Rear End Project Complete

I finished up the rear axle restoration this morning.

Last night, I torqued all the bolts down properly. I then installed the drum brake hardware on the driver side. I moved to the driver's side and found I was missing one of part of the drum hardware. I called it a night and planned to buy the missing part this morning.

I drove around for almost an hour and a half trying to track down the missing drum brake part. It was one of the special washers used with a spring to hold the brake shoe to the backing plate. Two places said they had a set but could never find them. The only place I was able to get a set was in North Bryan.

I came back and finished up the driver's side brake. I then put the axle vent hose on with a hose clamp, installed the driveshaft, and then connected the parking brake lines. I was then able to put the rear wheels on and take the car off the jack stands.

I drove around rather slowly at first to make sure everything worked fine. The rear end might be a little quieter. The car does not seem much faster than it was before but its been 1.5 months since I last drove it. The RPMs do increase much faster so I'll need to get used to it so I don't do anything stupid.

I tested the TrueTrac differential on a paved road with no houses. It works well without any jerk or indication that the limited slip has activated. I expected a greater performance increase than I noticed with the new gears. It seems a little faster but not much.

I drove down the road at 70 MPH and the RPM gauge only read 2,600. I thought I purchased the correct speedometer gear but this can't be correct. I'll need to have my wife follow me in my truck to determine how far off the speedometer is before driving it too much.

I've noticed a small rattle in the passenger door over the last couple of months. Today the rattle was much worse. I took off the door panel and found it was the window regulator roller rattling in the track. I used a body hammer to tighten the track a little and then coated the tracks with lubricant. This fixed the rattle and the window now works much better.