Hi Folks,
First off, many thanks to those who responded to my earlier questions about
a leaking differential. I had decided to "monitor" the situation, seeing
I'm not driving any great distances.
Anyway, the good news is now I have access to the "pinion driving flange"
oil seal. As has been suggested, a oil seal puller would be favourite to
pull the sucker out. My question is, would a puller fit in there? The
threaded rod of the pinion takes up a lot of room in there, if you know
what I mean.
Also, Haynes talks about "end-float" when re-assembling a differential from
scratch. Do I have to worry about that?
As for the bad news - read on. This is the same TR3, BTW, that I'm trying
to get from cutting out at the stop light. I had raised the idle to about
1200 rpm (as read on a shop tach) but it still keeps from cutting out.
Yesterday, prior to installing electronic ignition I took it out for a 10
mile test drive. Came back and put in the Ignitor system. Drove back down
the drive way for another test. All of a sudden there was a big bang from
the back. Had a look under and sees the driving flange has come out of the
differential and is sitting on top of the exhaust. Gear oil pouring out
the differential.
Well, not to worry. Now, we just had the driveway re-gravelled exactly one
week ago so, not wanting to mess it up, I calls for the tow truck, the
driver of which I am now best buddies with. Well, he's not home so I try
pulling it back to the garage using an old rope and my trusty Toyota. This
is uphill, BTW. After 20 minutes of trying, the caveman instinct has set
in and I'm revving the poor Toyota up to six grand and dropping the clutch
trying to get things to move. All that's happening is the clutch is
turning into smoke. After getting down to bedrock and up to the axles on
the Toyota I give up.
The long suffering wife, who has been watching this performance in the
distance, and no doubt wondering what fool she is married to, suggests I
call another tow truck company.
When he arrives and starting pulling the TR3 onto the flat bed we notice
the back wheels aren't turning but are just getting dragged along
screaming. He reckons the diff is locked up.
He then procedes backward up the hill with the TR on the flat bed. As he
swings around to position the back end of his truck at the doors of the
garage, the TR comes to life, rolls forward and slams into the cab section.
The bloody wally hadn't bothered to tie it down!!
We get the TR down into the garage and look at the front. I'm expecting
all sorts of damage but the bumper done its job and there's only a couple
of dings in it. These are smaller than existing dings so I don't think
I'll bother suing the buggers. It looks like the bumper was knocked
backwards (like it supposed to, I suppose) as it took off some paint off
the fender (you can hardly see it, though)
Anyways, I put her up on jack stands and crawls underneath. It seems that
the catellated nut had simply come undone. That, along with that big-ass
washer and a 1/4 " long piece of thin metal that looks like the remnants of
a split pin, were all held captive between the diff and U-joint flanges.
So, what I'm planning on doing is replacing the oil seal, if possible,
putting everything back together, filling with oil, rotating the wheels,
dropping the oil and look for any pieces of metal in there. Sound like a
plan?
Regards, Adrian
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