Swapping a iron Eaton diff to an aluminum D44

Then why wouldn't I rather move the chunk back 5/8 and not cut my body? It seems that having the halfshafts always misaligned (forward) instead of parallel at rest puts more work on the already over worked u joints...
 
Extreme Engineering said:
So does the later 79-82 aluminum carriers with the 5/8 forward location have better geometry?
Click to expand...

I think it does help with toe steer. I'm just not sure how much effect it has.

Here is my thinking. My understanding on toe steer is that as the suspension goes through its travel, the front pivot point of the TAs stays stationary in relationship to the CL of the vehicle while the wheel moves toward the CL as the half shaft moves away from the level position because the half shaft gets shorter in relation with the horizontal plane. So the wheel toes out.

If the stub axles are moved forward, the CL of the wheel spindle is moving toward the CL of the stub axle during suspension travel which would lengthen the half shaft in the horizontal plane.

Does this make any sense?
 
Ok, I modeled this up and as usual TT is right. The 5/8" shift forward would have little to no affect on toe steer and may actually make it worse. :gurney:
 
Did a test fitting today. The diff is really close to the body in one spot. It doesn't touch but its within about an 1/8". Its the circled area below.

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Anybody have an 80 to 82 Vette where they could take a look and give me a sanity check? I think they must all be that way but I want to make sure.
 
I don't have one on the lift but is pretty close, however not sure if it was THAT close. But if it clears it's fine.
 
Thanks for the info Marck, I'm pretty sure everything is located correctly. I can grind the fin on the differential if necessary. I'm just surpised they would have designed for that close fit. Maybe mine is just at the edge of the tolerances.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4
 
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Well, a year later I'm back on this project! I've been travelling a lot for my job and had 2 kids get married this past year so there hasn't been much time. Anyway here's a few pics of the progress.

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Does anyone have the rear crossmember mounts for the aluminum crossmember from a bad or partial frame? I hate to cut up my spare 80 model frame just for the mounts...
 
Well, everything seems to be turning into crap today. :sos:

First thing, when I am installing the Wilwood calipers I notice the bolts they supply and are too long and hitting the rotor. Plus as you can see the caliper isn't centered on the rotor

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They tell you to use 2 supplied washers with the bolt which I did but still too long.

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I double checked and I'm using the rear rotors and calipers.

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Second thing I started to install the halfshafts; first one installed no problem. Second one the u-joint won't fit into the stub axle. The u-joints on both ends of the halfshafts fit fine in the spindle flange so I know there is something wrong with the stub axle. Measuring with a dial calipers, it appears to be about .004" or .005" to small on the length of the u-joint. I also noticed the stub axles have a different appearance like they were made by a different process or manufacture. Here's the good one.

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And here's the bad one.

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And of course I just filled up the diff with lube before I discovered this. :cussing:

Third thing I try to adjust the parking brake and discover I have way too much cable. Not sure if this is because the Global West TAs have different mounting points for the cable or maybe the cable is stretched out. Probably a little bit of both. Anybody have ideas how to shorten the cable?

So here's where I'm leaving off for the day.

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I'm done for the day. Time for :mobeer:

:suicide:
 
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BBShark said:
Is the machined surface of the stub (that mates with the cap) too small?
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Its the 3.625" dimension across the width of the u-joint, Its measuring about 3.620". I'm pretty much resigned to the fact I'm going to have to pull the diff back out and replace the side yoke. Mike Dyer rebuilt the diff and installed the side yokes so I'll probably contact him for input. I'm not blaming him at all; I'd just like his suggestions for a supplier for the side yoke and anything I need to watch for when I replace it.

And I'm going to contact Wilwood on the brakes. Considering the cost for this setup and their reputation I really wasn't expecting this. I guess the best solution would be to put a washer between the caliper and the mounting bracket to center the caliper and move the bolts away from the rotor but I'm really surprised I need to do this. Maybe I'm doing something wrong; I haven't heard about anybody else running into this.

Maybe I can use something like this to deal with my parking brake issue.
 
Did some measuring on the rotor tonight.

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I'm not sure who originally posted these dimensions on the drawing, but assuming they are correct, looks like my rotors are in the ball park. So it looks like I will probably be shimming the caliper back. I talked with Mike Dyer today. He said its not unusual to have to shim Wilwood's calipers. He said overall they're good units but for some reason they seem to be having trouble controlling that dimension. Pretty crazy.
:bonkers:
I did email Wilwood today so it will be interesting to see what their response is.

