I replaced the rear in my spit this past summer and the way I did it was to
put grease on the top of the top bushing and kinda glue it in place to the
frame so it wouldn't keep dropping down or falling off. I then put the rear
on the hydraulic jack and raised it up into place. The problem I ran into
was aligning the rear bolt into the hole. The rear was too far forward and
wouldn't flex with the new hardened poly bushings so with the front pins and
poly bushings in place, I had to use a ratchet strap around the rearend and
part of the frame to draw it back to the rear so I could align the holes
with the bolt. It was a pain but I got it in. I hope this helps. Good
luck. Bob Krivenko
-----Original Message-----
From: spitfires-bounces@autox.team.net
[mailto:spitfires-bounces@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Jim Muller
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 9:45 PM
To: Spitfires
Subject: Re: [Spits] Differential Installation
On 18 Dec 2009 at 20:24, Greg Rowe wrote:
> The second way is to raise the diff straight up into place
>
> (I built a wooden cradle for my trolley jack)
It's been a long time since I replaced a diff but...
When I did mine I lifted it up slowly with a small hydraulic jack.
As I recall (and with luck I'm not imagining the memory), the problem
with putting the long bolt through the rear first is that the front
of the diff then swings through an arc. So as the diff swings up
into place, when the holes into which the forward studs are supposed
to go first contact the bushings they aren't as far forward as they
will eventually end up.
You may be able to remedy this by putting the bushings on the studs
then swing the diff up to contact the bushings. That way you just
have to seat the bushings into their sockets, and the studs into the
much larger holes in the diff mounting flanges. Of course, the
problem then is keeping the bushings in place, seeing as how gravity
tends to pull them back down so they fall off.
Or you can raise the entire diff into place with a jack or cradle so
that the long-bolt ears and the front studs slip into place together,
then thread a nut onto a stud to hold it in place, then insert the
long bolt, then finish the front nuts.
--
Jim Muller
jimmuller@rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+
Spitfires@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/spitfires
http://www.team.net/archive
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