[alfa] spider T-bar, differential

["Ed & Marsha Prytherch" <mred2u@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I changed out a rear wheel bearing yesterday - 3 hours of extreme fun, in an
attempt to fix the excessive slop in the rear wheels of my 79 spider. There
was a bit of play in the old bearing, but I still have the problem. It seems
to be in the T-bar.

The symptoms are "chattering" in the rear end in first gear. If I grip the
top of a rear tire and push/pull it, the wheel moves relative to the body of
the car and there is a distinct "clunk" that can be heard and felt. The
training arm bushings and bushing between the T-bar and differential are 1
year old poly and seem to be fine. The driveshaft center support bearing and
U-joints are also about a year old and also seem fine. The plastic spacers
in the T-bar/chassis bushings are about 2 years old and are also in good
shape.

I lay under the car while my wife did the push/pull thing on the tire. The
T-bar is moving from side to side. I gripped each bushing/T-bar joint and
could feel the end play.  I could also feel flex in the T-bar/differential
joint. I think that the clunk is in the differential. It feels like the
backlash that is present when one wheel is raised and rotated back and
forth, or when the driveshaft is rotated back and forth by hand. Pushing the
top of the wheel appears to rotate the differential, which has the same
effect as turning the driveshaft.

The rear end is smooth and quiet except when accelerating in first gear or
reversing.

My questions are:
1    Is this backlash in the differential normal? My 73 GTV is similar, but
it is noisy  - lots of whine when running under load.

2    How do I get rid of the end float in the T-bar? Are the triangular
spacers behind the chassis bushings for shimming end float? Do I need to
replace the bushings? If so, how do I get them out of the housings?

Thanks.
Ed Prytherch, Columbia SC
79 Spider
73GTV
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