C3 Corvette Parts Are Getting Harder to Locate

I’ve owned and worked on Corvettes for the past 43 years, and most of them have been C3s (1968–1982). These cars are popular for their styling and the engines can easily be swapped or modified for much improved performance. In their day, the independent rear suspension and positraction differential provided decent sports car handling.

Going even further back, I’ve always loved Corvettes and it may have even been my first word. I was the kid who would shout “Corvette” whenever I spoted one as I sat in the passenger seat of a car or truck. Around the time I was ten years old, a neighbor who owned a private Corvette lot purchased a new 1978 Corvette Pace Car edition to keep as his own. He also had a son about my age, and we were friends. His father would let us look at this brand new car, but we weren’t allowed to touch it. I’ve wanted a 1978 Corvette Pace Car since then.

Fast forward about three years ago and I sold a 1977 Corvette that I owned longer than I’ve been married. I sold it to a co-worker who asked about it. I gave him a high price that he accepted. I honestly didn’t think he wanted it that bad, but a deal is a deal and I sold it to him. It was red with a tan interior, but the cool thing was that I built a 400 bhp 383 cid engine during a year I took off from college to work for a professional drag race engine builder. I built my 383 at cost and did all the labor myself, except cylinder head porting. The Corvette was building a laundry list of things I needed to address because my family came first and I had 1996 Corvette in mint shape for driving when I was working on my C3. More recently, my 1996 has required a lot more of my attention and money, but that’s a story for another time.

I used the money from the sale as a starting point for buying a 1978 Pace Car. I drove the Pace Car for about a year and decided to replace things that were overdue for replacement. This included new brake calipers, brake rotors, bushings, ball joints, switching to stainless steel brake lines, switching to Bilstein stocks, switching to Spicer u-joints and much more.

It was while installing the u-joints that I discovered the slip yoke was in bad shape. It was clearly in need of replacement. After doing some research, I was able to find the part number was Spicer 2–3–7091X and that the part was discontinued and no one seems to have any in-stock. I could buy a used one if I found someone with one for sale, but it will be just as old and I would need to inspect it before installing it. I called a custom driveshaft company, but they did not want to quote making a one-off custom yoke.

This particular yoke allows installation and removal of the driveshaft without needing to remove the differential. Some refer to it as a quick change yoke as it uses bolt-on straps to secure the u-joint.

My options include using a yoke which requires pressing in the u-joint in similar fashion as the driveshaft. As previously mentioned, the differential would then need to be removed to install the driveshaft.

I might be able to buy a heavy duty yoke which uses a 1350 u-joint instead of a 1330. This option would require having a custom driveshaft built to accommodate 1350 u-joints on the transmission side while retaining 1330 u-joints on the differential side.

If I cannot locate one, or identify an alternative solution, I will not be able to finish working on my Corvette and it will continue to stay parked. I bought it with intent to enjoy going out for drives with my wife. As time goes on, I can see that finding critical parts will continue to become more challenging and the alternatives can get very expensive. I have the tools, education and knowledge to work on these cars, but it all becomes trivial if parts stop becoming available. This is hobby I’m passionate about, as are many others, and I’d hate to see it die for this reason.