Opening the Differential

In an earlier post, I mentioned I had an issue opening the differential cover due to the two large bolts which support the tie bar. After some head scratching, Ian came up with a perfect tool for removing these stubborn bolts. What's more, on his holiday travels to Finland he even found such a tool in a local hardware store, something none of my local tool stores stocked. The magic tool is a 30 mm slogging spanner, or in other words, a spanner designed to be hit with a hammer.

Differential with slogging spanner on the righthand bolt.

With the spanner placed around these bolts and many many hits with a lump hammer, this bolt finally began to loosen. With the bolt's removed, it is no surprise why it was such a pain to remove, given the large smooth concave contact area.

Complaining over though, the bolts did come out and with that, the differential cover fell away and I can at last check the internals. Upon opening the differential I was initially surprised that there was no paper gasket between the main housing and the cover, but Dr Google informed me that this is normal and instead a silicon gasket is used. Must make sure to add this to one of my future shopping lists.

First view of the opened differential – nice and oily.

Close up of the crown wheel.

After rotating the main crown wheel and inspecting these teeth along with the internal gears, everything seems to be in good order. There was no excess play in the output shafts.

Having had a precursory look, the cover can be placed back on with the smaller bolts which I took out last time. I will keep the large bolts out for now and give them a good clean before putting them back on.