Taking Apart the Chevy 12 Bolt Rearend!

I received this rearend free from a guy in my car club. Very good shape, but I noticed it was leaking from the pinion seal. We pulled the pinion seal and realized the inner and outter pinion bearings were going to need replacing. With this being said, we dismantled the rearend.
When I was welding on the spring perches, I must have heated up the axle too much on one side and the bearing started to grind. New bearings for the pinion and axles were purchased.

Differential & pinion shaft waiting for re-assembly.

Backing plates removed. These will visit the sandblasting cabinets soon and get repainted with some POR15, as will the entire rearend.

Empty rearend waiting for sandblasting and repainting.

Cleaning Up The Frame, Mocking Up The New Master Cylinder!

I needed to mock up a bracket for the new dual master cylinder. This will get welded to the frame and be located under the floor of the car.

New master cylinder bracket welded into place.

Steering rack & gear box removed from frame. This will be sandblasted and the gear box will be replaced with a power steering gear box.

Front end all cleaned up. Chevy straight 6 motor mounts ground off. Finally decided on replacing the 6 cylinder with a Chevy 350 & auto transmission.

Rear Leaf Springs Removed!

Removed the rear leaf springs. These will be taken apart, sandblasted, and taken to Thruway Spring here in Rochester, NY. At Thruway Spring, they will punch holes in the ends of each leaf to allow for little sliders to be installed giving it a smoother suspension feel.

Sandblasting Cabinet!

Being that I will be having a lot of small parts to sandblast, I purchased a 40lb Sandblasting cabinet. Bought it off a guy down the road, brand new, never used.

Tacking Rearend Into Place!

With the rearend all mocked up in place, I went to tack weld it and noticed my regulator on my Hobart 140 was not working correctly. It was showing the correct tank pressure, but the output side to the welder was pegging up all the way. I'm just going to have to call and get that replaced being that it's brand new.

To keep progress moving, I switched over to flux core wire and tacked the leaf spring perches into place. Then I removed the rearend to make it easier to completely weld it once I get my new regulator. Flux core wire is extremely messy, splatters a lot and I could really use the shielding gas to get a better quality weld, so I'll wait. Hopefully I'll get that replaced ASAP this week.

Mocked up Chevy 12 Bolt Rearend!

I got the Chevy 12 bolt rearend all mocked up into place. First thing I had to do was drill out the spring perch mounts to 3/4" to properly fit.

I as then able to set the rearend into place and carefully centering it on the leaf springs, as well as adjusting the angle of the pinion.

Four patio pavers and two tiles positioned the rearend with the correct pinion angle.

Removing the 1941 Studebaker Rearend!

I started to remove the original 1941 Studebaker rearend, in preparation of installing the newer Chevy 12 bolt rearend.

With the help of a breaker bar, and a 3/4" socket, I removed the double nutted U bolts holding the axle to the leaf springs.

Here you can see the old U bolts and lower leaf spring plates which connect to the old arm style shock.

New leaf spring brackets & plates to fit the new 3" rearend. The original rearend is only 2.5" in diameter so new brackets were needed.

The rearend is now free. I'll mark the angle it is sitting at, and then remove it. Stay tuned!