is it a 1 man (maybe 2 man) job?

reason i ask is i will have to replace my rear diff soon as its starting to get noisy

i have 2 options:

the cheaper one:

remove the diff myself on my drive, with basic tools and jacks and then take it to be refurbished, bring it back and fit it myself

The expensive option:

Buy a second hand diff (hope it is a genuine cossie one)
Get it refurbished
Take the car and diff to garage and get them to swap it.

i have no idea how much work is involved in removing the rear diff, i am a technician and engineer by trade so have no problems doing it, just not sure as to how tricky it would be without a fourpost and loads of tools.

please guide me

 

Piece of piss, just drive it up on car ramps, if I remember rioght the shafts just unbolt from the flanges so do not need to be pulled.
The just take out bolts for diff/prop, lower to floor on jack, mind it does not topple over on your hand it hurts big time, dont ask me how I know!!
tabetha

 

Then I will ask how do you know ??

 

Two of my fingers still look flat!!
tabetha

 

As Tabetha says...well easy to change, so easy in fact that im taking a spare diff to france/leman this year to change road side if mine fails on me over there...again

 

if it all just unbolts then happy days

ironically i am changing my diff in preperation for lemans

i take its the same for 2wd and 4wd, mines a 4wd

maybe i'll get a second hand one rebuilt, then keep mine as a spare in the boot

 

one man job easy. especially on a 4x4 where the 7" diff is lighter than the 7.5" 2WD

 

Providing the long bolt that goes through the bottom aint stuck

 

ain't that the truth - what a slag that can be

 

word to the wise, don't put it on ramps, stick up in the air as far as you can with axle stands on the beam, remember that you won't be able to turn the wheels if the car is up on ramps and it'll be even harder to get a rim off so that when you ned to turn the wheel to get to the other bolts it's gong to be just that little bit moer tricky than being a right cunt of a job

undo the prop bolts first, but don't remove them as they can come in usefull to use not only the handbrake but also the gearbox to stop the shafts and prop from turning while you undo them bolts

for some reason, the seirra uses a different rear prop coupling to the granada, you can undo the granada one with a socket but the sierra one needs a spanner

also, another top tip
remove the rubber gaitor from the inner cv's, this gives you much more space to play with so that the torx bit can get in propelry and align itself up rather than the rubber of the boot tryig to push it out at funny angles

DON'T chop the heads of the bolts off because you'll still have loads of bolt left inside

job done

as for the long bolt, if it gets stuck you'll be belting it for weeks before it comes out, the ali casing furs up which makes it tighter to get the bolt out, WD40 don't make jack shit difference so when you go to remove it, make sure you turn both the nut AND bolt to free them up

don't forget teh washers either

 

gingeRS: you going with the rsoc group to leman? If so i'll see you there!

As said above that long bold can be a bitch....ive fitted all new bolts/nuts and washers to mine with lashings of copper grease just to make sure i aint struggling come time to replace diff number 5 with diff number 6