rescue at 48 bucks shipped but it'll probably be thursday before I get it . I have the hubs in . Just for the record the hubs can stay in when taking the half shafts out but you need to take the tie rod looose to get a little movement. Company coming over for dinner so thats all for today . I thought the company was coming over next week . Oh well .

[Dan Barlow]

Got it all back together . Had to put the bad halfshaft back in that I tore out one of the clip ridges out of. The ebay replacement probably won't be here till wed . I took it out for a trip down the road . Oh man , so much better ! Since I'm missing that retention clip, I'll be taking surface streets to work to keep speeds down to around 40mph . We aread have 4 people depending on 3 cars getting to work , not going down to 2 for 4 days . Heres a few pics .