Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisD
Finally got round to having a go at this today and the first issue I've come up against is after opening up the diff case and removing the two covers that go over the bearings on each side, I can't get the diff itself out of the case... it just won't budge. In the OP's guide he just says "with a bit of work it will come out" but me and a few friends have all tried pulling it and wiggling it as much as we can and it won't budge.
So then we thought maybe its just the fact that the pinion gear is still meshed with the ring gear and that's stopping it all from moving because we haven't undone the pinion shaft nut. But I don't see any mention of undoing that pinion nut before taking the diff out of the housing in the OP's guide, and I was kind of trying to avoid doing anything to the pinion because I'm only swapping the diff and not changing ring/pinion for final drive change. Plus the toyota service manual seems to suggest that pinion nut needs an insane amount of torque, something like 280 lbs-ft.
So yeah, can anyone clarify if you need to remove the pinion nut (or anything else other than the two bearing caps) before you can pull the diff itself out of the housing?
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You don't have to remove the pinion nut to take the diff out. If you were to undo the pinion nut, you would have goofed up because the torque on that nut is crucial to setting the bearing preload via the crush washer and it's kind of a pain to reset.
The manual says to tighten the pinion nut to 74 ft-lbf and check the prevailing torque it takes to turn the gears via the pinion to confirm preload. Then adjust
UP TO 249 ft-lbf until it is in the proper range. For used pinion bearing and used differential case bearings, the prevailing torque should be 13.3-22.9
in-lbf per the official service manual if the bearings are preloaded correctly.
As far as removing the differential, the way I did it is a little sketchy, but works if you are careful. The teeth are meshed and must unmesh for you to remove the differential. That, combined with the high friction of the shims that preload case bearings, makes this difficult.
1) Remove the cradles that hold the bearing races in place.
2) Mark the left/right bearing races/shims so you can identify them later. When you pull the diff out, they will likely fall off and you need to put them back in the same place you found them.
3) Get a soft piece of metal (read "aluminum") or a piece of rubber and place it on the flat seal surface where the adhesive gasket sits on the differential case. This will be your fulcrum location and you need to protect it from getting scarred.
4) Take a crow bar or other stiff piece of metal and fit it behind the round part of the differential and try to pry it out. You can also try to hit it with a hammer or find another solid shoulder on the diff to work against (I vaguely remember prying in the gap between the diff and ring gear, but this is risky as it may chip one of the teeth on the gear). You may also be able to work the diff from both sides to rock it forward and back until it works free (you would be working it in the same plane that the ring gear runs in. i.e. if the ring gear is a circle, work the diff in the direction this circle is drawn on, not in the direction of the case bearings).
Alternatively, you may be able to fit a rope behind the circular part of the diff and pull it straight out while tapping the diff with a rubber mallet.
You'll have to be creative, but this should hopefully help.