Well the breakfast weatherman said, ‘If you are planning to work on your drive today, I’d crack on ‘cos it looks shite for later’ So by 09.15 the front diff was out.
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I have to say it really is in excellent fettle. In terms of pre load and back lash it feels like a new one. Zero evidence of wear or anything. Shame I don’t have a use for a manual diff.
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Here’s the one from stock. Done very few miles and comes from the JW diff clinic. Again, very smooth, backlash and preload all silky smooth. So this is a 4.1 which should bring everything back to square with the 35’s on. Not, I have to say that I have noticed any issues at all on the original ratios except the speedo reading incorrectly by some margin.
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The rebuild here isn't just the diff and axles, it's really the front end. Not inc the brakes on this run, but it does include the steering rods.
I hadn't noticed any real wear in the track end joints, but they are as we know, notoriously hard to shift sometimes and when I took the Silver Phoenix to be tracked last time they actually popped a joint by swinging on it. We had heated it and sprayed it but just could not move the threads at all. So, the was really a good time for some PM.
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Just as well really as they took some real shifting on the bench..totally solid.
The threads needed a bit of a clean out so I used the old home made thread chaser trick by cutting a nick out of the old one and screwed that in several times to clear out the deepest thread section.
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These are Milner ones, yes. I have used them before and never had a problem with them. They seem well made.
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New ends in - I have done all 4 on the track and relay rod, but they all look the same. No, they aren't the same, I said they all just look the same
for the purposes of the thread.
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Took the opportunity to put some new nuts and bolts in there too. The rod turns by hand it's so slick after the clean. The little chap at the tyre shed where I go will think it's his birthday when he comes to track this one. I measured the positions of the old ones before I took them out so they will be pretty much right when I rebuild the steering. Close enough to drive round the corner for sure.
And that's that.
Give the diff to me at Donnington if you want was the point but yes Frank is coming as well.
