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Hitman's Pontiac Trans Am Page | 1978 Pontiac Trans Am
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Rear Gears
Doing the rear gears was actually pretty easy (except for tough bolts). I had to take off some bolts that held the rear sway bar in order to give me enough room to remove the cover plate for the rear gears, but once that was done, the rest was easy.
 There were four bolts (two on each side) that held the ends of the sway bar. Once they were removed, it was easy to swing the bar out of the way to give me enough room. This seemed to be the easiest way to move the sway bar out of my way. Also, as long as I had the sway bar loosened, there were 4 rubber bushings (circled in photo) that I replaced as well. It was easy enough and cheap enough to do so why not.
Once the sway bar was out of the way, I placed a drain pan underneath the rear gear housing for the old fluid. There were 10 bolts that held the cover plate on. I loosened them from the bottom up so that the fluid could easily drain out. While it was draining, I checked the fluid to make sure that there were no metal filings or anything in the fluid and that it was free of debris. Once it was drained, I wiped the face of the rear gear housing with a rag to clean it off and get ready for the new gasket.
 As I had mentioned before that when the fluid was draining that I was checking it for metal filings. Well, there is also a magnet on the cover plate that attracts any metal filings floating around in the gear oil, check that very closely as well. Once I wiped it clean of debris, I used a razor blade to scrape off and remove the old gasket that was on the cover plate. Once that was complete, I applied a thin film of gasket sealant to the cover plate and placed the new gasket on making sure that all of the bolt holes lined up. I placed the cover back on the housing and tightened(25 to 30 ft.lbs.) the bolts working in a diagonal fashion. Then I re-attached the sway bar and filled the rear gear housing with a GL-5 80/90w gear oil. I also added in an additive(posi-trax) to the oil for the limited slip. I used about 2.5 pints of gear oil to refill the rear gear housing. Sounds pretty easy doesn't it?
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