Hey Bolters,
I am updating my AD to an open driveshaft and I'm hoping to use a 1964 Chevy 12-bolt rear end I have on hand in my build.
I opened the pumpkin today, drained the oil, cleaned it out with brake parts cleaner, took a visual inspection of the gears for wear, cracks and chips, used a dial indicator to check backlash and finally put white lithium grease on a few of the ring gear teeth to check the wear pattern. Below are my findings and some photos of the ordeal. Any thoughts and advice is most certainly appreciated!
The gears all moved smoothly, but I noticed a few nicks in the housing that holds the smaller gears (not sure what that's called).
I also noticed some wear on the ring gear, all the way at the heel of the teeth, like a taper. I wasn't sure if it was machined that way, or caused from excessive wear.
I noticed a small nick in one of the pinion gear teeth.
When I coated about 6 teeth with white lithium grease, I held a little resistance on the pinion shaft, then rotated the ring gear several times in each direction, when I did that, almost the entire drive side and coast side of the ring gear was missing grease. The face and flank had grease on them, but the sides of the teeth were nearly bare. This made sense too be because I was only able to read a backlash of 0.002" tops with a friend holding the pinion shaft in place.
And last but not least there was a fairly large amount of rust inside on the ring gear and other locations.
I am trying my best to save money, but I'm also dropping in a SBC 383 that when built I expect to bring 400+ HP and torque. So my priority is safety and doing things right. After viewing the photos, I would appreciate it if you all chimed in with advice on rebuilding a diff myself vs. trusting this one vs. having a pro take every penny I have. I've read several articles and forum posts concerning rebuilds and it sounds like if I'm patient and careful, I can get it done. But I've had people give me the impression that rebuilding a diff is a mystical process and only the pros can get it right.
Local gear specialty shop said depending on the condition of the rear end, I'm looking at $800-$1800 for him to rebuild it.
I tried to embed the photos and for whatever reason I can't ever get it to work, so if anyone knows what I'm doing wrong, please help me out on that topic too.
Thanks as always Bolters!
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