diff oil seal

[raygray]

Can I replace the diff front seal with diff in place.?

[elansprint71]

No.

[512BB]

Well you can certainly try Ray. However, when I tried, I could not even get as far as undoing the flange nut, as it had been staked, and I could not get enough leverage movement to shift it.

Years ago, the diff in my first Elan started to whine, a bit like er indoors, and on inspection, the flange nut had started to come loose. So I just tightened it up and went on my merry way for another couple of years, before the car was rebuilt.

Now if you are lucky, your nut will not be that tight and you may well be able to undo it. The seal will come out with a couple of levers, then clean round the casing with some petrol, apply some wellseal to the new seal and casing, and just tap it in. Then put a bead of silicone sealant on the face of the nut and do it up tight. That stops oil from working its way down the thread.

Oh and Ray.........dont forget to drain the diff before starting!

Good luck,

Leslie

[Tonyw]

Ray,

IIRC there is a crush tube behind the nut which puts a pre-load on the pinion bearings, I cannot recall offhand if they are re-usable or not best to check the manual.

Tonyw

[512BB]

You can re use the crush tube if you do the nut up to the same torque as it was before, or a fraction more, so long as nothing else has been altered, ie bearings.

Leslie

[types26/36]

I think the manual says to replace if it has been over-torqued even when setting a new one, but I have "panel beaten" them.....i.e. place on a round bar and tap it until it expands......OK so I'm a cheapskate
I seem to recall that you cant get the crush tube out just by taking off the pinion flange and oil seal, I don't think you can get the bearing off the pinion shaft with out disassembling the diff but I could be wrong here......memory fade etc
Is it the oil seal that is leaking as I have had some where the pinion nut has been loose presumably due to the crush tube and the oil was coming out around the nut and leaking between the pinion flange and propshaft flange.

[kstrutt11]

I've just done them back up to the same torque several times with no ill effects, to get the crush tube out you need to get the inner race of the front bearing out.

The proper proceedure (assuming you are using old bearings and shims) is to strip the diff and remove the Crownwheel (marking the positions of the bearing carriers), then fit a new crush tube and tighten until it takes a specific torque to turn the pinon shaft, then put it all back together again, you obviously need the diff on a bench for this.

If you find the bearings are worn and need replacing then you need to re-shim it which needs some specilist tools to set the pinion height and a good eye to set the mesh correctly.