A new rear end

Sometime around November of 2003, I backed the Elky out of the driveway and put it in Drive and then heard this horrible noise from the rear end.  It clunked, and did it again, then again...all within 30 feet or so.  Well, I put it back in the driveway and started lookin into it a little later.  I jacked it up and turned the rear wheels and sure enough, the noises were coming from the rear end. 

I decided that this would be a real good time to get rid of the 2.73 peg leg that had made traction such a problem...and hadn't helped the accelleration, either.  After lookin around for a while I found a guy in New York selling a 3.73 posi rear end complete for $325 including shipping.  That was about half of the price I could find around here...if I could find one.  So I made arrangements to get it shipped and it finally arrived.  Here it is sitting in the garage with an 8.5 10-bolt that will probably go into the orange Camaro.

I spent a lot of time cleaning rust scale off it.  I got to thinking that maybe it had been used on the Titanic...it was pretty rusty.  But then, it DID come from upstate New York.

The insides look pretty good, tho.  They axles and differential turned with no noise and seem to be in fine shape.  We'll see.

Here's one of the brake lines from the shipwreck...I mean donor vehicle.  Not too great.  I removed the brake lines, which (of course) snapped off at the wheel cylinders.

After removing just about everything (brake lines, brakes, wheel cylinders, parking brake cables) I cleaned it again, then sprayed it with Zero-Rust .  Then it got a few coats of gloss black Rustoleum.

I got a cast aluminum cover with bearing supports from Jeg's and sealed it with Permatex #2.

Then I took the brakes off the old rear end...

...and yanked it outta there.

Here it sits like a bad tooth after being extracted.

I wrassled the new one up sorta close to the scene of the crime...

...and with a little help from my wife and daughter-in-law, got it bolted into place.

(05/15/2004) Of course when I went to connect the flex brake line, I remembered that I'd forgotten to disconnect the hard line at the crossmember.  After a coupla shots (the Elky had the shots, not me) of PBlaster and some time for it to soak, the flare fitting loosened right up.  Unfortunately, it took the hard line with it.  Twisted that sucker clean off.  So I ordered a new pre-bent line from InLine Tube and replaced the whole thing.  It took me almost a whole day to do that and bleed the brakes, but that was mostly cuz I just can't work for long periods of time like I used to.  Then it it was time to test things.

(05/16/2004). Well, it seems to light both tires.

And then MOVES OUT!  It was a pretty good burnout right in front of the house.  All the neighbors were at church, so there were no witnesses. :)

Well, except for the evidence left on the asphalt.  Oh, well.  At least the operation has been a success so far.  This is a good thing.

This is the end of the Elky story.  I started getting rousted by the local cops about having too many "old cars" in my driveway.  It was wintertime and I couldn't go out and work in the 20F temperatures.  So I ended up selling the Elky and the Ugly Truck.  The Novas and the Camaros had already gone by then and the only project cars left were the 85 Monte Carlo (salt flats race car) and the 29 Model A.  I sure miss the Elky.  Hell, I miss all of 'em.