changing diff..

[fury]

How hard is to to change a diff ? Most specifically an aussie R31 (auto) I'm planning on doing it myself. Jack rear end up, remove axels, remove diff centre, insert new, replace. There isn't anything massively complicated is there?

REading this guide it seems fairly straight forward:

http://www.toymods.org.au/changing_a_diff.html

I'm fairly mechanically minded, so wanting to give it a try myself rather than pay somebody else $hundreds to do it.

Anybody know of a good place where I can track down a reasonable 2nd hand or reconditioned diff in Brisbane area?

Otherwise if anybody wants to earn an easy $100 or something, and i can track down the new diff -- willing to give me a hand? Although that kind of takes the DIY out of it

[bugle]

I suppose it depends if its the type you can just pull the centre/pinion shaft housing out the front.. That's easy. But if the housing is attached to the axle housings too then you'd have to drop the whole lot.

[Captiva Fan]

Ooh ... if you're replacing the diff centre it might get messy. Mine had some sort of "pre tensioning" required, whatever that means, and apparently without some particular tool it's allegedly very hard to get right.
If you're replacing the whole thing, disc-to-disc, it's pretty simple.

[fury]

Forg: was yours an LSD?

This is just a single spinner. Might have to track down ye olde Gregories R31 service manual to go through it.

[Angle]

If its an Aussie R31 it will have a Borg Warner, so the centre has to be built in the housing (a prick).

[fury]

crap.. so i have to get a whole axel from hub to hub basically and bolt that up? i have to fit this in an r33 to get it to my place

or am i best off just taking it to a diff place and they put in on the hoist and rebuild my existing one for me?

the fun of it all..

[jmac]

If you haven't done it before. I'd personally recommend getting it professionally done. It's not mega expensive. If you want to retain the current housing for whatever reason, it's imperative to shim the pinion and carrier as necessary to obtain both the right bearing preload but also the correct mesh of the teeth. I'ts not rocket science but it's not chlids play either. Biggest hassle will be if you don't have a bunch of shims spare to use to get it right.

John McKenzie