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In Reply to: Hey Brad, How's the new Rear End??? posted by Larred on September 30, 2001 at 16:38:15:
Friday afternoon, I talked to my mechanic, and he said that there was absolutely nothing that needed to be changed or swapped out. No nuts, bolts, gaskets, or anything. This was a very good thing to hear, because I had just gotten back from taking a look at my parts microfiche at the library, and I was positive I was gonna mess up some part numbers. Plus, the dealer wouldn't have gotten the parts in until Wednesday, so I couldn't have done the swap until another time.
I got home Friday at about 6:15 or so and took my first look at the crate. That's one big crate! 107 pounds, man! That was about all I did with the diff that night, lol.
Saturday, I got up at 9:00 and went to a friend's house to borrow some tools. I borrowed his torque wrench, a socket attachment, and a few other miscellaneous things. Then, I went to Autozone (trip #1) to get the Loctite and some other things. I forgot exactly what kind of oil the Bentley specified, so I had to go back home and check. Then, I went BACK to Autozone (trip #2) to get the SAE 90 GL-5 Hypoid that the Bentley specified. I found some Mobil 1 75W - 90 Synthetic gear oil, so I bought three quarts: two for the diff and one for my breakfast. . . ok, so I decided to keep the extra unopened quart in the trunk in case something bad happened to it!
Then, I went back home, and my dad and I jacked up the car and put the jack stands in place. We then realized we didn't have a big enough internal hex socket to remove the diff plugs. So, we went to Autozone (trip #3) to get the three-piece internal sockets that they had (something like 12mm, 14mm, 17mm or so). But, they were too big! So, after trying my friend (all he had were Torx-head), I went to Autozone (trip #4, dammit) and got the other set of internal hex sockets they had.
By the time we started it was NOON. That's right. We spent THREE HOURS dicking around. ARGH.
I'll put the details on my website very shortly, but here are a few other random items of note:
1) Like I said, we didn't start til noon
2) We spent THIRTY minutes trying to get the "old" diff to come off the driveshaft bolts only to notice that we (okay, I) had left one of the top mounting bolts on there after breaking it. ARGH
3) There is no #3
4) 4 is my favorite number
5) If only #1 or only #2 had happened, we would have finished Friday evening, but since BOTH happened and since my father and I both had to be somewhere at about 6:00, we closed up shop at 5:15 with the new diff mounted but not attached to the axles and driveshaft
6) With it in, I've noticed some slightly better acceleration
7) There is no noise and there are no leaks coming from this diff (thanks Larred!)
All in all, it was a very easy thing to do. I wouldn't want to do it again any time soon, but I think it was a very good experience. I'm no longer afraid of jacking up the car and doing something under there!
Oh, one last thing, and I find this very important:
I left my digital camera at school, this weekend, so I didn't get any pictures taken with it. The best I could do was borrow a "normal" camera and take about 15 pictures. I'll take other pictures the next time I have the rear up on jackstands. But, until then, I'll have to live with the few pics I got. I'm not sure how long it'll take for them to get onto the site, though, because the film hasn't been fully used. More on this later.
I think this post is long enough, so I'll just sum it up with: a) everyone needs a better diff and to do it themselves, if possible b) Larred is AWESOME for selling me this diff, and c) someone needs to buy my 2.93 open diff!
Brad Couvillon
'87 528e (3.25 diff, new headliner, and M5 rearview mirror all done this weekend!!)
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