Solved Differential Swap

[Turdle]

Yes, but the bolts will be very tight. 50-50 shot whether the socket breaks or not. 12 point 13 mm I think. Impact wrench if ya got it.

Be sure to blue loctite em. That torque bracket is very important, check the frame bushing carefully. If the yard messed it up, in my opinion they made the diff unusable, in a retail sense. They owe ya something. But if you press it they may want to give you an entirely different diff.

( Different differential together in a sentence. Is that proper?)

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

Yes, but the bolts will be very tight. 50-50 shot whether the socket breaks or not. 12 point 13 mm I think. Impact wrench if ya got it.

Be sure to blue loctite em. That torque bracket is very important, check the frame bushing carefully.

I noticed it moves around quite a bit without that last bushing attached. I think the bracket bolts are like 15 or 16, I put my 1/2" impact on it and they didn't even budge.

 

[Turdle]

Yeah, maybe a pipe on a breaker bar. Gotta be brute!

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

Also found out that the pinion seal on the rear diff is leaking, hopefully it's just the seal and not the bearing going out

 

[410Fortune]

Whenever a pinion seal starts leaking the first thing I check is the vent tube
If the vent tube is plugged the fluid will find another way out

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

Whenever a pinion seal starts leaking the first thing I check is the vent tube
If the vent tube is plugged the fluid will find another way out

That might be what it is honestly, is there a good way to clean it? I didn't want to just spray it with brake clean and have the entire hose deteriorate. It wasn't leaking when I first filled it but after the first drive it keeps leaking pretty steadily.

 

[410Fortune]

pull the hose off the breather nipple, blow air through hose, blow air through nipple
It helps to remove the mushroom cap on the hose and clear /clean it

vent must be clear otherwise fluid will push past axle seals or pinion seal

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

pull the hose off the breather nipple, blow air through hose, blow air through nipple
It helps to remove the mushroom cap on the hose and clear /clean it

vent must be clear otherwise fluid will push past axle seals or pinion seal

Does the mushroom cap pull off and just pop back on? Also where does the vent line attach to? I've just got it kinda jerry rigged to stay up.

 

[410Fortune]

yes pulls off
Vent line is to attach to the sheet metal above rear axle, It does not really matter as long as it is up high. It is designed to keep water out when you launch your jet skis at the boat ramp

I route my rear breather up by the gas cap or behind tail light, get it up nice and high

AS fluid heats up it expands, so the hot air on top of it must be able to vent to atmosphere

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

yes pulls off
Vent line is to attach to the sheet metal above rear axle, It does not really matter as long as it is up high. It is designed to keep water out when you launch your jet skis at the boat ramp

I route my rear breather up by the gas cap or behind tail light, get it up nice and high

AS fluid heats up it expands, so the hot air on top of it must be able to vent to atmosphere

So just up high and make sure it isn't kinked.

I'm so done with this car I barely even want to look at it anymore. Maybe if I could use a lift I'd be more enthusiastic about doing all this work

 

[CDW6212R]

The front vent hose has a clip on it near the end, and it clips onto the frame lip at the front of the left shock tower, on the control arm frame mount part. I have a vague picture someplace.

If the vent hose is clear, then you are going to need to R&R the pinion nut, and then the seal. Don't do that until you are really ready to, and know that the nut must go back on, to exactly the same position it was(not any tighter, or more loose).

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

The front vent hose has a clip on it near the end, and it clips onto the frame lip at the front of the left shock tower, on the control arm frame mount part. I have a vague picture someplace.

If the vent hose is clear, then you are going to need to R&R the pinion nut, and then the seal. Don't do that until you are really ready to, and know that the nut must go back on, to exactly the same position it was(not any tighter, or more loose).

I'm not going to do the pinion seal myself, the torque on that thing scares me to death in all honesty. There is a lot of dirt and grime on the vent hose near the cap though so I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

 

[CDW6212R]

Clean the end well before removing the end cap. You don't want any other debris to get down into it while checking that it's clear.

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

The new bushing is in the bracket and the bracket is attached, everything looks good and seems to be running ok. As for the rear pinion leaking, I checked the tube and even blew air through it and it didn't seem clogged up, I cleaned the end and ran it up at less of an angle to that piece of sheet metal where the spare tire sits. I guess it's also possible that I over filled it and some excess was pushing out from pressure, I didn't see any leaking after my test drive though.

 

[C420sailor]

it’s easy. Get a paint marker or similar. Mark the pinion nut and end of pinion shaft. Now count the number of exposed threads at that mark. I like to take a pic for reference.

Blast the nut off, pull the flange, remove the seal. Make sure the slinger doesn’t fall out. No big deal if it does. But don’t forget to put it back in.

Drive in a new seal. Make a driver out of a short length of pipe—if you try to tap around it in a circle, you will **** it up.

Now, here’s the thing. If the old seal wore a groove in your flange, it may end up leaking anyway. You can try polishing it out…may get lucky. Dorman makes a replacement, but the spline fit is TIGHT. It’s a pain to install.

Personally, I put some ultra black rtv on the splines and the underside of the nut. Just a light smear. Keeps oil from working its way out that way.

Now torque that puppy down until the marks line back up with the same number of exposed threads as in your pic. Done.

It takes a LOT of torque to further crush the sleeve, so don’t think you’re going to overdo the preload just by sneezing at it. It’s gonna take a good amount of torque to get the nut back where it was.

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

So no more leaking and everything is good. Only issue that remains is the vibration from a dead stop, it seems like it's less than before but it still kinda shakes the steering wheel around. I've checked the u joints and they don't have any play in them at all, neither does the flange or yoke or anything and they all move freely. My next guess is it's the CV axles being bound up for a second when they start turning. It only does it on acceleration (somewhat heavy), never just cruising or deceleration. Anybody have any ideas?