While in the process of rebuilding the steering box my trailing arms arrived back from the shop. If you recall I sent them out to be reassembled. I wanted to be sure the job was done right, especially considering the tight tolerances for the rear wheel bearings. Since I was unsure that local shops would take the time to do the work the way I wanted it I shipped the down to Gary, a.k.a. “gtr1999” on The Corvette Forum. He has a reputation for doing very nice work and it was no surprise when the trailing arms came back looking great. I definitely recommend him to anyone looking to have similar work done (he also does a bunch of other Corvette specialty stuff like differential and steering box rebuilds). Below are a few photos of the rebuilt trailing arm assemblies. The parking brake shoes and hardware are all stainless steel to prevent corrosion.
Left arm…
Right arm…
Gary was even nice enough to send along some photos of the rebuild process. Here’s the new spindle I needed to buy. If you recall the old one had been damaged by the previous owner using a torch to remove the rear wheel bearings. We were unsure how this affected the strength of the steel so we choose to be safe and replace the spindle.
Here the splash shield, bearing races, and parking brake hardware have been installed.
New outer bearings installed and packed with Mobil1 synthetic grease.
Outer bearing seal installed.
Here we’re looking at the back side of the trailing arm. You can see the inner wheel bearings, spindle, and spindle retainer nut have also been installed.
Almost ready for installation on the car. First though I need to install the rotors, check their run-out and shim them as necessary to ensure the rotor run-out is within spec. More on that in a future update though, I had to order a dial gauge in order to do this and am still waiting for it to arrive…
In the meantime I decided to install the gas tank. Here I’ve placed some roofing felt over the frame where the gas tank will rest to prevent squeaking.
Tank, straps, and tank shield installed. Yeah, the trailing arms are on the car here, this was just a dry run to be sure everything fit up properly while waiting for that dial indicator to arrive… (any day now…)
More of those little pieces. Below are the tranny mount and shifter bracket installed on the frame.
More to come soon! Oh, and if you get bored while waiting for the next update, you should stop by the forum to say hello. I enjoy hearing about and seeing photos from all of the other projects going on out there!
