1970 Corvette Rear Spring Restoration
Joe Lucia on the NCRS board alerted me to the fact that the current GM spring bolt has a larger head than the original bolts. In fact the head is too large to fit inside the recess on the rear differential and required some modification. It has been suggested that this oversized head is probably responsible for many a person cracking the ears off the rear differential when tightening the spring into place. While performing the spring restoration, I noticed that there are some differences between the original liner and the reproduction liner. The shape of the outer edge and the mold or seam line down this edge is subtly different, and the center gap where there is no outer edge, is larger in the reproduction liners (7" vs. 6"). It was suggested that since the outer edges of the liners are what wears the most, one can take each liner and sequentially move it up to a smaller leaf, and just add one repro liner on the longest at the bottom. Unfortunately the condition of these liners were so deteriorated, and worn so thin even in towards the center, that I opted to replace them all. My rationale also considered that if the center gap was at least consistent between all leaves, it would be less noticeable on the judging field. Of course now that I've pointed this out, you'll all probably be measuring rear spring liner gaps. ;-)
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The 1970 Corvette Registry
