Sprint Diff removal

[stuartgb100]

Having some difficulty removing this diff ......... an understatement !!

Brian Buckland states that the diff brace must first be removed, but not when a Spyder chassis is fitted.

Mine is an early Spyder chassis and it will not blinking well come out !!

I'm going to remove the brace and hopefully removal will then be straightforward, but I'd be interested to know if anyone's faced this particular problem.

Regards,
Stuart.

[Elanintheforest]

Stuart...have a look at this:

http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17012

Mark

[512BB]

Good evening Stuart

Im assuming you have an early Spyder STRESSED SKINED chassis, as if it was one of their birdcage chassis, the diff does just drop out, and the confusion you have with Buckland, is that he probably does not state which chassis he is talking about, i dont know, i dont have his book.

Anyway, back to chassis. The very early Spyder SS ones made no allowance for the difficulty in removing the diff. The later ones had a piece cut away and welded at a different angle to clear the diff mounting ear where it used to foul. In any event, removing the brace bar certainly helps, nomatter what SS chassis you have. Remember to remove the diff from the near side.

All the best

Leslie

[stuartgb100]

Thanks for that Mark.

I had been aware of recent posts. and also searched the archives.

Brian B's comment led me to think that the brace did not need to be removed (in my case).

As per previous post, I removed the brace, and the diff was out in a minute !

Interestingly, I now have 2 different braces.

The original, is thicker, rather rusty, and has one fixing to the diff casing (at approx 10 o' clock when viewed from the rear, looking forwards). The other has two. An additional one at 2 o' clock. This one is of thinner material.

Regards,
Stuart.

PS: Blackie is yet to fire !!!

[bill308]

I've often been confused by the Brittish terms near side versus oft side.

While standing behind the vehicle and looking toward the front, which side is which?

Alternatively, I'm a sailor, when placed in the above situation, port is to the left and starboard is toward the right.

Help please?

Bill

[rgh0]

Near side is port side - Near the curb in a righthand drive car.

At least that has always been my understanding

cheers
Rohan

[ppnelan]

That is correct

Matthew

[tyasman]

I sympathise! I have just taken my diff. out, with the help of a skilled mechanic - it took 3 solid hours and we finished up bending back a piece of chassis to get some extra space. If I'd been on my own I'd have given up. If you look at the recent posts to "tyasman" you'll see some suggestions. When re-fitting we altered the bracing bar corners so it would go back in easily, and enlarged the central hole to give some "play" when relocating the hole. It went back in, but still needed a few taps with a wooden block and a hammer. Biggest problem with refitting was lining up the bolts into the doughnuts which need to be compressed - we made a special jig fo this. Let me know if you get stuck - I could post it for stampage costs.