Hi,

I've got an LSD diff from an EF Sedan and I want to put it into my EF wagon.

How hard will it be to swap the diff's over between housings? Do i need to completely remove both diff's?

I've done it many times.

If you want to retain your existing gear set, you can simply swap over the hemisphere itself.
However, keep the shims that came with the housing.

I've swapped over many gear sets, hemispheres and pinions and never ran into problems, but Im not saying this is the case for everyone.

You may end up with a whine, or noises due to the center not being 'set' correctly.
I've never encountered this so I guess it was good luck.

and you DO NOT need to stretch out the housing to remove the center

Well I've got one here with axles removed and caps unbolted, and it's not budging. Actually it's been like that for a while til I find a way to get it out.

I've never encountered a ford one I couldn't lever out.
Sure, they're tight. wagon/sedan i've done at least 15 total.
even holden salisburys, people claim 'they must be stretched'

I use the crownwheel bolts using the housing as a lever while rotating 180deg.

You can always stretch the housing a little bit with a chain and a scissor jack.

Yeah, I'll probably need to be more forceful without butchering it.
From memory stretching was around 0.2mm, but not more than 0.5mm.

Crownwheel bolts are LH thread from memory ??

Yep, left hand thread.

Picture for others so they don't lever the crown wheel.

 

 

Attachments:

Diff Centre.JPG [ 78.9 KiB | Viewed 222 times ]

I removed mine with use of a diff spreader and still needed a pry bar... Hardest part was breaking the vac seal the outer races seem develop in the housing due to the oil between them...

Only thing I would say that when replacing the center be careful of the shims as they are brittle and if you C**k anything whilst forcing the centre back in between them then you risk breaking the shims in half...

Me myself... I have access to a spreader... So I used a spreader... Does make it easier... According to the work shop manual there is supposed to be "x" amount of preload on the centre so if it comes out too easy I'd be thinking you need to widen one shim to put that preload back into the diff once more (new bearings and old bearings vary IIRC)...

I'd be thinking you had good luck there Krytox... Only reason I say this is that if the machined surfaces inside the housing vary from one to another then the shims would need to vary too... I reckon it would be highly unlikely that the two housings have identical (to the 1 thou measurement) housing machined parts...

Remember gears wont be noisy when you first put them in... It is after a various amount of km's when they have actually started to tear into each other... The requirement for a wear pattern seems to have to be pretty precise... Not that I have ever set one up myself but done a lot of reading when I installed my Lokka initially...

And for the love of god... As Krytox said don't lever the crown wheel otherwise you will indeed send the gears to an early grave...

Torque requirements on the L.H. crown wheel bolts are 140Nm The bearing cap bolts are something like 55Nm or something there abouts...

Cheers,
Tim