My Next Project

Kid Vette

Kid Vette

Master-Baiter
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
1,108
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
534f67fbaa3e7c4.jpg

Actually probably won't be the next one but will be soon. I bought this from a1sensei over at CF. Don't know if you guys heard the story here; somebody stole his '81 Vette and then crashed it into a concrete post. Smashed it up and broke the frame so he's parting it out. It had the gymkhana suspension so that should be cool. Since the frame was toast he hacked out the mounting brackets for the diff so I can weld them on my frame.

Only bad thing is this has the 1330 u-jounts. If anybody has side yokes or spindle flanges that take the 1350 u-joints, I might be interested.

I'm planning to send the diff to tracdog for 3.54 gears and steel caps along with an overhaul. And have him do the trailing arms as well.

This should take a few pounds off! ;)
 
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Send it in early. I talked to Mike a few weeks ago. He has about 12 on the bench right now. He is one busy MFer.
 
Thanks for the warning Bird. Guess I better get in line soon.

By the way, has anybody mated C4 half shafts with a C3 suspension?
 
Have you talked to Mike? If I remember right, he said he doesn't even do the c3 D44. It may have just been him not wanting to, but neither Mike or Gary are particularly fond of our diffs.
 
Kid Vette said:
534f67fbaa3e7c4.jpg

Actually probably won't be the next one but will be soon. I bought this from a1sensei over at CF. Don't know if you guys heard the story here; somebody stole his '81 Vette and then crashed it into a concrete post. Smashed it up and broke the frame so he's parting it out. It had the gymkhana suspension so that should be cool. Since the frame was toast he hacked out the mounting brackets for the diff so I can weld them on my frame.

Only bad thing is this has the 1330 u-jounts. If anybody has side yokes or spindle flanges that take the 1350 u-joints, I might be interested.

I'm planning to send the diff to tracdog for 3.54 gears and steel caps along with an overhaul. And have him do the trailing arms as well.

This should take a few pounds off! ;)
Click to expand...

I have met the man a couple of times, he is a good man, and so sorry to hear of the troubles he has had.....I can't keep up with ever thread, and don't go to CF for tech much, so missed it...maybe on the parts sale sections?? that would explain it,....I consider my car basically done, unless some wreck or what??....I know the business he owns down the road maybe a 4 mile trip from me....hope he can recover the losses in this economy, had insurance and get back in the hobby....

:thumbs:
 
69427 said:
Kid Vette said:
Thanks for the warning Bird. Guess I better get in line soon.

By the way, has anybody mated C4 half shafts with a C3 suspension?
Click to expand...

Like Larry said, I have shortened C4 shafts connecting the iron C3 differential to a C4 suspension.
Click to expand...
If I switch to 1350 u-joints I'll need different half shafts anyway. Anybody see any problems going that route? The C4 shafts are larger diameter but it doesn't look like there should be clearance issues.
 
clutchdust said:
Have you talked to Mike? If I remember right, he said he doesn't even do the c3 D44. It may have just been him not wanting to, but neither Mike or Gary are particularly fond of our diffs.
Click to expand...

Gary doesn't do them. Mike does. The secret is in the casting. Some cases are good, and some the core shift is to far out. (I hope I am quoting him correctly).
 
Jeff, your quote is close enough. The case casting makes a difference on the machining of the cap. A case with a shallow bore for the side bearings has very thin caps. The biggest problem is the case is not machined for the caps. The caps are slotted and mount onto as -cast material. First thing I do is true and machine the cap pads and then machine a cap that matches the case. Every cap in different. Since my cap is much larger than the original, the batwing needs to be clearanced.
The C4 D44's have a full one inch of aluminum above the bearing race but they are still cracking. I do alot of these caps for road racers.
Mike
 
Kid Vette said:
69427 said:
Kid Vette said:
Thanks for the warning Bird. Guess I better get in line soon.

By the way, has anybody mated C4 half shafts with a C3 suspension?
Click to expand...

