NJ Steves Pit Viper Revival

[A12pilot]

That’s awesome, Steve-O. I’ve got a spare ECU for my Gen II GTS among a couple other parts. I really wish there were a better aftermarket for these. I’d like another, but prices are nuts. Stuff starts wearing out on these and 1990 starts looking and smelling like 1990

BTW, fun fact: I have the same radio in my shop in about the same condition. Standard Jersey issue I believe!

Cheers
Dave

[njsteve]

Yup, Standard issue Jersey radio given away at every NJ motor vehicle department while you're waiting in line, along with a pair of parachute pants and Bazooka bubble gum.

I think that ECU might be worth something if you post it one one of the Viper sites. It's the old OBD-2 style that has to be reprogrammed with a computer to tune it. But the cores are very hard to find.

Yeah, it's crazy to think I bought this thing new 30 years ago. I've owned it half my life! It's the first car I bought when the wife and I were first dating.

[njsteve]

I got the old diff out in about an hour. It's kind of like one of those bent nail puzzles trying to work it out between the narrow frame rails regardless of whether the half shafts are still in the car. I actually remember the secret formula of move it left, then move a half shaft back, move it right then move the other half shaft forward and then heave it left again and there is 1/4" of wiggle room by the front of the right frame rail to get one ear down and then...it falls on your chest.

[njsteve]

Ok, so who is good at diagnosing gear patterns here?

Looks to me like the ring gear and pinion have been devouring each other. Also, I can hear that loose roller in the pinion bearing when I turn the pinion flange and the is a bit of clunky backlash in the pinion. Much more than the NOS rear has.

So did the bad bearing cause the pattern to change or was that a byproduct of the gear pattern being set badly and the the contaminated fluid ruining the pinion bearings?

[njsteve]

I rechecked my old pile of records and it looks like they were an aftermarket set of 3.54 gears I had installed back in 1999.

[njsteve]

At least I got some new wall art out of it. And luckily I kept the original set of 3.07 gears that I took out at the time. If I want to get this diff redone, I'll just use that set and get it all refurbushed.

And here's the original set of 3.07 gears from basement for comparison of the wear pattern.

[njsteve]

NOS rear diff in place and ready for winter!