Differential rebuild

[mosstrooper]

I'm rebuilding the Spitfire/Vitesse diff on my Vixen.

I have replaced the pinion head bearing and pinion tail bearing but I just cannot get any pre-load. I have removed all the shims (there were 3 when I dismantled it) and torqued it to about 70 foot-lbs but the pinion just spins freely - should be about 16 lb-inch resistance.

Anyone any ideas ??

(posting in the Triumph forum as well...)

[mosstrooper]

Well, no bright ideas from anyone so far...

This is a mystery to me because I would have thought the bearing cones would have sat higher in their raceways than old ones so more shims would be needed.

It would appear the new cones are sitting lower but even though I have removed all shims there's no pre-load.

Looks like the only solution is to reduce the length of the solid spacer by a few though.

Looks like a pleasant evening with a sheet of wet and dry on a sheet of glass coming up.....

Copying to the Triumph forum

[Dollyman1850]

Bearing housing in diff knackered, causing bearing face to bottom out and negating efficacy of shims hence no pre-load?

Are there no crush spacers in that diff?

This site may be of use…

http://www.donkennedy.co.uk/Diff/Diff.htm

N.

Edited by Dollyman1850 on Wednesday 24th June 18:36

[mosstrooper]

Thanks, new bearings and raceways so don't understand why the cones are apparently sitting so low.

Solid spacer, not the crushable type.

Anyway, I reduced the spacer length and re-fitted it - too tight. Added one shim, then another and the pre-load now appears to be OK. Just waiting on a needle torque wrench for a final check.

Now to work on the C/wheel shims to eliminate backlash.