differential questions

Well it was a stressful day but the van is back on all 4 wheels, sitting in my driveway, and (another) crisis appears to have been averted! :dance1::dance1::dance1:

After taking yesterday to reflect and plan, I got up bright and early this morning, had a good breakfast, and drove over to my parents' house to get started on the splines. I used a hand file and a small Dremel with the thinnest wheel I could find. I started by removing the material on the side of the teeth that had dents on it, which indicated to me that they were the splines interfering with the inner teeth of the differential and keeping the shaft from going in any further. I used a hand file to remove any excess material that would have messed with the diameter of the shaft.

After a round of this, I was able to get the shaft to go in about 10 - 15mm before getting hung up again, progress! I pulled the axle, looked to see where down the splines it was getting caught up now, smoothed it out with the Dremel, and tried again. This time, I got it to the point where the bearing was up against the axle housing. With the finish line in sight, I gave it a few quick final zips with the Dremel, got the backing plate and drum assembly hanging off of the studs, and got the shaft back into position.

My dad and I said a little prayer to the van gods, I grabbed the rubber mallet, yelled the battle cry of my generation, which I guess is "send it" now (What was wrong with YOLO?), and the shaft slid the rest of the way in after two generous love-taps. A wave of relief washed over me and my dad, although I was still worried about the shaft possibly being bent.

After reassembling the drums, torquing everything down, bleeding the brakes, and adding fresh diff fluid it was time for the test drive. The van started right up like nothing ever happened and drove down the street as smooth and as straight as it ever did, no wobbles or vibration to indicate a bent shaft. The noise I was chasing back there appears to be gone, but there is a slight "ssshhhh" sound coming from the rear driver side wheel. You can really only hear it if you're back there, the old noise was pretty audible from anywhere in the van when in motion. I noticed that most of my wheel weights are missing on that wheel so maybe that has something to do with this slight noise? Oh well, that's for another day I'm just going to enjoy this victory for a minute before I dive back in.

As far as the shop that did this goes, I'm going to explain my experience in a Google review, never go there again, and leave it at that. Thinking about it, the botched job itself doesn't bother me as much as how they took my money upon delivery, didn't mention anything, and let me walk out of the store with a part they had to have known they messed up. I'm walking proof that sh*t happens, but I always try to own my mistakes. To just send a customer on his way without disclosing that was what made me decide to find another shop in the future.

TL;DR
If your axle splines get goofed up like mine did, a Dremel with the thinnest wheel you can find, a good hand file, and patience are your friends. Remove as little material as possible, check to make sure that not only are the spline teeth spaced properly, but that their diameter is equal to the other non-goofed splines. If you're going to have a shop remove and press new bearings, take before photos and closely inspect the splines prior to leaving the shop.

Thanks again BB and Tim, hopefully, no one else here will have to go through something like this.

:dance2: :thmbup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thegeeess

hi all, new here,
On both my vans I have an E series diff. which is 7.1 inch ring gear and the axles are spline 24. If I change the axles to spline 27 will a F series 7.5 inch diff. fit into the housing? If not does anybody know what vehicles and year range came with the 7.1 spline 24 combo so I can look into the auto recyclers without limiting my search for parts to only vans?

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I'm going to answer this. The answer is No. I just tried. Went to junkyard and got a. F series differential and the 27 spline axles. The F series diff is bigger and does not fit in the E series axle housing. This thread led me to believe this was a possibility, but it is not compatible, in case anyone else is going to try.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by slomoracing

Right on, thanks for attaching me to this thread. So it sounds like (correct me if I'm wrong) that putting the 27 tooth axles into the housing will allow the use of a 7.5" diff... Which in the long run allows for a ARB air locker or a Detroit Locker!

Im looking to be able to take this whip around the country and to Baja, so traction is pretty essential.

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This is the post that led me to believe that a 7.5in differential will fit into an E series housing. It will not :pissed:

The 7.1in ring and pinion are damn hard to find. They cone on cressida wagons but those dont surface in junkyards often and neither do 84/85 vans. My next thought is to pull a coil sprung axle housing off a 86-89 van and hope it fits without modification on my 1984 van. Anyone know if this will work?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PearlVan

This is the post that led me to believe that a 7.5in differential will fit into an E series housing. It will not :pissed:

The 7.1in ring and pinion are damn hard to find. They cone on cressida wagons but those dont surface in junkyards often and neither do 84/85 vans. My next thought is to pull a coil sprung axle housing off a 86-89 van and hope it fits without modification on my 1984 van. Anyone know if this will work?

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I would also like to know this. I want to put in a LSD or air locker but after a day of research it's pretty much impossible unless I have an F-type rear diff (7.5" ring). In theory I think pulling the rear axle housing off an 86-89 would work to set up an F282 differential but damn, what a lot of work to get a little bonus traction :no:

@PearlVan, did you ever pursue this further?

I ended up finding a 1984 van in the junkyard and taking the differential from it and installing it in mine. Bearings were toast so I took it out again and replaced them and rebuilt the differential per the manual and some youtube videos. Not an easy job but it saved me $1,000. Would not want to do it again, but so far the used differential has been serving me well after a rebuild. The whole axle swap route seemed appealing, and probably easier than rebuilding the diff, but I never found a coil sprung van axle from 86-89 anywhere to use. Inevitably there may have been issues of compatibility that required fabrication, but I never did it so I don't know. Maybe it wouldve been plug and play.

Usually coil springs and control arms vs leaf springs requires different mounts on the axles. that means grinding and welding. that means complete disassembly not plug n play.

I realize that, I was referring to whether the coil and control arm mounts from a 1986-89 axle are in the same locations as a 1984-85 axle.

Hi Tim,
Thanks for the reference. The Truck Axle Codes on the attached sheet are for 1989-2004. My van is a 1987. I hope the codes are still correct for the earlier year. 25 years ago I had a custom interior conversion, so I had to pull up a section of the carpet and use acetone to clean the dried glue off the plaque to read it. Shame no one took a photo of this plaque before covering it up.

According to the table on the worksheet my van has a 7.5" ring gear with a 4.1 drive ratio and 2 pinions. That information will help me find the correct bearings and number of them.

Only possible wrinkle... 22 years ago I had a similar rebuild done on this differential. At the time, the mechanic wrote under the replaced parts list "BK 7.8R Toy Bearings", suggesting a 7.8" ring gear, yet I see no such size option on the worksheet you posted in the other thread.

At least you know what it was :dizzy: :doh:. Without disassembly nobody can know what it is now.......except maybe the mechanic from 22 years ago :wall:. Good luck with that :wave1:. Tim