Yes, altough mine is US built and in Switzerland since December 2014. GM Cars for the swiss market were shipped in pieces to Biel/Bienne and built there. The build quality was slightly higher compared to us built cars (no offense). They had better gaps and often those cars were loaded with options. But the real reason to build the cars in switzerland were fiscal reasons. Chrysler did the same and built cars in Schinznach (wich is very close to where I live). And yes, you will find a few Buicks at swiss us car shows. Back in the day a US car was quite expensive for swiss people. So those who had the money opted for the more luxurious variants. So there are quite a few buicks and oldsmobiles. And of course a lot of cadillacs. Of course nowadays there are a lot of imported cars. Last show I attended (without car) I saw 2 1971 GS455's and one 1972 car. Plus one 72 Skylark. And 3 Olds 442's. tough I never saw a GS with the n-25 option or the rear spoiler. I don't know if they came from the factory on my car since I don't have a build sheet. I might add the front spoiler some time in the future. I really like the looks of it.
Hi Benny We should meet us, chume vo Zri und schaffe zbade. Mine hsch demfall no nie gseh en silver myst Buick GS400? cheers Robert
I have 2 young grandchildren and am working on a better setup for child seats. As soon as the weather gets better will make a trip to the salvage yard for some factory stuff to mod up.
Put the car on stands last week and removed the axle this weekend with help from my brother. All in my home garage...as you can see not a lot of room
Can anybody help me identify this axle? From what I found 3959038 should be from a 69 Chevelle..didn't find the stampings on the axle tube as there is a lot of undercoating on the axle. Removed the cover and this is what I found: By counting the ring teeth (39) it should be a 3.55. But what kind of carrier and posi unit is this?? The inner bearings are very noisy. The right bearing brace seems to be put on inverted...you can see the back of the bearing itself.... By hand I didn't feel any backlash on the ring gear... Ring gear spacer?
12 bolt chevy rear under your buick Ok so what you have is a 1968 12 bolt Chevy date coded rear under the car. K 29 8 (K month (November 11th month) 29th day 8 196(8)) Now this most likely is a 1969 rear and most likely is because cars were build before the model year it actual came out in. 3959038 is the rear end casting number. On the passenger axle tube facing front of the car will be an axle suffix code which will tell you the original ratio of the differential (I would say it was a 2.56 or 2.73) WHY? Well we go to your Posi unit. It has a spacer between the carrier flange and the ring gear meaning it is NOT correct offset for the 3.55 gears that are in the rear, casting number on the (EATON POSI CARRIER) will tell you which carrier you have... 88322 2 series (2.56 - 2,73 30140 3 series (3.08 - 3.73) 80174 4 series (3.90 - 6.14) The spacer will mover the gear UP one series from the original 2-3 or 3-4 etc. on the edge of the carrier flange are Letters and numbers. pretty sure it is a date code just have not suffered it yet. If this is original to this rear the 9 would be 1969 The J code be the month and the 1 the day...??? Not sure. Sorry I do not know everything. The passenger carrier cap is on incorrectly as you mentioned...That needs to be switch fr sure 60 foot lbs. torqued (NO LOCK TIGHT ON THESE BOLTS) Now if you want to know if you need to re-shim the carrier I would pull the axles and then remove the carrier main caps (one is backwards anyway...) then tug the carrier straight out and see if it is removable by hand. IF it does slide out easy. IT NEEDS SHIMMING and will need to double check your ring to pinion tooth contact pattern and backlash shimming Bearings can always be check by inspecting the races the bearing ride on. Any gulling pitting or visible wear marks... R and R them.... Jim J D
Would like to have monzas take a look on these: Pulled the differential apart. Any info on this carrier number? The ring gear has a GM number on it and 39-11 (3.55). Would you reuse this carrier? It's the heaviest part and shipping from USA will be insane... I leaning towards 3.08 ratio what means I'd have to reuse the ring gear spacer. What do you think of the spacers? Better to look for a 3 series carrier? Found this spacers but could lift the carrier right out of the axle after a few strikes with a plastic hammer. They look very unprofessional to me (at least the one looking different): clutches: If you look at this picture you can see that the ribbed edges are not all in the same direction. Does this affect anything?: Also only one of the spider gears did have a shim behind it...surely this isn't correct as well... The gears itself look ok... Found that the pinion bearing is causing most of the noise...but glad I took this rearend apart...
