06
We disconnected the driveshaft and strut rods, and then
dropped the leaf spring, using a jack to slowly lower it.
Then, we placed the jack on the leaf spring plate, and applied
light pressure. The rubber crossmember bushings allowed the
centersection to rotate down just enough to remove the front
bracket bolts.
08
In 1968, Chevrolet added these braces to the differen-
tial carrier mounting bracket on cars equipped with
automatic transmissions. Then, in 1969, it was added to all Cor-
vettes and remained in place until the rear suspension design
changed in 1980. This is obviously a much stronger design. We
got ours from Corvette Central (PN 583006).
10
We start the
reassembly pro-
cess by dropping the
upper half of the dif-
ferential mount cush-
ion into the hole in the
frame. Then, we can
drop the bolt through
the bushing sleeve.07
By the time we got the differential carrier mounting
bracket out of the car, it was nearly broken in half. Years
of abuse and a weak design led to the breakage, but we have a
simple fix without high-dollar racing components.09
While we had it apart, we replaced the differential
mount cushion (sometimes called a pinion snubber
cushion) with a new unit from Corvette Central. The kit (PN
582002) comes with a steel sleeve and mounting hardware. We
chose rubber, but this product is also offered in polyurethane.48 VETTE 19.11
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