VN_Luke
ƃuoɹʍ ʇsnɾ sı sıɥʇ
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Ok - I figured since I was swapping diff centres and fitting up a minispool I'd write up some instructions on how to perform this operation.
This guide applies to specifically VN-VS live axle rear ends, and assumes that you're pretty handy with a spanner and aren't afraid to work on your own car.
It also presumes that you already know the basics - how to lift and securely support your car, how to use a torque wrench, yada yada....
- edit: on another more 'legal' note - I feel compelled to advise anyone reading this guide that this modification will ensure that your car does NOT comply with road worthiness requirements. I also feel compelled to advise that this modification could cause EXTREME fun when done on a track car. Anyway, as such I don't take any responsibility for anything in this guide, or anything that following this guide might lead to (even if it is extreme fun!)
Okay so lets start from the beginning-ish. You'll notice that I'm transferring a center out of a diff that's out of a car, and putting it into the diff that's in my car (because mine was stuffed). Somewhere in the middle there, the center gets a minispool fitted up to it, so pay attention or you might MISS IT.
So as mentioned, I'm starting with a bare diff - to get yours to similar status, you have to:
1. securely lift and support the back of your car
2. undo your wheels (5 x 19mm nuts on each wheel)
3. undo your rear brake calipers (2 x 17mm head bolts, each with a spring washer, on the back of the 'backing plate' as I call it)
4. remove your rotors.
5. remove the panhard rod (19mm bolt and nut on the pass side mount, and 19mm nut on the driver side mount)
6. ok so now you're up to the stage where I'm at (except your diff is still in the car, sucker)
7. put a big drainage pan under the diff center, the diff holds maybe 3 litres? but get a bigger pan
8. undo the back cover and pry it off (a whole heap of 1/2" bolts) - watch the brake lines and gently move them out the way
9. while that's all draining, go around to either side of the car, and remove the 4 9/16" nuts that retain the axle in the diff. (as pictured). You will need to manouver (read, shift with a screwdriver for leverage) the handbrake shoes out the way to get your socket on there. Aim through the big hole in the axle!
10. once those 4 bolts are undone, get your brake rotor, put it on backwards, and thread a few nuts onto the wheel studs - but not all the way, just a handful of turns will be fine - the aim is to use the rotor as a 'slide hammer' to knock the axle out.
11. this is the bit where you find out if you secured your car properly on stands or not - push the rotor all the way inwards, then gank on the rotor HARD, as to try 'yank' out the axle. Be careful not to fall back into anything if it does let go lol. - a few solid ganks should really free it up. the longer it's been in there, the worse it is I guess. I usually get it in about 3-4 hits, but i really do put a whole heap of effort into it!!.
12. repeat for the other side axle!
13. pull out the axles from the diff (they just pull out once they been shocked) - it's handy to put a drain pan on either end of hte diff to catch a bit of oil that might come out. - it also helps to clean the axles with a rag as you're pulling them out to save yourself gettin DIR-TEE!
14. now that the axles are out, and all the oil has drained from the center, we can focus on pulling the center out!! - undo the 4 bolts that hold the 'caps' on either side of the diff centre, then pull the caps off (remember which way they went!)
15. once the caps are removed, you should be able to get a crowbar or a stick or something, and pry the diff center out by the cronwheel bolts as demonstrated in the pic. - be careful cause this puppy is pretty heavy - heavier than you expect. So get a rag over your hand and get ready to catch/pull it out with a bit of prying etc. - caution: the teeth are pretty sharp and can leave nasty cuts! - also remember to keep the shims on either side of the center in the same direction & location for later!
16. Put the center into a small container to let the oil drain out of it a bit more (unless you don't mind a dirty work bench) - remember to keep the bearings and the bearing cups together
17. undo the bolts that hold the crownwheel onto the diff - THESE ARE A LEFT HAND THREAD! - I used a rattle gun for this, because it makes life easy! I'm pretty sure it's a 5/8" socket for these - but don't undo them all the way! leave a few threads still in
18. thanks to not undoing the bolts all the way, we can use them as a point to hit with a hammer to help get the crownwheel off - hit gently and progressively go all around the bolts to try knock the crownwheel off the diff centre. - this does take a few hard hits, but make sure the bolts are still a few threads in, otherwise you'll stuff them, and I won't care.
19. after you can't hit the bolts anymore, the crownwheel will still be hanging on a bit - but by now you should be able to cleanly hit the actual crownwheel with a plastic mallet or something and gently knock the rest of it off.
20. the next step is to hammer out he 3 split pins from the diff center that hold the main pins that the gears rotate on in place. You should use a split pin remover, but i used a broken allen key, because I'm cool.
21. feed the split pins through,a nd pull them out when they're out the other side - simple enough!
