Help!!

[blueseamonkey]

Silly question perhaps, but where is the best place to put my axle stands under?
Rick

[john.p.clegg]

It all depends what you want to do when your car is up on axle stands!

[blueseamonkey]

Good point...
I will have to take the wheels off, and then remove and replace the diff, as well as change the rotoflex couplings, so it has to be at the rear, but not on the driveshaft at all.
Rick

[Madbury]

This may sound obvious, but don't jack against the wishbones (they will bend). I have a feeling when I did this job that I jacked the car using the rear jacking point in the cill member. It's wise to use an axle stand for safetys sake incase you pull it off the jack.

I used a regular hydraulic trolley jack with a jacking pin which locates in the cill to jack the car from the side, this gives easy access to all the bits you need to work on.

You could go the whole hog and fit either the Mick Miller CV driveshaft conversion of the Tony Thompson Racing sliding spline conversion which uses two UJs. I went for the TTR unit when I did mine and it's fantastic. Both completely eliminate the donuts.

Some people will feed you a load of bull about cushioning the diff by retaining one donut. The truth is the car should have had a solid system from the off and it only has the donuts because chapman was a penny pincher.

One small cautionary note, check the wheel bearings. I replaced most of the rear end only to find that there was excessive play when I reassembled it. Had to take it all apart again to replace the bearings The rears aren't on a taper, so they can't be tightened like the front wheel bearings.

[blueseamonkey]

After all the advice here I have bitten the bullet, and have today ordered the CV joint conversions from Susan Miller. Decided 3000 miles of life in rubber donuts wasn't good enough considering I've bought the car for driving, not just to look at.
They should arrive early next week, and I've got a replacement used diff coming soon too, so hopefully will have the car up and running again in next week or so.
Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice, I wouldn't have known where to get started without it.
Rick

[blueseamonkey]

Well, the old diff is out, rubber donuts dispensed with forever, and all going well so far .I'm picking up the replacement diff tomorrow, everything else has arrived so hopefully will have the car back on the road by early next week
Rick

[bill308]

blueseamonkey,

A picture of the Sprint differential stiffening bracket can be viewed here, the 2-photos following the stainless steel exhaust pieces:

http://www.rdent.com/pages/parts.html

The bracket basically ties the upper ears of the rear end casting together with a steel beam.

I plan the same mod to my S2 before it goes back on the road.

Bill

[thor]

What is the cost of the CV conversion? (both versions, TTR and Miller) ?

Thor

[blueseamonkey]

The Miller version has just cost me ?385 plus VAT and carriage (total ?466.48 ). Not completely sure about the TTR but I think its roughly the same.
Rick

[blueseamonkey]

My replacement diff is here and apart from having a fully intact casing, actually seems not to turn as smoothly or be in otherwise as good nick as my old one. I was therefore thinking it might be worth changing the casing over but keeping the same mechanism on the old one. However I am struggling with the circlips holding the spline shafts in. What tool should I use for this? (I've already broken 2 small screwdrivers- luckily old ones) I get the feeling some sort of specialist tool is needed, but can't work out what

Cheers
Rick

[thor]

You need some special circlip pliers......and it'll make it a doddle.

[blueseamonkey]

Circlip pliers to remove circlips? Who would think of that? Not me obviously! Still I wouldn't exactly call it a doddle, I've managed to get 3 out of 4 circlips off at the cost of a lot of blisters and sore bits on my hands. The last one though is firmly wedged with rust and paint so I've left it till the morning. Now I'm having trouble getting the outboard drive shafts out though, one's come nice and easy, the other won't budge (on my old diff)
I have to say, rotoflex couplings and diff extraction seem very simple and easy now compared to opening these diffs up!
Rick

[blueseamonkey]

Success!! Car is back on the road, and driving better than ever. Anyone who is thinking about the solid driveshafts should go for it now, the quality of the driving at low speeds, clutch control, manouevres etc is so much better it really is worth the money. Haven't had chance to test it at higher speeds yet, that'll wait until tomorrow.
Rick

[thor]

And it doesn't put any extra stress on the driveline......?

[blueseamonkey]

I wouldn't want to answer that, but plenty of other people on this forum seem to think its fine.