Change of heart. I'm going to do the pinion bearings. Question, anyone know if the crush sleeve is a crushable sleeve? My "rebuild kit" did not come with a new one. I assume I'll need a new crush sleeve if I take this apart. Correct? Part number?
LR3 Rear Diff Rebuild
- Thread starter D Chapman
- Start date
If you ever have to replace a pinion seal for Land Rover they want the front bearing and the crush sleeve replaced. I've crushed out a ton of those for Generous Motors and find that the crush sleeves for Rover are really hard to crush out. Figure out how your going to hold the housing and have a cheater pipe at least 3 ft long. The jig land rover has for chucking them up in a vise has a hole in it so another person can pry against the torque your going to be putting on the pinion.
I think if you had any noise on decel thru about 30 mph it would be wise to do the pinion bearing while you have it out. I don't have access to a parts catalog till tue. morning but if you find a pinion seal kit. It will probably come with the front bearing and the sleeve.
I think if you had any noise on decel thru about 30 mph it would be wise to do the pinion bearing while you have it out. I don't have access to a parts catalog till tue. morning but if you find a pinion seal kit. It will probably come with the front bearing and the sleeve.
Are you sure about that? I haven't looked at the manual, but I have probably done around 75-100 pinion seals and never replaced the crush sleeve. From what I remember they want you to mark the nut in reference to the pinion. I have used an impact on every single one and never had any issues. I haven't done any in while, but I wish I had. It takes about 30 min to do the seal and pays over 4 hours.
I guess i'm thinking of the 405 Range Rovers. Your right now that I think about it. Have you done any on the 405? Why the hell do you think they want all that bearing and crush sleeve bull shit done? i wonder why that pays 4 hours.
My rear locking Diff is probably bad too, did you ever complete the whole rebuild, how difficult was it? Wondering whether to do this or shell out for a used or remanned one.
Greetings. Do you still have the info on this rebuild?I searched and searched and never could find a LR3 rear diff rebuild thread. Everyone I talked to who's messed with these rear diffs simply installs a replacement and does not attempt to rebuild the unit. A replacement diff costs about $1,500+, while a rebuild kit costs about $350-$400. After doing the job I don't even know why the rebuild kits costs as much as it does, it's nothing special, just bearings and seals.
To drop the diff I quizzed James Kelly. It's a pretty simple process and he told me what needed to be done. Remove the rear tire, unhook the tie rod and sway bar, drop the lower control arm off the hub, remove the axle lock nut and pop the axle out of the hub. Pretty easy as long as the axle slides out of the hub. I had one side slip right out while the other took some whacks with a BFH. Then you simply remove the half shafts by pulling the out (I used a dead-blow hammer to get them started). And finally unhook the driveshaft and drop the exhaust down by popping loose the rubber hangers.
The diff itself is held in place by three large bolts. Pretty easy to get to. I pulled the diff out myself, but it's heavy and two people would be ideal.
Once on the bench the diff looks like this.
The diff case is two pieces. You want to open the diff. The two cases are attached with 8, 15mm bolts. Pull the bolts out and pop the cover off.
Once the cover is off the carrier just pulls out.
Each half of the diff housing has a seal and a needle bearing. Just pop out the seal and drive out the needle bearing. The needle bearing can be removed from either side of the housing. It other words, the needle bearing is not seated. There is no need for a shop press to remove or reseat the bearing.
The new needle bearings simply presses into place. I just used an old socket the same size as the hole. I'm such a hack.
To reseat the seal, I use the old seal. It's the right size and makes it easy to get the seal started straight and seat evenly. Just a few pops with a hammer and it's in.
Inside each half of the diff housing is a bearing cup. These are a total bitch to get out. There is probably a special tool for this job but I do not own it. Do what you need to do to get these cups out. I was able to get a close quarters bar in there and drive them out.
Behind each bearing up may be a spacer. This spacer sets the ring and pinion gap. These spacers are important and are propitiatory to each side of the diff. Don't get them confused and be sure to reinstall them behind the bearing cups.
The carrier has two bearings that get replaced. One on each side. These are two different sized bearing, one being much larger.
I do not have a bearing puller bar, but I do have a press. Using a bearing puller, I got creative on how to get the bearings off using a press. If you do not have a press you can get a bearing puller kit, with a puller bar, for about $60 from Harbor Freight, or $900 from Snap-On. This is a tool I've used twice now - first time being about 10 years ago - so the Chinese version works fine for me. I just have this. But Snap-On sells them, too.
Then you just put everything back together. It's really a pretty painless job. Hopefully my noise was not coming from the spider gears, but I will not know that for a few days.