slop in rear diff

[bonjovi]

I can feel a knock at the rear end of my five as it takes up drive(when i perhaps should be in first not second gear).

 

i have new uj s all round new hubs and i dont believe it is play in the splines on the drive shafts.

 

but when i rebuilt the car i knew there was some play through the diff can anyone tell me how much is too much.

 

a mechanic i work with asked me if the diff had a colapsable spacer on the pinion shaft? which may have been overtightened when my father in law put new seals in the diff. although he doubted it on a TR5 and thought it would have a solid spacer.

 

he has a land rover and has a huge ammount of play in his rear axle

 

i am not going to take the car apart at present as it is my only car and i am not that worried i am just plannining perhaps if the car has a winter lay up to look at sorting it out if it needs it given the milage i am likely to do.

 

 

thanks for any advise i am always learning something.

[Tom Fremont]

As a partial answer, all TR diffs have some play, and usually it's audible when reversing direction. The spider gears will wear over time, and their thrust washers will too, both exacerbating the backlash. If it doesn't vibrate or whine I wouldn't worry about it. Spare units are still to be had reasonably, and you might consider having one rebuilt at your convenience - you could then sell off the worn one after making the exchange, so minimizing your downtime.

[Dave Worne]

Hi Bonjovi.

Speaking as one who has both a 4A & a 6, if your drive & propshafts are in reasonable condition & you're getting a knock when you set off or changing gear or when you're just about on the throttle going down hill; then it's the diff. A reasonable re-build can be had from First Gear' who has advertised in TR action in the past. Both my diffs have had full rebuilds, PM me if you want further details.

DW

 

P.S. if you decide to rebuild the diff as a winter project, don't forget to fit new polyurathene bushes as part of the rebuild.

[jonlar]

Hi Bonjovi, you say you've replaced ujs, did you do those on the prop-shaft as well as drive shafts - are diff mounting pins and rubbers all sound?

[bonjovi]

thanks to all

i was not worried about it but may rebuild in the winter.but it sounds that i definately dont need to worry

 

i did change all the uj s and i have poly bushes on the mounts but thanks for the pointers.

[gerryronan]

Hi Bonjovi.

Speaking as one who has both a 4A & a 6, if your drive & propshafts are in reasonable condition & you're getting a knock when you set off or changing gear or when you're just about on the throttle going down hill; then it's the diff. A reasonable re-build can be had from First Gear' who has advertised in TR action in the past. Both my diffs have had full rebuilds, PM me if you want further details.

DW

 

P.S. if you decide to rebuild the diff as a winter project, don't forget to fit new polyurathene bushes as part of the rebuild.

 

Hi,

I'm sorting out a similar clunk myself and have the half shafts and diff on the bench at the minute. There seems to be a lot of play in the diff and I was scouting for a rebuild - do you have any other contact details for First Gear?

Thanks,

Gerry

[Stag powered]

I can confirm that the main area for free play in an otherwise quiet diff is usually the bronze shims behind the spider gears in the diff. I used a Dolly Sprint diff in my 250 which had already done 147000 miles. I got fed up with the cluncks from the back end and changing these solved the problem. I think my diff has done about 220000 miles now! Changing the shims is not difficult, just knock out the pin holding the cross shaft and withdraw the shaft to change them. If you are lucky you may see a number stamped in which is the thickness in thou, if this is worn off, from memory I think the very centre of the shim does not wear so you can measure this to get the thickness, or wedge a feeler gauge in the gap and add this to the thickness remaining. I tried to get clever by adding a couple of thou as I thought there would be wear elsewhere,but only just managed to fit them, so I assume that the actual gears wear very little

Hope this is of some help, part numbers are listed in the Moss catalogue, but are available elsewhere.