3.73 gears; same as mine. Now you too can max out at 63mph at 3000rpm. Good for PASSING on the highway, but not so great for CRUISING on a freeway.

 

That depends on tire size. I'm running 275-60-15 M&H drag radials, and I turn 2900 rpm's at 65 mph. Hardly maxed out for a SBC.

 

so i got my 3.73 in, couldn't take many progress pics due to doing little work here and there.

after taking the car out i noticed a grinding or rubbing noise on the pass side, i took the tire off & drum and the brake shoes and drum were really hot and i seen shavings of the shoe, i installed all my springs right and the adjuster is all the way in, also on a weird note, i was going to adjust my ebrake cable to see if that was causing the rubbing and to my surprise i found that both rear wheel cables had been cut under the car. so i just took the parking brake lever out of the drums.

so any ideas on whats causing my rubbing/grinding, could it be caused by the new shoes and drums just being too new?

 

How much resistance is there when you spin the tires by hand, when off the ground? When set right, you should juuuuuust hear and feel a little drag when you spin each tire. I find it strange that your adjusters are all the way in too. If there's too much drag when cold, it's gonna get worse (tighter) when the brakes heat up. It could be that the parking brake cable(s) rusted stiff to the casing when they were pulled out, which would be pre-loading the brakes.

 

i had the car up on jack stands and heard no rubbing, so it must be a bad bearing.

anyone know any tricks to remove the broken lock bolt from the pin holding the axle shafts in place?


this little guy broke off and is stuck in the housing.


my drill doesnt seem to fit with the bit i have, might try an angle drill next

 

That's not an uncommon occurrence. If it's any consolation, the bolt was likely already broken before you put a hand on it. Differential Pinion Shaft Lock Bolt Extractor Kit DPK-01

 

If you look at the end of the shaft where the broken end of the pin still is, you will see a small hole. I used a vice to bend the tip of a nail into a ''L'' shape. I pushed on the end of the pin with the nail and turned the other end of the pin with a very sharp pic. It still had about 1/4 of a tread on it and would not just push out.
Good luck

 

i'm going to start trying to get the rest of my bolt out today, now how can i tell which bearing actually needs to be replaced? is there a way to pinpoint if its a bearing in the housing?

i had the rear of the car on jack stands, put it in drive and heard no noise, when i take it out on the road i hear a grinding on the pass side. that tells me its a wheel bearing, but i want to make sure before i tear everything apart, rebuild and find out i have the noise again.

 

No way to know until it's apart, but carrier bearings rarely go bad. It's most likely and axle bearing, and once it's far enough apart to replace one, it's just a few minutes more to get the other out. I would replacee them both anyway, as it's a pain to do it again in a few months when the second goes bad. They're not that spendy for a new bearing and seal to not do both.
If you have to drill that pin to get it out; use a lefthand twist drill bit. A whole set at Harbor Freight is not much over $10, and they will often catch the broken bolt or screw and unscrew them with a lefthand bit. I wont drill out a broken bolt with RH bits, as they tighten the bolt when they catch, and can often snap the drill bit. Then you're really screwed!

 

I'm working on it now, I tried a lh drill bit and it wouldn't back out, then I grabbed a pick and a hammer and started pounding the carrier pin, I broke a little piece and I'm able to see the last of the pin from the screw, I'm just going to break the rest of the carrier pin and get it out.