Thread: RRC diff bearings-servicable???

So has this vehicle been in muddy water at any time? looks like contaminated oil. Very fine grit. I have recently rebuilt the rear diff / axle of my vehicle. It has rang rover classic diffs. I used a mixture of timken and Japanese bearings like SKF . I even replaced the wheel bearings and was still cheaper than $300 for the bearings and seals. Budget permitting. All ways try and do as much as possible in repairs so as you don`t have to come back to it. Especially diffs, clutches and gear boxes. The setting of the crown and pinion gears is fairly convoluted process. You need a good manual that shows the process. I have the Rave manual on my computer. Did mine as by the book. Has been fine so far.
Cheers Hall

$300- for bearings? Either they've gone up in price or someone's having a lend.

There's no reason you can't cange the bearings yourself. Buy bearings, bring centre to me and I'll swap them. Not hard at all.It'll take longer to drive over than to change. And I'm in the same city.

So has this vehicle been in muddy water at any time? looks like contaminated oil. Very fine grit. I have recently rebuilt the rear diff / axle of my vehicle. It has rang rover classic diffs. I used a mixture of timken and Japanese bearings like SKF . I even replaced the wheel bearings and was still cheaper than $300 for the bearings and seals. Budget permitting. All ways try and do as much as possible in repairs so as you don`t have to come back to it. Especially diffs, clutches and gear boxes. The setting of the crown and pinion gears is fairly convoluted process. You need a good manual that shows the process. I have the Rave manual on my computer. Did mine as by the book. Has been fine so far.

Yes I have the manual on my computer and I am aware of what is necessary.
However I have also been bitten before when I replaced the carrier bearings in my Porsche 924 turbo. By rights the new bearings should have been exactly the same as the old ones but they were not within a "bull's Roar"
I have no problem with the Carriers and setting up the contact pattern, but as I bought this diff second hand , and presumably it was never set up correctly, I have no idea whether even the pinion matches the crown wheel.
It all LOOKS OK but if reshimming of the pinion is needed , then I have a problem.
I presume that the diff got grit in before I bought it as all I did before I fitted it was fit a new seal.
Regards Philip A

Yes it`s the shimming that`s the hassle. I`m sort of lucky as I`m a tool maker, and therefore can get hold of the right gear to do the measuring. Not only the setting of the pinion gear but also the pre-load on the pinion bearings. I also had the joy of buying a well used vehicle with a rear diff that was not right.
Cheers Hall

Ashcroft have a full set of quality bearings and seals for GBP40
Ashcroft Transmissions - Bearing and Seal kit for Rover diff

For that price it isn't really worth leaving the existing ones IMHO.

It might be worth setting it up from scratch with the old bearings though and doing a home lapping job??? Then dismantle and reassemble with the new bearings.

I dread to ask this... but what sort of noise was the diff making ?
- Mine (rear?) seems to have a sort of high pitched whirrring noise, only evident on 'drive' but predictably quietens and vanishes on 'float' . - Its 101% load-dependant.

If anything, its like a lite version of the transmission noise in my Volvo route-bus !

Could it be a trademark of the ZF trans ???

James in Gosnells

95 Vogue SE Classic, with working EAS ....

I wouldn't set up from scratch, playing with the contact patch on a used gearset can lead to whining, if it worked fine and backlach was less than 0.02mm, set it up the same, even if the "patch" was slightly out

those bearings are marginal at best and given that it should cost you less than $150 in parts for all of them plus the seals shims and consumables its not worth putting them back in.

you contact patch looks a little high on the tooth but you need to match the contact patch to the existing contact patch or no matter how perfect you get it its still going to whine at you.