Diff pinion oil seal

[Brett]

I know this topic is from a while ago but the pinion seal on my diff 

has started leaking and I would like to remove the Diff to get the problem fixed.

There are a couple of documents referred to by Blatman in this post that I think would be useful but when clicking the link are no longer there.  Can anyone share the documents with me.

On 17/04/2006 at 09:00, Blatman said:

Instructions for removing the diff are here.

And a very similar oil leak issue is discussed here.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Greg 1]

A couple of things that I gained from hard experience with Escort diffs (English axle)

1. Pinion seals usually leak primarily for two reasons. A. the crush tube has collapsed slightly and released the preload and the pinion is now floating back and forth. This maybe very slight but is there. This is particularly prevalent if the car is subjected to lots of on and off the power as in motorsport. English diffs are renown for this fault. The solid spacer fixes that issue. Very worthwhile mod. B. the drive flange, which on Westfields is usually a MK 1, as it is smaller in diameter and fits in the tunnel, is worn on the seal face and the tolerance is such that oil can seep past. I have tried speedy sleeves to no avail. Still leaked oil. Solution was to purchase a new drive flange from Burton Power which fixed that issue. Haven't had a leak since.

2. Removal of the diff centre from the car is the best way to ensure that the diff remains in adjustment as you can then do it all on the bench and check backlash which you cannot do in the car. I have changed a pinion seal insitu and gotten away with it by just resetting the pinion preload and it is often done this way, but on the bench is better.To remove the centre, drop the panhard bar off the axle tube and disconnect one end of the lower trailing arms. With the prop shaft removed the whole axle can now rotate nose down so that the nuts holding the centre into the axle tube can be removed and the centre extracted from the axle tube casing. (There is no removable rear cover plate on an English axle as it is what is known as a banjo axle and the centre is removed from the front) The centre is not particularly light and I ended up after half a dozen times of having it sitting on my chest getting the thing in or out went and bought a Tracsport alloy housing to replace the cast iron one, not because I was reducing unsprung weight, but the alloy one is 5kgs less sitting on my chest and lifting it back into the car.

3. The diff can be set up in the home workshop but does have some traps and you need a few things such as a dial gauge, bearing blue, feeler gauges and a lash adjuster spanner. (made my own of those) You also need to have some type of spring balance to set the pinion preload. This can be done in a few different ways. There was a very good video on you tube showing how to set one of these up and I have been trying to find it again to post a link but haven't come across it yet. It was from a guy in Ireland who's into Escorts and was the best video that I have come across on the subject. If I find it I will post it up.

As a couple of previous posts have indicated, whilst plenty of people do set up these at home and do a good job of it, if you haven't had any exposure to diffs before then there are a number of traps for young players and you can destroy a perfectly good crown wheel and pinion in short order if you get it wrong. Not saying you can't do it and do a good job, but if you have any doubts as to your abilities it maybe far cheaper in the long run to get a professional diff place to do the job. Get on the local Escort forums and see who they recommend in your area as five will get you ten, most Escort owners will have had to do it at least once.