Before re-assembling everything, I decided to take this opportunity to clean up the rear axle assembly. I scraped all the crud off, de-greased it, painted it, and even duplicated the original factory paint markings just for fun! Putting it all back together was fairly straight forward… just follow the instructions in the service manual, don’t skip a step! I made the mistake of not turning the u-joint on the transmission so that the indexing slot was pointing straight up. This made it more difficult to re-insert the drive shaft. I had my dad at the rear of the car with the rear axle up on a jack while I held the drive shaft up to where it could slide in. It took a pretty good and quick shove for him to get it to go all the way in. So now it’s back together, and the good news it that the torque ball doesn’t leak! However, there are still plenty of other drips coming off the transmission, engine, etc…. I guess that’s just what ya get with an old Buick that hasn’t have the motor or trans fully serviced in at least 30 years.  The solution to these leaks is simple… it’s called a drip pan!

Rear Axle Housing and Differential Markings

Torque Tube Marking