C4 Corvette Chassis
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How To Play Outfield Book
1957 Corvette RestoMod Project - Page 9
1995 Rear-End Disassembly
My father taught me many things, and one was every job gets
done much easier with the proper
tools. So despite my
limited budget for this project, I had to break down and buy
two new tools. One was very expensive and one was
economical. On
page 5 of this story I explained how I
removed the
transverse leaf spring from the 1996 Grand
Sport
front end assembly - without using the special tool
made for that process. Well, the
Kent-Moore J-33432-A tool
finally arrived at my house (after 3 months on backorder)
and was an expensive purchase.
And after using a shop press at a local shop to press in the
lower ball joints, I decided the other "pressing" jobs to be
done needed my own shop press - and it was not very
expensive from
Harbor Freight Tools.
In this edition of my project, we will explore the disassembly
of my 1995 Corvette rear end assembly.
Kent-Moore J-33432 Tool
Pictured right is the J-33432 tool. It compresses the
Corvette's leaf spring so you can safely remove the
spring bolts in the rear assembly.
Bought from the online tool vendor
HandsOnTools, it's
over $700 new. I tried to buy a used one on eBay, but
was shut out on the bidding at the last minute. Word
to the wise: if you really want something, let eBay do
the automatic bidding for you.
I am taking all the suspension and steering apart to repair and/or replace the parts that wear
out. Remember, this is a 14 year old rear-end assembly. From the outer parts of the whole
assembly it contains:
rotors, calipers, pads, hub, knuckle, axle shafts, U-joints, tie rods,
spindle rods, and differential carrier. The rotors will be replaced with slotted and drilled
new ones, pads obviously replaced, U-joints wear out too so they will be replaced with new
ones (that's why I needed the shop press), and all the bushings will be replaced with new
Energy Suspension polyurethane pieces. And remember the Dana 36 differential? That will
have all new gearing and
bearings with the ratio going from 3.07 to 3.54.
Spring Compressor Installed
At left is the J-33432 tool installed on the
leaf spring.  It's easy to install and use -
no wonder it costs so much!
The rear assembly is pictured just as it
would be on the car. The tool pushes the
spring upward, compressing it so the
lower spring bolt retaining nut can be
easily removed. That done, just loosen
the compression by turning the tool bar
(at bottom of tool)  and voila! no more
spring tension!
I need to use this tool again, especially
on the front end when I test fit the front
and rear suspension to the frame
Compressed Spring Bolt
Below left is the spring bolt, spring, tied rod and spindle knuckle. The spring bolt and bushings
are attached to the spring at the bottom. At top, the bolt goes through the spindle knuckle. Along
with separate axle shafts, this comprises the independent rear suspension. Which is nice!

Pictured below right is the lower spring bolt with the spring compressed. You can see it is easy to
remove the lower cotter pin and nut now.
Before compressing the spring, I removed the sway bar. It had no load on it and was in the way.
1995 Corvette Rear Suspension
Rear Tie-Rod Removal Tool
Once the transverse spring was de-compressed and
removed, I removed the tie rod assembly. This is mounted on
top of the differential and tie rod ends are attached to the
spindle (see directly above).
At right, I used my trusty tie rod puller from
PowerBuilt to
remove the right tie rod. The left one just fell out - do you think
it needed replacing?

Below is the old tie rod assembly (bottom, as if you couldn't
tell), and the new one supplied by
Newman Car Creations.
Newman's is adjustable and made from aluminum. It will
mount from under the spindle with longer spring bolts to
lower the ride height by about 1 to 1-1/2 inches. The front is
also lowered by Newman by trimming the width of  the front
spring.
1995 Corvette Rear Tie-Rod
This part was
easy, but always
take pictures and
a lot of notes - you
have to put this
stuff back
together some
day!
Better yet, if you
buy my book, you
won't need to do
any of that.
Axle Shaft U-Joint
Pictured right is the inner right
axle shaft yoke and U-joint.
The U-joint is pressed into the
axle shaft (aluminum) and is
held in the differential yoke by
bolted straps.
If this comes apart while you
are driving, bad news. That's
why the strap bolts are tight
and
Loctite was used.  
Needless to say, they were
really tough to loosen -
especially when I could only
use a 1/4 inch drive
ratchet. A
breaker bar ratchet would
have been better - Oh well!
Hub, Knuckle, Axle Shaft, Spindle Rod
At left are both hubs/spindles,
axle shafts, and spindle rods.
The green tape on each piece
identifies which side it came
from; and for the axle shafts,
which direction is outward.
The hub and spindle/knuckle
assemblies can be
disassembled later (my
compressor switch quit on
me so I am waiting for a
replacement). You'll need an
impact wrench and Torx
sockets to remove the spindle
from the hub.
Corvette Differential
It took about 4 hours to get to this point -
the
rear carrier (differential) assembly.  
Of course I was taking pictures and
keeping copious notes too!
You can see the partial frame from the
donor car has been removed (remove the
upper shock plates first!).  The
C4 has a
rear carrier cover that also includes
mounting bars, sometimes called a
"batwing". At the end of each bar are
bushings (black, round) that need to be
replaced with my new polyurethane ones.
Again, this "pumpkin" will have new
ring
and pinion gears
and bearings
installed. I was originally going to do this
work myself - but I'm not sure now.
Read on, I may just be stubborn enough
to tackle it!
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1957 Corvette RestoMod - BUY NOW!
1957 Corvette RestoMod