Found the noise in the rear of my Camaro
 

Once in a while I would hear some noise from the rear of my Camaro. So last night I found an unpleasant surprise while looking under my car for the noise. I saw some bumps in the rear diff cover pushing outward and paint missing which is never a good sign. I took the cover off to find out 3 bolts were missing from the ring gear. The picture doesnt show it very well but the rear cover was tore up really bad inside. You can also see what 1 of the bolts looked like that was laying in the bottom.
I removed all the bolts and put red locktite on them. Then bought 3 more bolts to replace the missing ones. I also bought 75-140 weight fluid for the rear.
Luckily the ring and pinion gear are in excellent shape. I couldnt see any visible damage at all and the bearings seemed in good shape too. The car should be fine but it was a little scary to find this a week before my next Grattan road track event.
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/5...9198si3.th.jpghttp://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8...9194vo5.th.jpg

I had a friends 12 bolt do the same thing
 

He picked up a vibration that we could not find. Pulled the cover and he had sheared 5 bolts. It was about to come apart. Glad you found your problem

I think 1 or 2 more road track days and it would have probably done the same thing as your friends 12 bolt. Shearing bolts inside the ring gear would suck. Glad mine didnt get that bad.
I had someone build this rear end for me over 4 years ago with the spool, 32 spline Mosier axles, and C clip eliminators. From what I could tell it doesnt look like locktite was used on the bolts to the ring gear. I think thats the main reason the bolts worked thier way loose.
I will run it at my event on the 26th and when I get back I will pull the cover and see how everything looks. Plus I want to flush the new fluid anyway after the event to get more of the metal shavings out. I will probably also replace all the bolts to be safe.