Benny, Great car love the color I laughed when I saw those old flowmasters can not imagine how loud those were. Swiss on my Moms side of the family hope to visit next year. Keep up the great work. Tony
OK..... Well the clutches do like fine- That is good. The OLD daisy wheel clutches are really NOT to desirable for POWER as they tend to shatter from those big huge finger slices in the side gear spline clutches. IF yu are going to pound on the rear they must go. Street burn outs they will be fine. Shim - YES BOTH side have to have at least one shim. Shims will usually be in the .020 - .045 range depending on the clutch tyoe and wear factor. I see the spider gears SUFFERED from this unit NOT having the shims behind the clutches. That is NOT good either... look at the bad wear on the side gear faces from the spiders being too loose in the set-up . spider to side gear contact must be as tight as you can get and little amount of backlash as possible... IT IS impossible to get all the backlash out of course. Nor do you want them to have zero backlash which I DOUBT you could ever do...I have tried. 32088 is the 2 series carrier as expected from the 3.55 factory gears and the spacer fitting. (Boy was I off on my memory of the casting number...LOL ) sorry.... Carrier bearing side shims... Most look factory with the moon cut outs ...That is correct GM stuff. The one does look to for aftermarket shim. IF that is the shimming that had it was way off to one side then because of the spacer I am sure... Tough on a c-clip rear one axle will be in and one axle will be out further by .020-.050 ish. could have drum rubbing issues to backing plate or shoe exposed from drum surface. Shoot more shots of the side gears (big ones) Spider gears BOTH must have shims - that is a VERY common issue when the pinion shaft is removed for axle maintenance...they fall right out.. The newr 8.5 and Gm carrier all have 90 degree bent lips to hold the thrust washer on the spiders to prevent this NOW. Does not happen anymore. That is just the way they did it back then. reusing the carrier... After I see better pictures of the side and spider gears will make that call. Posi unit is pretty heavy... and if you are not going to beat the bajesus out of the rear you might be ok. Will still need to get you the thrust washer - clutch shims to properly adjust that. bearing kit for the whole rear. Show me the axle shaft bearing surfaces also. will see what they look like. Jim
Tried to make some better pics. Axle shaft do not look veryvery good. You can also feel where the bearings ran. Thought about polishing them. Benny
Ok here is where I am worried about on the spider gear. PLEASE confirm that there is galling or dent or sonmething going on on this side gear where the red arrows are. Jim
Hey Jim, Yes, there is quite some galling to be found. Plus all the teeth are out of shape on BOTH side gears in the same spot. I will make you a PM regarding other parts.. Benny
Update: Did order a new Eaton posi and ring and pinion gears as well as a complete bearing kit for my chevy rear axle Will go from 3.55 to 3.31. Got the dash apart to clean and install my km/h speedo. did modify the cheap aftermarket tach so it has no halo effect. Somewhere in the future I will convert to factory gauges as I don't like those aftermarket parts...they somehow look a bit cheap. Even the numbers look wrong. The guy that reprinted my speedo did a way better job. The "rallye" gauges look a bit better but the face is to glossy and the lighting isn't as good as on the factory speedo. You can even tell the difference on the lenses...the factory one isn't as warped as the repros. I did wet sand the speedo lens and buffed it so it looks as new. The dash trim doesn't look perfect and the chrome is pretty much worn so I painted it silver (by hand with a paintbrush). It is ok for me now. I did replace the speedo cable as well...was burned from the exhaust and really noisey... Has anyone ever seen a kilometer speedo in a 71 GS? While I was at it I located my horn relay...did replace it but will keep the original delco unit at home. Horn contact isn't working...the plunger is missing, cancelling cam broken...and steering wheel lock does not work...turn signal switch has a crack...oh my... could fix the wheel lock as the spring was installed the wrong way...it did not engage with the platic gear..
My dash pad is slightly warped downwards above the dash panel...it has no cracks and is in really good shape... Has anyone put one back to it's shape successfully? I was thinking about warming it and put a weight on it when it's laying upside down on a flat surface... Any other ideas?
Benny, You already have the factory gauges. If they are not working maybe the sending units under the hood are not connected.
Dave, it's an aftermarket gauge. It's better quality than the tach but still not up to the factory units. They do work but the lighting is bad. Plus the face looks to glossy. The center knob is chrome plastic where the factory is brushed. Also it's hard to center the aftermarket gauges. If you look at the picture the speedo is perfectly centered where the others aren't. And...last but not least...the lens does not have the blueish effect you get on the factory ones... It's ok for now but someday I will change it to a factory unit. The rear axle took a lot of my budget away so the dash has to wait
Did check my rear control arms... They are repro (Found a Tamraz receipt in one of them ou and I am just wondering if it's normal for repro parts to fit badly?? The "lip" on the arm rubs on the frame and the bushing does look weird... What do you say?
God... It there anything right on this. I can only image this car has spent too much time over seas where there are no parts??? Why is the bushing hanging out the control arm so far on the one side...??? Cutting back the control arm bend will be ok I will see if I can dig up a few pictures for you. You can see how the bushing end flares out that is what I think is wrong with the aftermarket repops they did. Or if you are not going for all original get some totally boxed aftermarket Hotchkis arms I have had them for years NEVER had an issue. Sport Suspension Lower Trailing Arms 1302 Plenty of choices out there.
Jim, The car spent it's whole life in California and Arizona up until last fall when I bought it. I see it different...there are so many repops easily available in the states so original parts often will be replaced with repros instead of restoring the original parts. by looking at the pics I too think those aftermarket parts are just badly shaped...I will cut them back and use them. But definitely will go with original ones somewhen later... Are the lower control arms the same for a 12 bolt car as for a 10 bolt? To my understanding the upper ones are different (not boxed)?
