Starting the differential swap today!
 

Ok guys, I cracked my dif case housing sometime 4 months ago or so and have been driving around with 1) leaky rear dif, and 2) very little (hell maybe theres hardly any in it) gear lube in the rear dif.

I did the auto/5spd swap 5 months ago, but never swapped the 390 geares out. I've had a 410 rear dif sitting in the garage for about 3-4 weeks now, waiting for the opportune time for the swap. I'm laid off again this next week, and a second job starts next Sunday, and classes start in 3 weeks. This is the last time I'll have to do the swap until sometime next spring.

I'll try to take picts as much as I can for you guys. I did a quick search on the swap on the forum and didn't see much for pictures. Since Ryan got attatchments working again, I figure this would be the best time to archive the swap before we lose the attatchments privledge again :P

thats great! i have a 4.10 clutch-type lsd in my garage. i wont be swapping it in until i can afford a solid mount for it. i'll probably have scalliwag help me (hope he dont charge me much!), but i'd still like an overview of what all the swap entitles as far as labor. and good luck with the swap. such an oppurtune time.

any reason to swap a 4.10 instead of getting some 4.30's?

4.3 is alot harder to find and alot more expensive

it took me about 3 hours to completly swap sub frames last time i did it.....(dont ask) but that was with the luxsury of a lift tranny jack and a screw jack. along with inpacts. swaping the diff....is say first time....if every thing goes right......3-4 hours. good luck and cant wait to see the write up.


ej

Welp, I'm probably going pretty damn slow then :P

Removed the tires (noticed, and got pissed at some massive tire chunking) . Got the exhaust and driveshaft out, and teh two halfshafts are disconnected. I've spent the last hour on "Front Driveshaft Mounting Nuts". both Chiltons and the FSM calls on these like they are nothign to just go right in and remove.

Chiltons calls to Remove the 3 front mount nuts before dropping the sublink, is this the best way to do it? I'm having a pretty awkward time. The South Dakota ice melt/road salt has ever nut held fast. Its going to take more than a close-end wrench, rubber mallet, and uber pb-breaker to get things loose.

Is it wise to start dropping the subframe prior to those three nuts?

EDIT: and a writeup will DEFINATELY be due once I figure the best way to accomplish this!

EDIT2: A quick search provided a comment by icemark from sometime last year with what appears to be a pretty good roadmap on where to go. Icemark, you da'man again!

Im waiting to swap the s4 clutch type into my S5 gxl. I just dont know how to do it, so I also would love to see a write up. Good luck.

I was told you couldn't drop a S4 TII rear diff into a S5. Aren't the mounts different?

Instead of using a solid mount, I used some 1/8" plate and a mig welder and made my stock one into a solid mount. It's held up really well to 400+ ft/lbs of torque, and only cost about $4 to make.

K guys, well... I got dropped the subframe an inch or two. Inspected things. This is the point where 75% of all FC owners unbolt the front differential mount.

I fall into that 25% that lives in the north where that a wrench and hefty whack(for that batter... many hefty whacks) won't do jack. Upon looking for options other than removing the entire subframe, it looks like my plan is to unbolt the subframe and suspension components from the rear-crossmember and remove the entire rear-cross member and differential as one piece.

As I said... this is probably an extreme, but the bolts are so hidesouly tight, that removing them while udner the car is nothing short of... ... really big...

anyway, this is turning into a pain in the ass as expected. On the good side of things, no bolts have been broken or anythign along those lines.

Welp, it looks like because of how things went, I won't be doing a writeup.

In 8 hours we only got the rear dif removed.

This is how it went

1) Driveshaft
2) Halfshafts
3) Sublink
4) Subframe lowered
5) Front dif mount bolts (two)
6) Rear dif mount bolts.

Theres a no go on getting the front of the dif to move, so we opt the freaking hard way:

7) Halfshaft flanges and pinions
8) Dif case bolts
9) Crack the dif case seal.
10) Pry the two parts apart

Now theres enough room to get the front dif mount up.

11) Dif Case Removed
12) Dif Carrier Removed

Tomorrow I'm going to work on the parking break and the installation of the 410 dif.

Why did you split the diff case?
 

question... why split the diff case?
can't you just unbolt the whole carrier assembly and swap them?

Dave

I had to split the case to get it unmounted from the rear sub frame. However, I had to replace the entire unit because the case had a hairline crack causing a constant leak.

i gotta start my diff swap today too lol, im dreading it :)

Its straight forward for the most part, yopu just have to get under there and look at what holds shit up. I had a really bad issue reinstalling the driveshaft though. For some reason, the 1/4" clearance for the driveshaft I used to have was gone. I literaly had to pry the driveshaft into the tunnel and onto the flange