Freshening up a diff?

[usul42]

Howdy,

I picked up a LSD (on the cheap) to replace my open diff (nothing wrong with it other than giving me drift practice in the rain)

Anything other than scraping the external crud off and giving it a nice freshen fill of oil should I do before R&Ring the old one?

Is it worth bothering to open it up fully to check out the ring gear for wear or just look for metallic bits in the gear lube.

Anything else to check on the new one to devine any problems that may crop up with it...

The guy said that when the car still ran that the diff didnt make any noise, and it was an automatic so it probably had an ok life.

Thanks,
Sten

[SilverMk2]

You might want to pop the rear cover off just for curiousity sake. I think the cover gasket is under $10 from Toyota IIRC. If it turns pretty easily I'd say throw it in and find out how it works. The rear diff is fairly easy to R&R so you aren't out a whole lot if something is wrong. You really can't see anything inside the factory LSD when installed anyhow. Unless you have a zillion miles on the rearend the gears are probably acceptable. And I'd run it a few hundred miles and change the oil if all goes well. You should be able to check for metals then.

[Marblehead]

Before installing the rear-end on the car, replace the three outer oil seals. Two oil seals on the axle shafts, one each side, and the input shaft oil seal. If the diff. has been sitting for an extended period of time these seals may have become a little dry.

Beer. The fresh maker.
Scott

[usul42]

Before installing the rear-end on the car, replace the three outer oil seals. Two oil seals on the axle shafts, one each side, and the input shaft oil seal. If the diff. has been sitting for an extended period of time these seals may have become a little dry.

Hmm. I've looked in the TSRM and it talks quite a bit about how taking off the front nut will require you to re-adjust the pre-load on the diff... How hard is this? I dont want to get into a full up rebuild just to change one seal that may not leak anyhow.

There's some sort of a crush sleve that it says will need replacing if I can't get the preload correct. It's not clear if I would have to pull the bearing if that needs changing.


Beer. The fresh maker.

You've got that right.

Thanks,
Sten

[supraman]

Bump

I'd like to know as well...

Regards,

Jimi B

Wasn't it Homer [Simpson] that said something like, "Beer. Is there anything it can't do?"

[SilverMk2]

If you are going to do the front seal I'd just do a full rebuild. To do it right you'll need to remove the side shafts, the differential/ring gear section, undo the front nut and remove the pinion shaft. Since you have the pinion shaft out you should replace the two pinion bearing (as well as the side bearings on the diff). Then you'll need a new crush sleeve and nut and reinstall. If you replace the 4 bearings and 3 seal and related parts all you would need is a replacement diff like a True Trac to finish it up. All the bearings, gaskets, and seal will run you about $150 or so from Jeff. Something like a True Trac would be ~$350 and about $150 for all the labor.