Thread: Salisbury Diff Rebuild Questions

With my recent diff referb my diff centre came out pretty easily. It may be the shims were perhaps on the thinner side instead of firmer. It shouldn't be like that according to various manuals I cam across, but you are the 4th person I have discovered with the centre coming out easily including myself.
I believe my diff is not bent.
The inner races on one of those bearing is obviously stuffed, and the other doesn't look great. My outer races looked just like yours.

My diff has been put back together with new bearing and a Detroit, done 3000km and works fine. Well except for the harmonic sound of ring gear that has done 320K

One of those carrier bearings is stuffed.
The wear on that stuffed bearing would be enough for the preload to be lost and why the carrier wanted to fall out and the bear cups spin in the housing.
Fit new carrier bearings to the detroit and check how it fits.......ie bearing preload.
It would be worth while to check the condition of the pinion bearings. and blue the crown wheel and pinion to see how everything is meshing up gear pattern wise.
dial to check backlash specs is handy too.
The ideal situation would have to be to check back lash and gear pattern before the centre got dropped out so you had a reference to work from.
condition of the carrier bearing caps may need to be checked with the new bearing cups in place only to side if they are tight enough after the spinning of the cups.

Originally Posted by newhue

With my recent diff referb my diff centre came out pretty easily. It may be the shims were perhaps on the thinner side instead of firmer. It shouldn't be like that according to various manuals I cam across, but you are the 4th person I have discovered with the centre coming out easily including myself.
I believe my diff is not bent.
The inner races on one of those bearing is obviously stuffed, and the other doesn't look great. My outer races looked just like yours.

My diff has been put back together with new bearing and a Detroit, done 3000km and works fine. Well except for the harmonic sound of ring gear that has done 320K

Good to hear I'm not the only one.

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

One of those carrier bearings is stuffed.
The wear on that stuffed bearing would be enough for the preload to be lost and why the carrier wanted to fall out and the bear cups spin in the housing.
Fit new carrier bearings to the detroit and check how it fits.......ie bearing preload.
It would be worth while to check the condition of the pinion bearings. and blue the crown wheel and pinion to see how everything is meshing up gear pattern wise.
dial to check backlash specs is handy too.
The ideal situation would have to be to check back lash and gear pattern before the centre got dropped out so you had a reference to work from.
condition of the carrier bearing caps may need to be checked with the new bearing cups in place only to side if they are tight enough after the spinning of the cups.

Yeah it completly slipped my mind to even blue the gears to check tooth contact.

Both carriers bearings, and pinion bearings will be replaced.

I've got a sals in bits in the shed at the moment for a rebuild. Thankfully the bearings don't look as bad as that one, but have definitely done some work.
It still had carrier bearing preload, but not enough to require a spreader, just a couple of short bars to lever the carrier out. It fell back into place under its own weight at one stage (had it sitting on stands with the nose down).

Couple of useful bits of info I've found:
Amazon was the cheapest place I found to get shims from (pinion and carrier setup set for $30 delivered).
Setup cone for the carrier bearings is Timken 388A
There is an upgraded seal/flange/mudshield available - I got mine from the UK via ebay.
Crush tube P/N 607197 : 607197 COLLAPSIBLE COLLER / SPACER | shop | www.lrseries.com | L. R. Series

Some info here that might be of interest if you haven't already found it: Replacing Salisbury bearings

With a bit of care, some butchery, and a bearing seperator the bearings can be removed with the original shims still in good condition. It takes a while though.

Steve

Hi. Just done mine... Detroit into Salisbury. A couple of lever bars and a large pile of rags had mine safely on the floor too!! If it were me, I'd be getting the two new bearings and putting them on, leaving the shims as they were... Slot the diff back in and nip the caps up and as Ron said, blue the teeth and see what print it leaves.. If you don't have bearing blue, a piece of paper cut into a strip the size of a tooth and slid in as the diff is rotated will give a reasonable print of what the meshing faces are doing... If you don't get any mark, there is too much backlash. Note, this method is not ideal but does work. If you are struggling to get the old bearings off, have a mig or stick welder and can use it with accuracy, wrap the diff up in a moist rag, leaving just the bearings showing. Cut the cages off revealing the inner race. Clamp the diff in a vice using soft jaws or a decent rag folded several times. Make sure the diff is still wrapped protecting the internals. Select a decent chisel or pry bar/punch and have them along with a hammer in immediate reach. Gloves and safety glasses are a good idea at this point! Run a decent bead of weld all the way around the bearing race where the rollers used to run (one at a time!). Using haste, tap the now exceedingly hot race off. If you get it warm enough, they will fall off due to the expansion. Good luck!!

Others will have different opinions about this, but it worked when I increased the ratio in my 101 many years ago... Neither diff whined, there was minimal backlash and it did 30000+ kms in my ownership with a monster diesel and I believe is getting a new lease of life somewhere in the south of England with an 'original' V8 being refitted... If nothing else it'll be fast with 4.4:1 ratio diffs and 900x16 tyres!!

carefull welding the inner race if its stuck onto the center.

if you dont get it off and the weld metal contracts the bearing too much you may not get it off short of love with grinding gear.

That said, I've been known to do that kind of work on stubs using a potters wheel, a second hand turning it slowly and very very high amps on a mig welder.