I wish I had done mine more often.
I have been trying to do the rear differential oil seal on the Land Rover for a few days but I could not get the castellated nut off. I had blagged a slot on the local garage ramp for this morning so I could get my weight behind my wrench - I was struggling lying underneath it, trying to push upwards and no amount of WD40 helped.
I imagined my rear axle was completely dry of oil due to the dodgy oil seal but there has been an increasing vibration in the rear end over the last two days. This morning on the way to the garage it was very bad. I ended up driving at 20mph because it was like sitting on top of a badly loaded spin drier!
It turned out that the ramp in the garage was still occupied but their pit was free so I drove over it and descended with my tools. I was both pleased and disappointed to see that the rear propeller shaft universal joint was about to fall to bits. Pleased because it was clear what had been causing the vibration and disappointed because I did not have a replacement and it was just another job to add to my list.
I removed the prop shaft and laid it on the garage bench. Next time I passed the bench, the required parts to fix it had been laid out beside it! I then managed to remove the castelated nut but only with the aid of a high pressure air line wrench. It was well and truly tight! Now the workshop manual says something like: “remove castelated nut, withdraw pinion, remove oil seal. Refitting is the reverse procedure.” I thought I would be half an hour …..
Could I get the oil seal out? No. Could the guys at the garage? No. Brute force….. then we realised it was a non-standard diff and we had broken it but attacking it with a big screwdriver and hammer. I now had two choices: order a new broken bit which might arrive in a day or two or try and lay my hands on a second hand diff. I opted for the latter because I have 2 contacts for such items. First call was to Hugh’s “Land Rover Emporium” Hugh did have a diff but was on his way to Aberdeen and would not be able to get it to me for a couple of days. Second call was to Graham who we have recently discovered - he has about 40 old Landy’s in a farm steading and various portakabins full of parts. Graham had a second hand diff which he had taken off a low mileage Coastguard Land Rover and it was mine for £40. The problem was that he is about 25 miles away and my Landy was in bits.
My third call was to near neighbours who are also Land Rover addicted. I needed to scrounge transport! So I had a half mile walk from the garage to the bus stop, then a bus trip to my loan Landy, then home to feed the pigs, then 25 miles to Graham to collect my Coastguard diff. I had hoped to pick up a good second hand rear prop shaft too, but sadly it was not to be.
Drive back to garage and hope that new diff is the same ratio as the old one….count the teeth on the crown wheel on both and very pleased that they were the same. Then I had to strip off the old diff & remove the rear half shafts ready to fit the Coastguard diff. It was at this point that I noticed that the Coastguard diff did not have an oil filler hole! Now I had read about this in a Landy mag, but stupidly did not check when at Grahams. Now the diff would fit, but I could not get the oil in! The guys at the garage were not phased “just drill a hole in the axle” was the comment… Drill a hole in the axle? No chance! “No, drill a hole in the axle then weld a nut over the hole and screw a bolt into the nut with a copper washer as a seal - we do it all the time!” And that’s just what we did. I was left to drill a hole in my precious axle though - Ronald did the welding despite having cracked his sternum in a stock car at the weekend.
That whole process took until about 4pm, then there was the universal joint on the propshaft to refurbish. this looks quite simple but is actually awkward and needs to be done accurately if the job is to last. The problem was that one of the cups on the sprider/cross piece had obviously fallen out several miles ago and the finger on the cross had been bashing against the hole in the yolk and dented it - this meant that fitting the circlip which hold the new cup in place was quite tricky and it took a few attempts to get it to sit in properly. I still don’t think it’s 100% and might well buy a new propshaft just to make absolutely sure.
The garage only took £20 for their pit hire/spare parts/welding/advice/banter. If I had stuck the Landy in a garage and asked for the oil seal to be done (a new oil seal is £1!) I would have ended up paying for a replacement diff, propshaft and fitting parts asnd several hours labour at £30 an hour and been without transport for several days. So whilst today was an absolute nuisance, it sure could have been worse. I learned a lot about my Landy and quite enjoyed doing the work, despite having my head in my hands on more than one occasion.
If only I had greased the nipples on the universal joint, perhaps the circlip would have stayed put, and the universal joint would have stayed intact…so remember and grease your nipples regularly, or have someone do it for you if you have trouble reaching them.
(Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post but I was covered in oil from stem to stern and dared not touch my camera!)
Posted in Land Rover
