Re: Many shades of Red
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2022 5:40 pm
While waiting for the exhaust manifold to be repaired and modified for the T25 flange I started to look at something I have put off for 10 years -
the rear differential I've always had a clunk from the driveshaft, diff fluid dripping from the torque tube flange, the (original?) CV boots are a bit cracked but surprisingly not torn, there are sometimes odd groans at certain speeds, and I would like to swap to the 4.22 gears I bought many years ago.
So here we go (I got my work cut out), using the great guide from Kev on StarquestClub. (https://www.starquestclub.com/forum/ind ... rque-tube/)
Cracking the nuts loose that hold the diff to the top of the diff mounts. From memory a 6" extensions piece fitted perfectly and allowed a long bar out of the wheel well to break the bolts free. Did not want to drop the petrol tank again. (You can see I hate working under cars and have put lots of "extra" safety in place with sacks of logs )
Getting the bolts off from the torque tube to diff were pretty hard, especailly the ones at the top! I used a combination of 2x12" extensions, a short "wobble" extension and a mains powered 500nm impact gun (ugga dugga?!).
The bolts on the drive shaft were going well, some felt pretty stiff but then the enevitable happened, one let go and snapped. I thought giving it a whack with a lump hammer would do it, but nope. I didn't want to take the hub off, so I cut/ground it down with an angle grinder thinking I could whack with a drift would do it, but nope! It was well and truely stuck in there! I had to drill in 0.5mm increments from the rear, as it broke through the side of the bolt (I always end up wandering slightly off centre) I was able to knock it out. Quite a waste of time.
With the diff lowered down on a trolley jack, It was time to start looking at what I needed to do.
First off, my UJ on the prop shaft were really notchy. Looks like they are 25x76.8mm UJ as used on lots of other Mitsubishis, sometimes written as 25x77mm. I'll need to order a couple of those, think FEBEST ASM-91 will do it.
The Torque Tube was full of orange looking grot, which was actually magnetic so probably a combination of old grease, diff fluid, metal fillings and rust. Hmm, I wonder where the metal filings came from? I could probably win some award for worst torque tube with that. With no option to find one in the UK it was back to importing from the States, where the Chrsyler Conquest seems plentiful. With weight, poor exchange rate and import costs it's not cheap but I saw no other option.
Sludge river down the torque tube
Getting the torque tube nut off was fairly straight forward, I had some funny homemade looking tool from years ago for holding a pulley and it worked wonders for bolting to the driveshaft flange, using the weight of my Honda daily to hold steady and a long pole to crack it loose.
The Half-Shafts / Axle Shafts were covered in waxoil (a debateable underbody rust preventative), but they didn't think to rotate the shafts so they are only coated on one side! I don't know how much it takes to throw balance out but it was fairly thick stuff!
Cutting the boots off, one of the CV joints was like a brown mayonaise inside! Litreally tipped water out. The CV boot was held on with a cable tie so guess it was loose at some point, water got in and it never got back out again.
To be continued.....
the rear differential I've always had a clunk from the driveshaft, diff fluid dripping from the torque tube flange, the (original?) CV boots are a bit cracked but surprisingly not torn, there are sometimes odd groans at certain speeds, and I would like to swap to the 4.22 gears I bought many years ago.
So here we go (I got my work cut out), using the great guide from Kev on StarquestClub. (https://www.starquestclub.com/forum/ind ... rque-tube/)
Cracking the nuts loose that hold the diff to the top of the diff mounts. From memory a 6" extensions piece fitted perfectly and allowed a long bar out of the wheel well to break the bolts free. Did not want to drop the petrol tank again. (You can see I hate working under cars and have put lots of "extra" safety in place with sacks of logs )
Getting the bolts off from the torque tube to diff were pretty hard, especailly the ones at the top! I used a combination of 2x12" extensions, a short "wobble" extension and a mains powered 500nm impact gun (ugga dugga?!).
The bolts on the drive shaft were going well, some felt pretty stiff but then the enevitable happened, one let go and snapped. I thought giving it a whack with a lump hammer would do it, but nope. I didn't want to take the hub off, so I cut/ground it down with an angle grinder thinking I could whack with a drift would do it, but nope! It was well and truely stuck in there! I had to drill in 0.5mm increments from the rear, as it broke through the side of the bolt (I always end up wandering slightly off centre) I was able to knock it out. Quite a waste of time.
With the diff lowered down on a trolley jack, It was time to start looking at what I needed to do.
First off, my UJ on the prop shaft were really notchy. Looks like they are 25x76.8mm UJ as used on lots of other Mitsubishis, sometimes written as 25x77mm. I'll need to order a couple of those, think FEBEST ASM-91 will do it.
The Torque Tube was full of orange looking grot, which was actually magnetic so probably a combination of old grease, diff fluid, metal fillings and rust. Hmm, I wonder where the metal filings came from? I could probably win some award for worst torque tube with that. With no option to find one in the UK it was back to importing from the States, where the Chrsyler Conquest seems plentiful. With weight, poor exchange rate and import costs it's not cheap but I saw no other option.
Sludge river down the torque tube
Getting the torque tube nut off was fairly straight forward, I had some funny homemade looking tool from years ago for holding a pulley and it worked wonders for bolting to the driveshaft flange, using the weight of my Honda daily to hold steady and a long pole to crack it loose.
The Half-Shafts / Axle Shafts were covered in waxoil (a debateable underbody rust preventative), but they didn't think to rotate the shafts so they are only coated on one side! I don't know how much it takes to throw balance out but it was fairly thick stuff!
Cutting the boots off, one of the CV joints was like a brown mayonaise inside! Litreally tipped water out. The CV boot was held on with a cable tie so guess it was loose at some point, water got in and it never got back out again.
To be continued.....