What’s the Diff?
What’s the Diff?
What’s the Diff?
Today I was planning on draining the differential and refilling it with the proper gear oil. I figured I would try and clean up the general area as well while I was there. Took the car for a drive to warm up the oil and in doing so checked both the heater and AC - the AC is still making ice cubes a week after being charged. Nice! So up on blocks goes the back end and out comes the Hazet drain plug wrench and the drain pan.
Lesson number one - ALWAYS remove the fill plug first! Why? If you drain the differential or gearbox first, then try to remove the fill plug and can’t get it out, you’re in trouble!
Messy, eh? Since the differential is at the rear of the car, if something is dripping up front, this i where the drippings end up. Yum. I suspect a good part of this may be due to a leaking pinion seal as well, but until things are cleaned and I can check it out it’s difficult to tell.
And out comes the oil gear oil. Smells like the correct stuff, so that’s a good sign, although it was definitely low on oil, which again makes me suspect a leaking pinion seal.
So now the oil oil is drained out, leaving it to drip for a good hour to get as much out as possible. Drain plug goes back in and is tightened, then the differential is filled until the oil is level with the fill hole. You just keep pumping it in until it starts to run out. Put the fill plug back in, tighten and you’re done.
I soaked the differential and area around it with degreaser and then hit it with a garden hose - twice. That loosened up a lot of stuff but the worst of it had to be scraped off. I spent a good hour and and a half with a scraper and old screwdriver getting as much of the crud off of the differential and axle shaft tubes that I could. My garage floor will never be the same again. I’ll probably hit the area with degreaser one more time now that everything is really loosened up, but for now it looks like this:
Much better. You can see some of the new grease coming out of the joints as I took the opportunity to hit the grease fittings with the grease gun while I was down there. In anticipation of replacing the rear springs in a month or so I also gave all the fasteners a good soak in Kroil, too.
As promised I’ve got a picture of the trunk tristar and badge from my last blog post:
All in all it was a good day. If the sun is cooperating tomorrow, I’ll be giving the interior leather a good soaking with Leatherique and taking care of some bits and pieces.
Saturday, January 12, 2019