Oh gloom is me. I hear from the shop where my TR-6 is undergoing repeairs that
my differential (original) is in a sad state. Apparently I have found one of
the reasons that I have been oberving less dripping than usual under the car.
Of course the differential is mostly empty. Apparently the bearings are shot
(rust pitted) and it is quite loose. Lately I started to hear a whirring a
rattling coming from the differential, which provoked the visit to the
reparist.
The conundrum is whether or not to replace the crown and pinion gears (a
rather expensive item) as well all the rest of the wearables. The car has been
driving very smoothly up until this noise has started. It probably only has a
couple of hundred miles on the noisy part, most of them at very low speed. The
mechanic tells me that some of the gears are a bit blue but have no broken
teeth.
So the question is: can I just have all the bearings and seals replaced, or am
I fooling myself and really must replace the crown and pinion too? Alas the
money is a concern at the moment so I'd like to save the $600+ dollars extra
it will cost to get those gears here to Montreal.
Should I just buy a used diff (if I can find one) and possibly end up with the
same problems in a year or so, or just try the bearings and seals approach and
pray for quiet?
Any experiences, opinions out there? I'm dropping by the shop in the morning,
but other than staring and saying "Yup, that's a differential all right" I
don't have a lot of experience with this lump to base a decision on.
Cheers,
Mark
|