Ward

iTrader: (1)

Ok i just got my engine and trans out today and the only part that was a major PITA was removing the torque arm from the rear end. I was doing this by myself so it was even harder. If you are not famialiar with this process, I will describe it. First, you must jack the rear end up by the frame, so that the rear suspension drops down enough to get your arms up in there. Then you see the 2 giant bolts, about 6" long each with i think a 20MM head and nut. My bolts were pointing down, so the nuts were on the bottom. you have to somehow hold a wrench on the bolt head on the top of the differential, while trying to break loose the nut from the bottom of the differential. this process would be much easier if the nut was on top of the differential and welded to the torque arm. That way you could just get under the car with a single 20MM wrench or socket and break them both loose by your self. This also would not require the suspension to be dropped down as much, since the bolts could drop out the bottom, instead of having them come up and hit the floor pan. Just some food for thought, I would definitely buy an aftermarket torque arm if it had the nuts welded to the thing just to make this process easier.

AlkyIROC

You can put them back in any way you want but they're supposed to be torqued (nobody does it anyway). When you torque a nut and bolt you want to tighten the nut. If you hold the nut and tighten the bolt you get a false torque reading because the bolt is turning inside the hole and you're twisting the bolt. By holding the bolt and turning the nut you get accurate torque readings.

If the bolts are overtorqued they'll distort the diff housing and can cause pinion bearing failure. Somewhere around 1986 GM redesigned the housing with more reinforcement so that the housing isn't distorted as much.

Synapsis

Just food for thought:

If you have the right tools, the job will be a lot easier.

Those bolts come off really easy with a 20" breaker bar and an impact wrench. I'd prefer to have the bolt go in from the top just in case the nut came loose and fell off. I wouldn't want the bolt to come out as well and have my differential leave the car.

TomP

I torque mine!!! (And I use the impact wrench & breaker bar, too.) Hey here's something I always wondered about; is it "safe" to use a regular socket on the breaker bar when spinning the nut with an impact wrench? I know we've gotta use impact sockets with an impact gun, but what about the back-up socket?

Synapsis

I use regular sockets on the bar all the time. I think the main reason you need impact sockets on the impact wrench is because it will start to round out the square connection side of the normal socket. And it'll also crack the socket eventually.

Don't ask me how I know.