Diff rebuild and fitting 28.12.2010

After having had a great Christmas definitely one of the best yet, i managed to find some time to get back to working on the Cobra. this time i have been working on the rear diff below are some pics and progress reports.

 Above is a picture of the diff all laid out after painting and cleaning, it certainly looks better than it did a few months ago. as you can see its already to go back together now.

Out drive after rebuild (sorry about the picture)

Diff in the vice

final check of the internals

As you can see from the pictures above the diff is now completely rebuilt and i am fitting it to the chassis. while fitting the diff to the chassis you have to also align the fulcrum shaft mounting brackets to give perfect alignment in the the chassis mounting tubes. at the same time you must also shim the brackets to give you the correct amount of toe in for the rear wheels this is done with some slide in shims (from the Jag).

 i suggest you make your own new ones i think the jag ones will fall out should the bolt decide to undo slightly.

 I decided to make some from some very thin sheet aluminium i had lying around , i cut 4 or so squares out of the sheet about 50mm x 50mm then trapped one side in the vice and the other side with a clamp so i could drill all the shims at once i then cleaned up the shims to the shape a size i wanted this way they won`t fall out should the bolt loosen(in the jag they are prone to come loose).

Once all the shafts are lined up and the shims fitted you can torq up all the bolts with some blue lock tight, now all the bolts are in and tight time to lock wire (Another new skill i`ve had to learn) hop fully the picture above shows the lock wiring on the fulcrum brackets and the bolts holding the diff to the top of the chassis boss, it is important the lock wire is done correctly it should at all times work as if to tighten the bolts so be sure the wire runs the correct side of the bolt/bolts.

 Next job will be fitting the bottom rear wish bones, unfortunately I'm still waiting for the front a rear callipers to be reconditioned and the gasket for the diff so the diff will be open for a while but i can still carry on with other jobs.