HO52 Clean Up?

[30fathoms]

Howdy all,

Been lurking for a while and learned a ton for our '64 C20 restoration; this is a great site - thank you!

We recently managed to find a very lightly used HO52 third member out of a '71 C20. The housing letter code and ring stamps ID'd it as 4.10 unit.

Although the internals look very solid, I fear it needs a complete tear-down as there is fine dirt and sand throughout bearings, spiders, and I suspect the pinion bearing as well. Not having disassembled one of these before, I am looking for tips, tricks, or voodoo which might ensure success in a thorough cleaning and reassembly. I've read if the ring/pinion relationship is disturbed, one can risk gear noise or worse so I'd like to make sure we get this right.

Thank you in advance,

30f

[mongocanfly]

If youve got dirt and sand in the bearing then you need a full rebuild ..at a minimum...
If you've never built a diff before you'll be money ahead having a experienced shop do it for you..

[30fathoms]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

If youve got dirt and sand in the bearing then you need a full rebuild ..at a minimum...
If you've never built a diff before you'll be money ahead having a experienced shop do it for you..

Thank you for the quick reply...was afraid of that. Tried to attach some pics but apparently there is a security token issue.

[tinman_local2]

Shouldn't be that hard if you are just tearing down to clean and replace seals. Your backlash should already be set as long as it goes back together the way it is now. Take it apart and clean everything and put back together. I believe O'reilly's stocks the bearings and seals.