22. once the split pins are removed, you should be able to hit the side of the main pins and bash them out the side of the diff centre. - use a bolt or a punch or something to give you the extra length you need when hitting these out! - note that there is one long one, and two small ones. The trick with the small ones is to hit one into the other, then hit them both out the one side
23. here are the pins once removed
24. now it's time to split open the centre. Use a sharp solid instrument (screwdriver? scraper? something) and give it a whack with the hammer to split the two halves apart.
25. this is what it looks like when it's all apart - remove all the bits, and give everything a thorough clean to get rid of the oil and stuff - ... then go wash your hands and
26. have a beer!! - it's a bit hard to decide which one to have - as you see I went with the Coopers because I wasn't going to be driving that night, etc. Just in case you're anxious about trying your new spool, I find it's best to have an emergency 6 pack of lights hanging in the fridge.
27. okay - place the minispool into the big half of the center
28. smash the big pins back in, being careful to line up all the holes for the split pins in the right places!!! (there are only 3 split pins! make sure you get the big pin in the right way etc so that the split pins can all go through lol)
29. then lock the big pins in place with the split pins from earlier. (you should probably use new ones, but I don't care, so I didn't)
30. hit the split pins in till they hang out about this far from the other side
31. put the other half on, line it up with the split pins, and give it a few small love taps to get it to sit together nicely.
32. put the ring gear on - line the bolt holes up as best you can!
33. now this was a bit of a prick for me, so I got creative - I got two blocks of wood and made a 'support' for the ring gear, so that i could bash the center of the diff and effectively 'press' on the ring gear with a few hits evenly distributed around the outside of the center.
34. once you got the ring gear pretty close to the bolt holes, put the bolts through and tighten them up one by one, bit by bit, all the way around, untill the ring gear is secure and torqued up to whatever it says in the book.
35. now get those shims and bearing carriers that you took out earlier, and work out which way they went
36. put the diff center loosly back in the diff - while holding it with one hand, slide the shims in on either side so they just hold the centre in place!
37. give the shims a love tap with a small hammer, until they are all the way into place and everything is lovely.
38. put the bearing caps on.
39. torque up the bearing caps to the specified torque
40. grease up the ends of your axles
41. gresae up the axle seals a bit
42. put the axles back in, and tighten up those 9/16" nuts that hold them in place.........
43. clean and seal the diff cover joining surfaces, then put it back on and do up the bolts....
43. fill the bastard full of oil till the filler hole overflows, then plug it up
43. put the rest back together - and go do some shkidz!
This guide applies to specifically VN-VS live axle rear ends, and assumes that you're pretty handy with a spanner and aren't afraid to work on your own car.
It also presumes that you already know the basics - how to lift and securely support your car, how to use a torque wrench, yada yada....
- edit: on another more 'legal' note - I feel compelled to advise anyone reading this guide that this modification will ensure that your car does NOT comply with road worthiness requirements. I also feel compelled to advise that this modification could cause EXTREME fun when done on a track car. Anyway, as such I don't take any responsibility for anything in this guide, or anything that following this guide might lead to (even if it is extreme fun!)
Okay so lets start from the beginning-ish. You'll notice that I'm transferring a center out of a diff that's out of a car, and putting it into the diff that's in my car (because mine was stuffed). Somewhere in the middle there, the center gets a minispool fitted up to it, so pay attention or you might MISS IT.
So as mentioned, I'm starting with a bare diff - to get yours to similar status, you have to:
1. securely lift and support the back of your car
2. undo your wheels (5 x 19mm nuts on each wheel)
3. undo your rear brake calipers (2 x 17mm head bolts, each with a spring washer, on the back of the 'backing plate' as I call it)
4. remove your rotors.
5. remove the panhard rod (19mm bolt and nut on the pass side mount, and 19mm nut on the driver side mount)
6. ok so now you're up to the stage where I'm at (except your diff is still in the car, sucker)
7. put a big drainage pan under the diff center, the diff holds maybe 3 litres? but get a bigger pan
8. undo the back cover and pry it off (a whole heap of 1/2" bolts) - watch the brake lines and gently move them out the way
9. while that's all draining, go around to either side of the car, and remove the 4 9/16" nuts that retain the axle in the diff. (as pictured). You will need to manouver (read, shift with a screwdriver for leverage) the handbrake shoes out the way to get your socket on there. Aim through the big hole in the axle!
10. once those 4 bolts are undone, get your brake rotor, put it on backwards, and thread a few nuts onto the wheel studs - but not all the way, just a handful of turns will be fine - the aim is to use the rotor as a 'slide hammer' to knock the axle out.
