[Dexman1349]

Bee got his first tow truck ride this morning. I tried to upgrade the differential bushings yesterday and just could not get the OEM bushings out. I followed the instructions to the letter and it didn't work. I used a 2" hole saw to drill out the center rubber part, then the next step is to use a screwdriver and pry out the outer aluminum casing. I broke 3 screwdrivers. And this was just the first bushing. I still have 2 more to do.

I tried using a torch thinking the heat would help loosen things. That didn't work. I tried cutting them (one cut as 6 o'clock, one at 4 o'clock and try to pry out that small wedge). That didn't work either. After several hours I had to just throw in the towel. The metal used on the differential is actually quite soft and I feared that if I kept going I would end up breaking something which would make things VERY expensive. Only option left was to load it up on a flat bed and take it into a shop. Never even got to the other two bushings.

The bushing swap was just one more attempt to fix the clunking noise described above. The thought was the differential itself was moving and one of the bushings may have failed.

JusticePete suggested that the "middle" bolt of the UCA could be the cause of the clunking noise as he had broken that ferrule before. Only option to fix that would be new UCA's, and he suggested getting the ones from the Z28 as they are better than anything in the aftermarket world. I'm having the shop look at that while they are under the car fixing the differential bushings. We'll see how that turns out...


Edit: Spohn trailing arms removed. Can't get those f*ckers tight enough. Holes through the ferrule just too big (0.5" opening, 0.45" bolt), so the OEM ones going back on. Brake clunk is still there. Not sure if the shop looked at the UCA's today or not. I may just leave the car there until they can look at everything.