Busted my rear-end...
 

I was at HRP last night and on my 1st pass I tried to slip the clutch at 4500rpm and ended up snapping something in my rear. I called my mechanic and he said it was most likely the output shaft, he recommended a hardened shaft that cost $250. My only concern was that after it broke, I could put the car in any gear, let the clutch all the way out and nothing would happen. I would act as if it was still in nuetral. Is this normal for a car with a snapped output shaft? I looked under the car and the left side looks good but on the right side of the diff. there was fluid leaking out. Just wondering if anybody had a similar experience.

lift it up and have a look u might have split the dif in half

Yes most of the time thats normal when u bust the rear take it out send it back to dte and let them go threw and make sure u use harden shafts this time

Just checking. I am 99% sure it is the right shaft, Im just gonna replace it with the hardened shaft and be done with it, I can live without going to the drag strip anyway. I am 24 years old and simply can't afford to repair this damn thing, lol.

One time when I was a kid, I fell out of a tree and busted my rear end also...

Usually you dont lose fluid when you break the shaft. Go look at the rear end case and see if it is cracked.
These differentials can get very expensive, im considering replacing mine with a 9"

Thats the harder shaft of the 2 to break. Most people break the left(driver side) its longer than the right. Good Luck to you sorry for you misfortune and I think you may have broken the case also because of the leaking fluid.

I sure hope not, I will know what is going on tomorrow hopefully when he gets a chance to look at it. I would have taken a look myself but I had it towed to his shop to avoid a 2nd tow and didn't have any tools/jacks with me. But while I was at the track I looked at it with a flashlight best I could and saw no cracks or holes in the housing. There was very little fluid coming out, not even enough to start a puddle, pretty much just leaked on the exhaust and thats it.

You mean as in a ford 9 inch read end???? I didnt know they made that conversion yet? If so let me know thanks...

*leaking fluid.

You either cracked the diff housing, or the aluminum spacer between to diff and torque tube.

This COULD happen from breaking a shaft. Sucks to hear about your problem. Since, you say your on a budget, I suggest finding a junk yard...or seeing if someone in the vette world could help you out.

Best wishes dude.

Well I hope it is just the shaft, don't they have seals that I could have busted causing it to leak a bit of fluid out of the right side? Like I said I could not see any cracks and I got a pretty good look at it, it is some sort of dyno-tech rear end, I assume it is a stage 1 going off the fact it couldn't take a 4.5 grand slip on nitto's, but I'm not 100% sure. I appreciate you guys suggestions, I've only had this car for 1.5 months and am new to the C5 IRS. But I'm gonna build it with both hardened output shafts as well as the brace, seems that is the main cause of the failures.

I recently replaced my rear with a 3.42 gear hardened ds shaft and a DTE brace.

I have the original out of my car, has about 20k miles on it. But it is a 2.73 gear in it. They do sell a 3.90 gear that will fit it.

It is out of an A4 car. Might not be what your looking for but i would sell it for 150 so it would be a cheap fix.

LionelC

so what are the results?

Rind and Pinion are trashed, split the right side cover that the shaft goes in. The main case was in tact with no damage. I am swapping in a stock Z06 rear end with 3.42 gears and am gonna have them use my hardened left output shaft. Gonna cost me about $900-$1000 when it is all said and done.

If you're going to launch your car at 4500 rpm, you should consider throwing a brace on it. DTE also makes HD side cover for both the left and right side of the case to prevent what happened to yours.

get your self a DTE brace

Hey sorry for the late post, but i had a simular expirience. i was at the track on my second run with 4.10 gears and the right output shaft broke during my burnout! it did what you said, it would go in gear and the rpm's and mph's would just go up and the the car would not move. when i had the 4.10 gears installed, i had them replace the left outputshaft, and not the right!

My advice to you, is do both sides now that you have it opened. or else you will end up like me and pay twice for that labor! When there is really no need to.





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Drag racing a Vette can be very expensive. I have broken 2 rear-ends and 2 output shafts. Wheel hop is a killer and will ussually break the tranny output shaft and take the rear-end with it.

I aint racing it no more, not worth it.

i here ya but give it time you will be back out :nod:

Get yourself a Stage II Rear from RPM and a brace. You could go with the RPM C6 rear conversion for a C5.

The C6 rear has a bigger ring and pinion so you put less stress on them.