65 Barracuda daily driver
After the rear was making some noise going around corners I pulled the cover yesterday. Some of the blackest, nastiest stuff came out. Figured out that it's a clutch type sure grip with the 4 spider gears, which is supposed to be the "good" 7.25" sure grip. Yeah, I know, it still sucks, but it's what I got and this car came with a 7.25" sure grip from the factory. Out with the gear oil also came a bit of metal. I hosed everything down with a couple of cans of brake clean until it was running clean. Not until I loaded this photo did I realize where that metal might have come from. See these wear marks on that "drum"?
At some point I was chasing a leak that showed up at the bottom of the cover. I replaced the gasket a couple of times until I just used RTV and no gasket. Still, there were drops on the bottom of the cover. I kinda gave up on that until one day I was driving on the freeway and the rear was making a hideous whining noise every time I got off the gas. I limped the car home, which wasn't far and noticed the pinion nut had come loose. Turns out the leak was also coming from the pinion seal. So I replaced the seal, used some thread sealant and torqued the pinion nut to spec. The leak was gone for good! Unfortunately I never cared to pull the cover then and just checked that there was enough oil in there. The pinion must have rubbed against that drum and that made the noise.
Anyways, these carb studs are handy to hold the gasket and cover in place until you have a couple of bolts in.
While I was at it, I also took another look at the transmission that's still leaking. Like the rear end, the leak is probably not coming from the pan, but somewhere else. So I used my little borescope and snooped around. I thought I checked the neutral safety switch before and though it was hard to see, it was leaking. I had replaced the gasket/ washer thing. The manual said to torque to 25-35 ft lbs. I thought it was weird that they give a range, but I didn't want to overdo it, so it stuck to 25. Seeing it still leaking I torqued it to 35 today. If that didn't fix it, I will have to get a new switch - it might be coming from the wire side. The cheapest one I could find so far is 60 bucks... So I'll wait and see.
After the rear was making some noise going around corners I pulled the cover yesterday. Some of the blackest, nastiest stuff came out. Figured out that it's a clutch type sure grip with the 4 spider gears, which is supposed to be the "good" 7.25" sure grip. Yeah, I know, it still sucks, but it's what I got and this car came with a 7.25" sure grip from the factory. Out with the gear oil also came a bit of metal. I hosed everything down with a couple of cans of brake clean until it was running clean. Not until I loaded this photo did I realize where that metal might have come from. See these wear marks on that "drum"?
At some point I was chasing a leak that showed up at the bottom of the cover. I replaced the gasket a couple of times until I just used RTV and no gasket. Still, there were drops on the bottom of the cover. I kinda gave up on that until one day I was driving on the freeway and the rear was making a hideous whining noise every time I got off the gas. I limped the car home, which wasn't far and noticed the pinion nut had come loose. Turns out the leak was also coming from the pinion seal. So I replaced the seal, used some thread sealant and torqued the pinion nut to spec. The leak was gone for good! Unfortunately I never cared to pull the cover then and just checked that there was enough oil in there. The pinion must have rubbed against that drum and that made the noise.
Anyways, these carb studs are handy to hold the gasket and cover in place until you have a couple of bolts in.
While I was at it, I also took another look at the transmission that's still leaking. Like the rear end, the leak is probably not coming from the pan, but somewhere else. So I used my little borescope and snooped around. I thought I checked the neutral safety switch before and though it was hard to see, it was leaking. I had replaced the gasket/ washer thing. The manual said to torque to 25-35 ft lbs. I thought it was weird that they give a range, but I didn't want to overdo it, so it stuck to 25. Seeing it still leaking I torqued it to 35 today. If that didn't fix it, I will have to get a new switch - it might be coming from the wire side. The cheapest one I could find so far is 60 bucks... So I'll wait and see.
