Rear end for my TransAm

TransAmDan

TransAmDan

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The car has had much abuse since I've had it. After the small accident on the M271 it probably didn't help out the rear bearings. The car started making some grinding noises coming from the back. I've suspected the diff for a while. So on the 1st Feb, I order a pair of half shafts, bearings, eaton posi diff, and rear gears.
The gears I went for are 3.08's, standard is 3.42's. What this means is that my RPM's on the motorway will be lower. Top speed in 5th will be 200mph instead of 173mph, there is also a 6th gear too. Top speed is not my aim. 1st gear is a little lively when you apply too much power, to get a good 0-60 I can pull away in second setting a simular time in 1st and 2nd. So the new rear gears will give me a ration between 1st and 2nd. 1st gear will take me to 60mph, or very close. So my 0-60mph will be 4secs depending on grip. My current best is 4.5secs.

Parts ordered on 1st Feb 2011
 
10th March parts still not arrived, so I called www.jawsgear.com to chase up, he said to call back in a couple of days to give him time to chase it up with USPS (united states postal service)

11th March, I jacked the car up, that takes about 30mins, as cant get a darn jack under the car. Have to life by hand kick the jack under, then jack it up a bit, then axel stand, then move jack to another part to lift higher. Its a pain in the butt working on it. Anyway, took the diff cover off, and let the oil drain into a catch can. I looked at the back of the diff cover around the magnet, and there was a lot of metal flakes in there, a heck of a lot more than 5 years worth, and this has only been collecting for 3 months. Not good, something is breaking down in there. I checked all the gear teeth and they were present, and no excessive signs of wear. Perhaps the bearings are shot.
I cleaned it out, and put the diff cover back on.
 
15th March, its now been 6 weeks. I called again. They said USPS have lost the parcel and currently processing a claim for lost parts. They estimate a week. So I'll give them a call Tuesday, as that would make it 7 weeks.
 
19th March, Today I filled the diff up with new oil. Managed to get about 2.5litres of oil in there, only about 1 litre came out. The car is will grindy, but a little better. Certainly would trust it. The old stuff was very metallic. So something is wearing in there. So they must have been oil loss, however the oil was not present on the driveway, or there was no signs of leakage. Very odd. Unless its come out the end of the axel near the wheels. Didn't notice any oil on the wheels.
It was positively superb to get in the car start it up and drive to the tip to drop off the old oil. The rumble and vibration of the car brought a beaming smile to my face. I felt like a kid starved of sweets for weeks. It was so hard to not give it a blip, but I don't know how long these parts will hold up, so its now parked up awaiting parts.
There was a few noises from the back end when under little load. There is a squeak like a pram wheel. Dont know if that was coming from front or back.
MOT due 17th April, so hopefully the car will be a runner before then.
 
21st March - I called Jaws gear, they are waiting to hear back from USPS with the lost package claim. They said they will email me back when they hear some news, which they expect would be today or tomorrow. they have me email address, so fingers crossed they hear some news. I called around 5.20pm our time, which is only 9.20am their time, so he barely had any time to look something up at that point.
 
23rd March - I called Jaws gear. Spoke to the chap, he seems to be doing all he can to help. The claim has been processed, and the new moser axel shafts are being manufactured, and will leave at the beginning of next week, in the mean time the other box of bits will leave the States any day now.
 
28th March - New items have been sent out. I have an order number, and will this I can apply for tracking info by going though their website. Well I gave this ago on Monday
 
30th March - No response from requesting the tracking info, so done it again.
 
April 1st - Well you guess it, no response from requesting the tracking info. I think the requires another phone call today. I gave Jeff a call at Jaws gear, he said he would personally email me himself, we checked the email address and he has the right one for me.
 
4th April - Well the email from Jeff never arrived, this was to be sent to my work email address. I have checked all SMTP transactions and the Jawsgear email server has made no connection attempt (perks of having control of the email server) so I know there is no spam filter that stopped it.
I just called Jeff, he said he sent it by replying to one of my emails. He will send again.
 
6th April - Well more days have passed, no email from Jawsgear. Nothing in the log to indicate it was passed as spam and got lost. I can only assume there is a problem and there is no tracking info to send. I hope this is not the case. May be time for another phone call.
I dind't call them in the end, but did send another tracking request via their website, gave them a different email address.
 
7th April - Still no response to the tracking request.
 
14th April - I called Jeff at Jawsgear yesterday evening, as I have still not received the packages or the tracking information. I gave him another alternative email address to send to. Checked my emails this morning, and guess what, still no tracking info. It is most annoying. Need to get the car on the road for Wheels day.
 
15th April - Its Friday evening, still nothing heard. So I called Jeff again, calling from a mobile to the far side of America, I was put on hold for 10mins, I finally got the tracking numbers, there are two of them. I typed these into USPS, and number not recognised. I tried this number in Google, which recognised the number as a UPS number. Well I must have written it down wrong. Jeff was in a bit of a rush as he has many other calls coming in. I tried for some time different variations of the the numbers and letters I could have heard. Still no luck.
 
18th April - Got into work this morning to find an email from Jawsgear tracking form, this must be a reply to the request I send a while back.I typed in the tracking numbers, ans it indeed was sent UPS. The two parcels are in Eastleigh. YAY :) however as I have moved house so they are going to the wrong address. I called UPS and they will gladly ship to the new address. Or I may collect. Yipieee.
 
What a palaver, you probably could have made them quicker yourself ;)
 
18th April - In the afternoon I decided to arrange to collect the parcels. So I called UPS to put them to one side and I would collect before 8pm. So after work, I went down to Eastleigh, hadn't been there for a while, so wanted to check the address. Went on Yellow paged, they call up Dutton lane, which is behind the train station, i certainly dont remember it being there, so I called UPS, and it was in Parnam lane, the Satnav got me there and I started to remember it all. Just got there before 8pm, just before they closed, so that was lucky. The lady went off to fetch the 2 boxes, quoted at 20kg each. She carried both boxes at the same time so they certainly were not 40kg. Looking at the boxes, I was tihnking how on earth is a pair of axles (half shafts) in that box....the axle is half the width of the car, these boxes are only about 2ft wide. anyway, paid over ?200 in customs duty. Got home and opened the parcels, it was the ring gear, pinion, and differential. So it was the bits I wanted but not all of them.
I've emailed Jaws gear questioning where they are.
 
18th April - Called my mechanic around 9pm, letting him know what I have, he is keen to take the rear end of the car apart and take a look inside, we can check the condition of my originals axles, find out where the excessive wear is coming from in there. He will also try to source the 75w90 gear oil with limited slip diff additive that I need too.
 
19th April - Well no email back from Jaws gear this morning. Think they need calling after 5pm today.
 
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