11. this is the bit where you find out if you secured your car properly on stands or not
- push the rotor all the way inwards, then gank on the rotor HARD, as to try 'yank' out the axle. Be careful not to fall back into anything if it does let go lol. - a few solid ganks should really free it up. the longer it's been in there, the worse it is I guess. I usually get it in about 3-4 hits, but i really do put a whole heap of effort into it!!.
12. repeat for the other side axle!
13. pull out the axles from the diff (they just pull out once they been shocked) - it's handy to put a drain pan on either end of hte diff to catch a bit of oil that might come out. - it also helps to clean the axles with a rag as you're pulling them out to save yourself gettin DIR-TEE!
14. now that the axles are out, and all the oil has drained from the center, we can focus on pulling the center out!! - undo the 4 bolts that hold the 'caps' on either side of the diff centre, then pull the caps off (remember which way they went!)
15. once the caps are removed, you should be able to get a crowbar or a stick or something, and pry the diff center out by the cronwheel bolts as demonstrated in the pic. - be careful cause this puppy is pretty heavy - heavier than you expect. So get a rag over your hand and get ready to catch/pull it out with a bit of prying etc. - caution: the teeth are pretty sharp and can leave nasty cuts! - also remember to keep the shims on either side of the center in the same direction & location for later!
16. Put the center into a small container to let the oil drain out of it a bit more (unless you don't mind a dirty work bench) - remember to keep the bearings and the bearing cups together
17. undo the bolts that hold the crownwheel onto the diff - THESE ARE A LEFT HAND THREAD! - I used a rattle gun for this, because it makes life easy! I'm pretty sure it's a 5/8" socket for these - but don't undo them all the way! leave a few threads still in
18. thanks to not undoing the bolts all the way, we can use them as a point to hit with a hammer to help get the crownwheel off - hit gently and progressively go all around the bolts to try knock the crownwheel off the diff centre. - this does take a few hard hits, but make sure the bolts are still a few threads in, otherwise you'll stuff them, and I won't care.
19. after you can't hit the bolts anymore, the crownwheel will still be hanging on a bit - but by now you should be able to cleanly hit the actual crownwheel with a plastic mallet or something and gently knock the rest of it off.
20. the next step is to hammer out he 3 split pins from the diff center that hold the main pins that the gears rotate on in place. You should use a split pin remover, but i used a broken allen key, because I'm cool.
21. feed the split pins through,a nd pull them out when they're out the other side - simple enough!
22. once the split pins are removed, you should be able to hit the side of the main pins and bash them out the side of the diff centre. - use a bolt or a punch or something to give you the extra length you need when hitting these out! - note that there is one long one, and two small ones. The trick with the small ones is to hit one into the other, then hit them both out the one side
23. here are the pins once removed
24. now it's time to split open the centre. Use a sharp solid instrument (screwdriver? scraper? something) and give it a whack with the hammer to split the two halves apart.
25. this is what it looks like when it's all apart
- remove all the bits, and give everything a thorough clean to get rid of the oil and stuff - ... then go wash your hands and
26. have a beer!! - it's a bit hard to decide which one to have - as you see I went with the Coopers because I wasn't going to be driving that night, etc. Just in case you're anxious about trying your new spool, I find it's best to have an emergency 6 pack of lights hanging in the fridge.
27. okay - place the minispool into the big half of the center
28. smash the big pins back in, being careful to line up all the holes for the split pins in the right places!!! (there are only 3 split pins! make sure you get the big pin in the right way etc so that the split pins can all go through lol)
29. then lock the big pins in place with the split pins from earlier. (you should probably use new ones, but I don't care, so I didn't)
30. hit the split pins in till they hang out about this far from the other side
31. put the other half on, line it up with the split pins, and give it a few small love taps to get it to sit together nicely.
32. put the ring gear on - line the bolt holes up as best you can!
33. now this was a bit of a prick for me, so I got creative - I got two blocks of wood and made a 'support' for the ring gear, so that i could bash the center of the diff and effectively 'press' on the ring gear with a few hits evenly distributed around the outside of the center.
34. once you got the ring gear pretty close to the bolt holes, put the bolts through and tighten them up one by one, bit by bit, all the way around, untill the ring gear is secure and torqued up to whatever it says in the book.
35. now get those shims and bearing carriers that you took out earlier, and work out which way they went
36. put the diff center loosly back in the diff - while holding it with one hand, slide the shims in on either side so they just hold the centre in place!
37. give the shims a love tap with a small hammer, until they are all the way into place and everything is lovely.
38. put the bearing caps on.
39. torque up the bearing caps to the specified torque
40. grease up the ends of your axles
41. gresae up the axle seals a bit
42. put the axles back in, and tighten up those 9/16" nuts that hold them in place
.........
43. clean and seal the diff cover joining surfaces, then put it back on and do up the bolts....
43. fill the bastard full of oil till the filler hole overflows, then plug it up
43. put the rest back together - and go do some shkidz!
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