Like Larry said, I have shortened C4 shafts connecting the iron C3 differential to a C4 suspension.
Click to expand...
If I switch to 1350 u-joints I'll need different half shafts anyway. Anybody see any problems going that route? The C4 shafts are larger diameter but it doesn't look like there should be clearance issues.
Click to expand...

My C4 shafts fit very well. No clearance issues. Lighter too.
 
Any recommendations for carrier mounting bushing? Rubber or poly? Or aluminum? I saw over at CF somebody had a front mount on the frame break off and someone blamed the poly bushing. It looks like it is hard to even find rubber bushings for the rear mounts. This is for the '81 diff I just bought by the way.
 
OK. more questions. I'm thinking about going with the Global West TAs and struts. Mike Dyer says the GW TAs are a quality product. But I'm wondering how much if anything I will be sacrificing in ride quality. I don't autocross but would like nice tight handling for the mountain roads around here. But I don't want to rattle my teeth on every bump. So you guys with the johnny joints on your TAs and spherical ends on your struts; did it make you car ride lumber wagon or did it just improve your handling?
 
69427 said:
Kid Vette said:
69427 said:
Kid Vette said:
Thanks for the warning Bird. Guess I better get in line soon.

By the way, has anybody mated C4 half shafts with a C3 suspension?
Click to expand...

Like Larry said, I have shortened C4 shafts connecting the iron C3 differential to a C4 suspension.
Click to expand...
If I switch to 1350 u-joints I'll need different half shafts anyway. Anybody see any problems going that route? The C4 shafts are larger diameter but it doesn't look like there should be clearance issues.
Click to expand...

My C4 shafts fit very well. No clearance issues. Lighter too.
Click to expand...

Do you have a weight for those C4 shafts? And out of curiosity what did you pay to have them shortened?
 
vette427sbc said:
69427 said:
Kid Vette said:
69427 said:
Kid Vette said:
Thanks for the warning Bird. Guess I better get in line soon.

By the way, has anybody mated C4 half shafts with a C3 suspension?
Click to expand...

Like Larry said, I have shortened C4 shafts connecting the iron C3 differential to a C4 suspension.
Click to expand...
If I switch to 1350 u-joints I'll need different half shafts anyway. Anybody see any problems going that route? The C4 shafts are larger diameter but it doesn't look like there should be clearance issues.
Click to expand...

My C4 shafts fit very well. No clearance issues. Lighter too.
Click to expand...

Do you have a weight for those C4 shafts? And out of curiosity what did you pay to have them shortened?
Click to expand...

I put a couple spare C4 shafts on my trusty HF digital scale, and with u-joints, they weigh 7.2 pounds each.
I ended up going a little different route than originally planned on my halfshafts. I initally dropped them off at a shop in Orlando to just be shortened, but while talking to the shop manager on the phone a couple days later he mentioned the stock C4 shaft wall thickness was IIRC .093", but he had some .138" tubing available as an option. Given that I had a big block in the car and some decent torque multiplication through the 5 speed I opted for the extra cost .138 tubing. So I ended up paying for removing the old tubing (rather than just cutting and rewelding), the cost of the new tubing, and then for four welds (versus just two if the original tubing was shortened). The total cost, with four new u-joints installed, was IIRC, a touch over 400 bucks.
Here's a comparison of what I was doing. I originally cut and lengthened a couple C3 shafts to get the C4 suspension mocked up, and then got the aluminum shafts made to duplicate the mockup shaft length.

IM001077.jpg

And then assembling the rear suspension.

IM001079.jpg

The larger OD shafts fit nice. I did have to use special small-head bolts on the straps to keep things from binding up at full droop.

IM001138.jpg
 
Weighing everything to get ready to ship it all off to Mike (tracdogg2). I think this has all been posted before but it won't hurt to post again.

'81 Batwing: 19.5 lbs
'81 Differential (dry w/o bat wing): 61 lbs
'81 Trailing Arm (w/all hardware including emergency brake), w/o rotor: 35.5 lbs
 
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