Triumphisti,
Has anyone here replaced a pinion oil seal on a TR diff without
disassembling the whole diff? A local shop did that for me recently, and
made a scribe mark on the retaining nut for the front diff flange so that
the pinion preload would be the same after the seal was put in. They say
they've done many of these repairs that way, with great success.
The problem is that the diff immediately started making a loud
howling noise that was not present before. It only makes the noise with
"trailing throttle", not when accelerating or going a constant speed on
level ground. With the top up, it's worrisomely loud. The other day I was
rebuilding my rear brakes, and I noticed that the wheels do not rotate
smoothly: if only one rear wheel is jacked up (car in neutral, handbrake
off, opposite wheel on ground) rotating the elevated wheel in the normal
forward direction is difficult, and results in a "ratcheting" kind of
motion with variable resistance. Rotating the wheel backwards results in
smooth motion.
The car is a TR250, and the diff does not have the crushable spacer
between the pinion head bearing and the pinion shank bearing found in most
TR6 diffs. It relies on adding and subtracting flat shims to get the
correct preload. Would this make a difference in the "scribe and retighten
to the mark" technique?
Is there an easy adjustment for this? Instead of tightening to the
scribe mark, should they have just tightened to the torque spec of 90-120
ft-lbs? Have I ruined the crown and pinion gears ($$$) by driving the car
this way? I really wish I had left well enough alone and let the seal
dribble a bit of oil...
Best Regards,
Tom Marincic
CD3574L
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