Warning: New Guy Content

[willtwallace]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I'm not sure the seal failure is a symptom unique of the inboard brakes - I may be wrong. Both rear suspension set ups utilize rebuilt parts and sourced parts and fabricated parts and on occassion things just fail - stuff happens. This is not criticism of ERA - their design and engineering of the chassis/suspension in this car is second to none.

You can probably scan over the history of posts under the ERA section and find several rear seal and rear bearing failures invovling the rebuilt differentials and I think they will be shot gunned across both the original and ERA rear suspension systems. That said, if you do your own work, access to the outboard brakes for bleeding and maintenance is much better. I can bleed my inboard brakes from under the car after installing speed bleeder units but a change of pads will involve pulling the seats and rear differential cover panel. It is much easier to just pull a wheel.

If the extra $700 or what ever (I thought it was more) is not that significant in you overall budget then it's really not an agonizing decision. For most of us that built with the standard Jag suspension, we either just couldn't afford to check every last option box or also in my case, I wanted to run undercar 2-1/2 inch tailpipes for exhaust.

good stuff, thank you.

[patrickt]

The way the Jag rear is designed is kind of funky in that it uses the half-shafts as the upper control arms. And I would venture to guess that the stress that we put on our Cobras is even harder than the average Jag driver. The bearings and seals can end up taking a pounding. At a minimum, Jag rear owners (and really outboard rear owners as well) should change the lube in a timely fashion. See this Coventry West tech tip: Dealing with your Jaguar Differential

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by patrickt

The way the Jag rear is designed is kind of funky in that it uses the half-shafts as the upper control arms. And I would venture to guess that the stress that we put on our Cobras is even harder than the average Jag driver. The bearings and seals can end up taking a pounding. At a minimum, Jag rear owners (and really outboard rear owners as well) should change the lube in a timely fashion. See this Coventry West tech tip: Dealing with your Jaguar Differential

Patrick,

There may be something to what you say but remember Kevin2 had a bearing go almost before he got out of the driveway - something less that 100 miles I think. I doubt his Jag rear end suffered this failure due to wear and tear. Literally, well over a million or two Jags and 63 - 83 Corvettes got by with the same arrangement just fine for decades. Probably a lot of other cars too. Corvettes have never had any issues with differential side bearings - it's always the outer spindle bearings that go first.

Patrick - just saying - I love you brother.