Nah, just roasted the fluid up. Was a bit like a more scary fog machine, if anything.

 

Okay, through all the rain, getting wet, fighting belts and tight spaces, new alternator is on, new high pressure supply line is on. No more leaks, and the car behaves MUCH better over bumps than previously with that old pump. That, and the line, were both contributing factors there more than likely.

Now, we've got some wicked bad belt squealing under higher RPM's. Tried to narrow it down by hitting the idler pulley and the tensioner (both brand new, less than 20 miles on them) bearings with some lubricant, but every time we try that, it will end up on the belt, and the squealing will go away for about.... 5 or 8 seconds. Then it'll come back, just as loud as before. It's EXTREMELY loud, like a howler monkey.

Can't seem to pinpoint. Belt is new, tensioner and idler pulley are new. Anybody have belt noise problems this bad before?

 

if you got oil on the belt you need a new one. gator belt for the win.

 

Got a new belt, nowhere local in Tallahassee has gator belts though. Got another performance brand though, gates I think.

We're going to mess with the water pump pulley again tomorrow, pull it back a little bit, take the rear dust shield off the idler pulley, mess with the tensioner pulley, etc.

Water pump feels right, no movement or wiggling. Will try with the car cold tomorrow and with no belt on.


-edit-

Got it up on an alignment rack tonight to measure the shaft, it's definitely pulled back too far, like 1 1/2 inches. That's with the car on its own weight, wheels are not suspended.

Looking like a new eBay drive shaft is to be on the way.

 

clean all pullies, make sure no oil is on them to break in the new one.

 

woh i wonder if all the control arms bushings being bad could do that, refreash,,, have you done anything that would move any of the drivetrain?

 

No, we measured the actual length of the shaft, from the center of each universal joint. It's an odd length, but it's shorter than OEM.

My car also has 93-97 rear tail lights on it as well, no Amber section for turn signal.

This thing is a bastard's Camaro. It does at least have a stock rear end and 4l60e transmission though, which is missing a rubber service plug underneath (can see the gear teeth at the front where it mates into the rear output of the block).

So, ordered a single piece steel shaft from Proshaft LLC, then next paycheck I'll order the whole differential rebuild kit from summit there to get rid of the one wheel wonder action, and get the 3.42 gears in it.

That picture I put up, is almost exactly what it looks like under load as well. It's still pulled out a good deal more than an inch, and even with new universals, you can grab that sucker with some gloves on and get it to move around just the tiniest bit and clunk around.

I'm just hoping now that the transmissions output yoke isn't damaged from that thing vibrating all this time on it.

 

Well, updates again.

Drive shaft should be at my father's front door tomorrow morning (new years day hold-ups from FedEx). He's anxious to drop out the old one and bolt in this new one to see if we got rid of most of the noise and vibrations, as am I. There will still be some bad news from the bad bearings in the rear housing, but hopefully it'll be severely reduced throughout the car as a result of the new proper length shaft. The differential rebuild will be in-hands on the 6th.

I'm having a separate parts-ordering issue however. This here is the stud kit that should be used with the TA Performance differential girdle cover. Problem is, I can't seem to find anywhere that carries it still. It's a pretty old part number, for a pretty old part.

I've found one link on summit racing right here, but that appears to only show 4 studs. Is that all that it's going to need? I would think that it would replace all of the studs (10, instead of 4). Does that mean I'm going to have to put an order in 3x for that, and have 2 left over studs? Or does it just replace the 4 on the far sides of the cover. I'm kind of lost there, and this is my first time working with any rear end. I do apologize for any ignorance here of this, just trying to feel my way through this experience as we go.

-edit-

I sent an e-mail out to TA Performance, I guess it just shot an auto-response back that they're closed until the 4th of January for holidays. I'll probably end up calling them instead, to see if I can still order those part numbers through them instead of through a third party site. I'll likely get a gasket through them with the studs as well if it works out that way.

 

the ones from summit look like retainers/bolts for the main bearings in the center section.

 

My other question, is this:

Is the stud kit necessary? I know on TA's site they said it helps the cover seat more evenly with equal torque being easy to put down on it.

By main bearings, are you talking about the two standoffs inside that press against the bearings on the backside of the cover? (the black nuts on here with the brass inset)