Hey All,
OK let me tell you my tale of diff seals replacement. I'm rebuilding
my
TR6, and I have a leak from one of the inner axle seals of the diff. I
figured I would replace all the seals while I had the diff out, since
they were inexpensive parts.
I found that you cannot replace the inner axle seals with a hydraulic
press of some type. Getting the inner axles out of the diff is easy
enough, and getting the big nut that hold the yoke/flang (whatever the
correct term is?) is also easy, but getting the inner axle shaft to
separate from the flang was not possible with a gear puller. I gave up,
since I didn't want to damage the inner axles.
The pinion is another story. I remove the big nut (lots of effort),
and
the pinion flang just slide right off. But I couldn't tell where the
seal was. I asked the NET for advice and they assured me the seal was
there,a nd that I must be staring at it and not realizing it. I gave the
guys a Motorhead a call, and asked for advice. The guy there told me the
first step is to mark the big nut of the pinion so that I tighten down to
the exact spot upon reassembly to get the correct pinion end-float I
believe, Well TO LATE, I had already remove the nut. With that bridge
cross I asked him what to do about the seal. The seal has a metal outer
casing. He told me the best way to remove the old seal is to destroy it.
By clipping off a piece of the seal and then heating it a bit I was able
to bend it enough so that it could be removed. I oiled up the new seal
by soaking it in gear-oil for a day and then tapped it into place.
Now as far as putting back the pinion-flang and big nut, the NET
advised
that I should just tighten that puppy down as hard as I could. A number
of people claimed to be riding on diffs they had done this to. It made
some sense to me since it took all my body weight just to get the nut
off, that I should use all my body weight to get it back on.
The diff is back on the frame now, and the wheels are on the cars. I
can spin the wheels without any noise from the diff. However I won't
have the car back on the road until spring 98 (oh please oh please) so I
can't report on what happened after I drove the dreaded first 25 miles.
I rebuiltd diff runs $850 at TRF. Get it during a 30% sale and it will
be about $600. Replace the seals and take a chance and you'll be about
about an extra $20 for the seals.
I can tell you that for the first few weeks/months I will be listening
to the diff for any bad noises, and keeping my fingers crossed that i
haven't screwed anything up.
Later,
JHD IV
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