Finishing the brakes/rear axle

I removed the seal and bearing on the driver side of the rear axle.  I definitely hosed it up with the pounding.  Nevertheless, I replaced it with the correct one (National 5707), which shows as fitting the 7.625, but fits the 8.5 as well.  The axle slid right in and got to work on installing the brakes.  I pulled the C5 Z06 Corvette calipers out of the boxes and they look awesome! The kit was missing the caliper to abutment bracket bolts, so I installed some standard hardware and left them loose until I can get the correct ones.

I installed the c-clips and components to hold the axles in place and bolted-on the rear end cover.  25 ft-lbs of torque for the cover bolts.  Interestingly, 5 ft-lbs for the bearing support bolts and 10 ft-lbs for the nuts.

I then installed the passenger side brakes without any issues.  

Here is the entire view.  Did I mention that these brakes are huge?

Brakes Part Deux

As mentioned in today's earlier entry, Bad Iron came through with the bracket mods and I decided to go back to doing the rear brakes.  The brackets fit nicely now and have no gap.

The Kore3 backing plates and parking brake assemblies are top-notch.  I did have 4 bolts that were not included.  A quick trip to the hardware store resolved that and I completed the assembly of the parking brakes.

I mounted the assemblies on the now well-fitting brackets and went to put the axles in.  The passenger side slid right in.  The driver side went in then stopped about 2 inches from being fully engaged.  I took a dead-blow hammer and persuaded it in, but decided that is not the right approach.  I removed it, then removed the differential.  The axle slid right in to the bare differential.  I then attempted to slide the axle in with no differential in place.  Same issue...about 2 inches from the end and stop.  Bad axle bearing.  It is brand new.  Perhaps an issue with installation or just a bad bearing.  Not sure and not sure if I care.  It has to come out.  *grumble*

The offending axle/bearing

Front door and Grille

While waiting for the brake brackets and axles to come back from the machine shop, I directed my attention to the front doors.  I installed new passenger side window run weatherstrip (gm part: 15766924)

and what is called the door edge guard (gm part: 19206152).  It is the thin black strip at the front edge of the window frame.  I suspect this is to protect the weatherstrip.

I also installed the parking lights and new bowtie for the grille.

I received the RAAMmat and ensolite today, so I will be installing that on the passenger door, while I have it on the stand. Also, just heard from Bad Iron and my brackets and axles are done...so back to the brakes.

Kore3 rear brake installation

Well, I went to install the brakes and it turns out there was a small snag.  On a GM 8.5 rear axle, there is a small lip right next to the flange on the housing (see arrow below)

The problem is that the flange has a diameter of 2.955" and the Kore3 bracket has a diameter of 2.910".  The result is that the bracket will not fit flush against the flange.

The solution is that I sent the brackets to my friends at Bad Iron Machine to bore the hole by .050".  This will give me .005" to play with.  Will keep updating...