After a short intermission for family duties I am back at it, car is stripped down and diffs are sitting on the bench, I'm going to ring around a bit more tomorrow and see if I can get a better quote, as I'm insanely short on time and going on a trip in two weeks...

Quote Originally Posted by Tank View Post
My advice is to find a diff setup mob that doesn't charge $800/hour, I'm a mechanic and I always sent my diff's (to be setup) to a mob in Silverwater, Sydney and I never paid more than a $100.
It really isn't hard to setup your crown wheel and pinion, but I don't have the patience or the tools to bother with it.
You need to set the pre-load on the pinion first, once that is to specs adjust the CW carrier to get the proper mesh of the CW&P.
There should be workshop manuals online (Google) that will show you how, Regards Frank.
Thanks Frank, that pricing seems more on the money too...

The mob in Silverwater are the ones that wanted $800 to do it! So I'll try a few others before I get stuck into it...

Quote Originally Posted by 350RRC View Post
Hi,

I've got spare F&R diffs with Maxi axles and lockers that I want to put in my 74. Rear diff is in bits, needs new bearings and has never had the supplied R&P installed after the previous owner blew the originals.

In the same boat as the OP, and have searched around for good info for possible DIY.

There used to be an excellent video on Ashcrofts site that showed all in an ideal factory environment. Can't find it now.

And there is this article:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Gear_Setup/

cheers, DL
Cheers DL, that is a fantastic article!

Quote Originally Posted by landy View Post


I tend to agree with Frank. When in the trade, from a cost POV it wasn't worth doing it in house and we sent away. Remember, the specialist accepts responsibility for correcting faults in workmanship which is worth it's weight in gold should you set it up wrong.
However I fitted the Air Lockers to mine at home without too much trouble. As Dave said, the pukka moment is drilling the case air connections.
Most people get really hung up on pinion depth. And rightly so. Now this is a bit rough, but bear with me. Take note of the +- figure on the new pinion. This will tell you the shims needed. Note the old pinion figure and work out if you need to add/subtract from the Shim pack installed. I work on the assumption that the bearings used are good quality and are a precision made item and SHOULD be the same dimensions as the originals. All being equal it SHOULD measure up ok.
The final check is to blue the tooth contact area and check heal/toe contact. If all is good you will know by visual inspection. If it's wrong you can reset the height and all it costs is a little time and a collapsible spacer.
This is how I did mine. It's not the workshop way but they've been in 75k km and no whines grinds or moans.
I stress, this is a ROUGH guide and I would never use it on a paying customers car.
Cheers for the advice.

This is exactly what was done when we had the dealership, service manager outsourced that kind of stuff as it got rid of the responsibility and there was still a margin for profit.

I would be using that method with second hand gears, but to me there is way too much money involved for any kind of guess work... I just don't trust myself enough to learn in the limited time I have available...