Thread: Rear diff axle flange seal replacement difficulty?

I've had the rear driveshafts out, but I never replaced the bolts. It's done a lot of KM since then without issue. I never read the manual, so never realised they were supposed to be changed...

The only bolts I discarded and changed on mine were the head and cam gear bolts when I had the head off.

I can't imagine they would be expensive to buy anyway if you wanted to be sure.

Well what was supposed to be a simple job according to RAVE has taken me most of the afternoon.

Draining the diff requires a 14mm allen key socket, so the idea of using a 1/2 ratchet like on the lt230 transfers and d1 diffs etc was out of the question, BMW saw to that. So off to the tool shop to buy one.

Rave mentions to remove the bolts holding the axle flange to diff flange and remove the long lower suspension arm to shocker bolt, and lower the arm. Well this does not allow enough clearance to pull the axle back to release it out of the diff flange. Brake lines and sensor wires will be stretched, so the brake caliper had to be removed and ABS sensors etc disconnected.

Still not low enough to get the axle shaft out.

I then undid the top nut holding the hub assembly to lower suspension arm, this allowed a bit more room to final pull the axle out of the diff Flange. But in doing that it stuffs up the camber wheel alignment so I need to get that done.

Now to remove the diff flange, it is held in by a metal clip in a recess on the end of the axle flanges. Following instructions , it says to use a soft drift and tap the flange out. Yeah Sure, that sucker did not want to budge, even with heavier taps, and no room to swing a hammer either!

I have never owned a slide hammer, so off to Repco, they have some on special 12 piece kit $50. Always wanted one, and have in the past wished I had one, so it was added to my tool kit.

But problamo, you don't have any room to slide the hammer!

So after a bit of thinking I came up with the idea of using 60 cms of steel chain, I threaded 2 diff flange bolts through either end of the chain links, bolted the bolts and chain to the diff flange , folded the chain to centre and attached the slide hammer. Then with a mate's assistance , had him operate the slide hammer from out side and after 3 taps the flange came out into my hand.

Rave states to use some fancy Land Rover seal tool to seat the diff flange seal. Not having the luxury of such a tool I scavenged a PVC plumbing pipe joiner of sufficient diameter to slide over the outer lip of the new seal and allowed the new seal to be hammered gently into position nice and square.

I fitted a new circlip onto the flange splines and it took a bit of persuading to get the flange back into the diff, the new clips sit prouder than the old ones which flatten after use.
So finally all was back together and diff oil replenished.

Not something I would enjoy doing again in the near future, some times things don't go to plan. A hoist would also make life a lot easier.
Cheers, Mario

Those of us with Defenders can only dream of having an oil seep like that
Cheers,
Terry

I took her down to the local tyre place I use and the wheel alignment worker took 1.5 hours to do the job, once done he didn't look too happy , I asked "was there a problem", to which replied it was not his favorite car to work on, he said you had to have "things" running to do it properly, ( maybe he was referring to the air suspension???'.
He also said "things are difficult to get to to do adjustments".
I had to agree with him after looking at the control arm nuts.
Anyway, All i removed yesterday was 1 Bolt, and wouldn't have thought all 4 wheels needed adjustment, so can't see why it was 1.5 hours work.
Cost 4 wheel laser alignment $90.

Mario, would you like to help me with mine now you have the experience?


Cheers
Mike

Originally Posted by nismine01

Mario, would you like to help me with mine now you have the experience?


Cheers
Mike

I'd give any one a hand, but you are a bit far from me.

Thanks for the offer Mario, just though I'd razz you a little especially as I don't have a RR.

Don't tell me I'd have to do the same on a Disco,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,please.

Cheers

Mike

Mario, its owners such as yourself and plenty of others that after doing a few jobs on their Land Rover, actually can start to appreciate a typical days work for a Land Rover specialist. Customers such as you also dont whinge and bitch about the price of getting a job done....

*The first "new" job is always slow to nut out.
*Sometimes you get to the point and think "this is bloody madness, I cant fix this, what total moron designed this, I could punch an engineer in the face, huh? engineering and Land Rover (or Jeep) there is no engineering, so on and so forth"
*And after the dark thoughts of hell has passed and the job is complete AND actually back together all fixed, ya nut out some special tools or refine a tool you have made on the fly.
*Said special tools go into the HUGE cupboard of other special tools.
*The next time you do the same job, its a bit easier or rather you at least know the difficult steps to go through again.
*Eventually the job falls into just another Land Rover repair and generally you have happy thoughts throughout the process.

*Then someone such as yourself comments on a job and you have a chuckle and remember what a ***** of a job it used to be....



I'm extremely picky when it comes to getting wheel alignments done on any Land Rover (or Jeep) and have only used and only recommend one tyre place in Perth I have used for 20 years, prolly cuz I've got them so used to doing Land Rovers and Jeeps that they dont do the "oh we couldnt bluh bluh bluh because its a Land Rover/Jeep"

Regards
Daz