Edit: Just now looking at the drawing above, it looks like the front rotors would work better for my situation. Could I have the calipers swapped?! The boxes say "rear" but maybe they were packaged wrong?

Regarding the side yoke, Mike said he has never seen that dimension undersize like I seem to have but his supplier would stand behind it if its bad. He's going to send a replacement right away. Can't say enough good things about Mike. I emailed him today with the problems I'm having and received a phone call back within a couple hours. :1st:
 
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I emailed Wilwood's tech support on Monday. Now, on Thursday, since they never responded I gave them a call. Naturally they had "never had a complaint about this before." :suspicious:

But after being put on hold a few times he finally recommended shimming the caliper. Of course he wanted to make it clear it wasn't because there is a problem with their kit but all the other tolerances of the mounting bracket and hub, etc. Funny, I've never had to shim the stock calipers. :bullshit:
 
Kid Vette said:
I emailed Wilwood's tech support on Monday. Now, on Thursday, since they never responded I gave them a call. Naturally they had "never had a complaint about this before." :suspicious:

But after being put on hold a few times he finally recommended shimming the caliper. Of course he wanted to make it clear it wasn't because there is a problem with their kit but all the other tolerances of the mounting bracket and hub, etc. Funny, I've never had to shim the stock calipers. :bullshit:
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Tsss, don't be that picky, give them time to adjust the quality of their new Chinese factory.:D
/sarcasm
 
Well I'm finally back to the point I thought I was in early August. I got a replacement side yoke from Mike but unfortunately it had the same condition as the one in my differential. He checked his stock and all the side yokes of that style (Dana 44, 1350 u-joint, right side) were also bad. So he made a trip to LoneStar Caliper's (the manufacturer) warehouse to go through their stock to find a good one. But unfortunately, the good one must have got swapped for a bad one and I received another side yoke I couldn't use. That's 3 bad side yokes I received counting the one that was installed in the diff. Finally number 4 was a good one! Here's the dimension that was undersize on the first 3.

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Also the last bad one I received looked like the OD had been chrome plated and not a very good job of it.

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I added 1/16" thick spacer washers to the rear calipers and now they are centered over the rotors fairly well and the mounting bolts don't bottom out on the rotor anymore.

I guess quality control doesn't exist in the aftermarket anymore. :suicide:
 
Kid Vette said:
Well I'm finally back to the point I thought I was in early August. I got a replacement side yoke from Mike but unfortunately it had the same condition as the one in my differential. He checked his stock and all the side yokes of that style (Dana 44, 1350 u-joint, right side) were also bad. So he made a trip to LoneStar Caliper's (the manufacturer) warehouse to go through their stock to find a good one. But unfortunately, the good one must have got swapped for a bad one and I received another side yoke I couldn't use. That's 3 bad side yokes I received counting the one that was installed in the diff. Finally number 4 was a good one! Here's the dimension that was undersize on the first 3.

53541713363a179.jpg

Also the last bad one I received looked like the OD had been chrome plated and not a very good job of it.

535417133662624.jpg

I added 1/16" thick spacer washers to the rear calipers and now they are centered over the rotors fairly well and the mounting bolts don't bottom out on the rotor anymore.

I guess quality control doesn't exist in the aftermarket anymore. :suicide:
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Age 70, been remodeling homes since '85, really don't want to do that shit any damn more.....but got stuck with one last Rodeo.....and the POS is giving me MAX CRAP for the last 2 weeks, go to install some simple plumbing faucets and so nothing fits anymore.....DAMN NEW HOUSES,.....everything so highly customizzzzzzed ain't nuttin fit nuttin any more....:surrender:
 
mrvette said:
Age 70, been remodeling homes since '85, really don't want to do that shit any damn more.....but got stuck with one last Rodeo.....and the POS is giving me MAX CRAP for the last 2 weeks, go to install some simple plumbing faucets and so nothing fits anymore.....DAMN NEW HOUSES,.....everything so highly customizzzzzzed ain't nuttin fit nuttin any more....:surrender:
Click to expand...

While I don't disagree with your assessment...... How does this relate to a Corvette rear end / diff ???
 
Ok, looking for ideas to shorten my parking brake cable. Evidently Global West moved the brake cable mounting tab on the TA closer to the hub which in effect made the cable longer. Now I have a couple extra inches of cable that can't be taken out with the adjuster.

I've already done some looking on the internet. Looks like some garage door companies will cut the cable and crimp on a new end stop. I guess some of the home supply stores sell crimpers so you can do it yourself. Or I could just cut the cable and use the little u-bolt clamps they sell at the hardware to splice it back together.

Any other ideas?
 
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