[Spits] Spitfire 1500 differential

[Jim Muller]

On 18 Oct 2009 at 12:04, Joe Curry wrote:

> You might have to resort to cutting through the bolt using a
> saws-all at the edges of both the ears.

Joe is right.  First time I removed my Spitfire diff about 20 years 
ago I had the same problem.  I cut the bolt out with a hacksaw blade 
held by a piece of cloth.  It, umm, wasn't the pleasantest or fastest 
job I've ever done on the car.

There are ways to hammer the bolt.  You can thread a long rod of 
suitable dimensions through the suspension components such that one 
end is resting against the pointed end, then whack the end of the rod 
away from the car with a BFH.  But it won't help much.  The bushings 
in the ears of the diff are metal cylinders on the inside and outside 
of rubber donuts.  The impact of the whacking is absorbed by the 
rubber so you can't transmit any jerk component to the frozen 
surfaces.

Once you get the diff out it is a simple matter to tear the inner 
part out of the bushing, then cut out the rest from inside the hole.

-- 
Jim Muller
jimmuller at rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+