Gary, the great pumpkin isn't going anywhere. It took me 25 years to get her back. Just an FYI...I took the orange Z out a couple of weeks ago, after a long day of hosting a car show & finishing my honey-doo list. It was just before dusk and I was going to thrash the car a bit, in fact I didn't take my wallet or cell phone. Well after 15 minutes of cruising to get the engine up to temperature, I started driving it like I stole it. After a couple of launches I hit second gear and oops I heard a bang and I coasted to a stop. I thought I might have snapped a u-joint, but they were intact. I rotated the drive shaft and knew I had damaged the rear. I noticed a garage door opened and asked the home owner if I could use his phone. I had the car towed home and upon inspection of the rear cover found a bolt protruding through.
To make a long story short I snapped the 12 ring gear bolts. The car originally had 373's and the original owner installed 410's (they are GM gears dated 5/69 car 9A) prior to my purchase in 1978. I had assumed he kept the 3 series carrier and installed the 410's with a spacer and that's what I found. I disassembled axle and ordered new gears (373's) and bearings from Randy's. Just finished installing the rear axle Saturday and everything worked out perfect.
