Hi,
Regarding your u-joints - it's pain in the butt to get the shaft out from
below with the exhaust in the way. It's doable, but a pain. I usually wind
up up removing the exhaust system. It helps to have access to an acetylene
torch for that job! Heat up the pipes and viola! Without acteylene...
painful.
Regarding the differential, most of the parts in there wear pretty well.
What you will neeed to take up the slop in your sun gears are the fiber
washers and lots of shims. I'd suggest getting a fairly large assortment
(maybe 3 or 4 each of the thicker ones and lesser amounts of the smaller
ones).
As far as other stuff to get, obviously get a new gasket. If you
completely tear down the unit, consider adding a drain plug - this is a
really good modification to the TR6 differential.
The pinion bearings are a major pain in the ass to replace. You need to
figure out a way to set the pinions height, and without the Churchill
tools, it's a major pain. Trust me on this, you'll wind up popping the
pinion head out several times to get the initial height and then taking it
out a few more times to get it set right.
Once you get that setting, then you need to set the bearing preload for
the outer pinion bearing. This means taking the whole thing apart again to
add some more shims.
So, if you decide to to the pinion bearings, you need the bearings and a
lot of shims. I've never seen one use less than .040 under the pinion head
bearing race, so get 5 .010's and then less amounts of the .005 and
.003's.
The real pain here is that without the special tool to remove the pinion
head bearing race from the case, you'll wind up tearing up a few (or all)
of the pinion head shims. This will be very frustrating the first time
around. It's even more frustrating on successive attempts!
And you really need to get everything right first time around, because if
you make the bearings too tight, you'll fry the unit really fast and if
things are too loose, you'll get clunks. Wrong either way and you'll
likely make noise too.
To be brutally honest, this is one of those jobs best farmed out and farm
it to someone with the right tools that'll do the job for a fixed cost.
This is why you got the recommendation to install a "good used unit".
As far as checking the pinion/ring gears, you can check the ring gear for
wear by rotating the gear in the case (you don't really need to pull the
center section for this.) Checking the pinion is harder but do-able
through the filler flug hole on the side of the case. Look for chips
(obviously) and "greying" of the gears. The "pattern" should be a really
shiney spot right in the middle of the ring gears. If the face is
uniformly shiney, you'll have to clean everything and paint some
"Dykem-Blue" on the ring rear and then rotate the assembly (try to load
the axles, if you can, you get a better "reading".) If the pattern is not
dead-center on the ring gear, you'll get wear and eventually teeth will
fail.
I'm afraid I'm with your expert - swap in a good used unit and drive the
car. Do the diff rebuild when you have lots of time or some spare $$$ to
have a pro do the job.
Oh - the axle seals are a pain in the butt too, you need to pop the axles
apart with an arbor press... I've pulled the bearings off the back side of
the axle stubs - but this is not recommended as you need to machine the
axle stub a few "thou" to allow the bearing to come off the back side...
and you have to ruin the bearing to get it off. This is a case where
following the manual is def. the "right thing to do".
regards,
rml
p.s. Six Tech has some pointers on home made tools to help do the job
easier. While the case spreader is nice, it is not absolutely required. A
tool to measure the pinion head height and a tool to remove the pinion
head cup from the diff. case are worth every once of effort needed to
acquire (or fabricate) them.
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