A friend brought in a Spitfire differential, my brief is to check it over and put new seals and gaskets.
On teardown the first thing I noticed is the gear oil looked and felt like it has been in there since day one! I'm not sure what year diff this is, the car is a '66 but the early diffs prior to '70 had a split pin on the pinion nut, this one does not, nor does it have a hole for the split pin to go thru, so I'm waiting for the owner to call and let me know.
Edit: he just called, the diff is from a 74 - he's using it because it has a 3:89 ratio vs 4:25 in the original one
So tomorrow I'm off to Vicky Brits for the new seals and gaskets, then I'll put it back together and he'll be back on the road again.
A couple of pics of it torn down.....it sure is handy to have a bearing spreader and a 20 ton press!
Differentials are kind of fun to go through having the right tools sure helps I always like setting them up as it's one of those things that's mysterious to most people.
Yes, there can be a lot of fiddling to get them just right. I'm only changing the seals on this one, not going to mess with the shims if I can help it.
Helps to lnow exactly which diff I have, tho only the front seal is different and I would have taken the old one with me to the parts place to make sure. The nut looks like it was loosened last time with a hammer and chisel so I'll try and get a new one of those too - over $10 for that stupid nut - some prices these days are completely bonkers. The seals are about $3 each.
Got the pieces I needed and put the diff back together today, it all went fairly smoothly and he'll come get it tomorrow.
The one fly in the ointment - the ring gear is showing some wear. I don't think it will matter as he probably doesn't drive that many miles, but I wonder whether it will be noisy. He's not going to buy a new gear as new ones are about $500 for the ring and pinion.
If you download the pic you can blow it up and see what I mean on the gear.
I wouldn't worry about that gear it looks ok. If you end up re-setting it up I have had the best luck doing a contact pattern on the coast side of gears that have some wear.
looks like the pinion was set a little too far in on that. But I would leave it where it's at for fear of noise if moved as the wear has been established.
I decided the same thing, so that's what I did. It still might be a little noisy for all I know, but when you buy used parts you get what you get. At least now it won't leak.