Porous rear axle!

Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is dripping a
nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he reckons he can get
it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is he talking bollocks or do I
need a new axle casing.

Nige

On or around Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
<nigel.ince****[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

>Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is dripping a
>nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he reckons he can get
>it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is he talking bollocks or do I
>need a new axle casing.

can you spot where it's leaking from? Clean the axle casing, bet you find a
small rust hole. Weld it up. YMMV, IMHO, etc.

--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.fsnet.co.uk my opinions are just that
Confidence: Before important work meetings, boost your confidence by
reading a few pages from "The Tibetan Book of the Dead"
from the Little Book of Complete B***ocks by Alistair Beaton.

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
<nigel.ince****[email protected]> wrote:

>Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is dripping a
>nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he reckons he can get
>it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is he talking bollocks or do I
>need a new axle casing.
>

It's gone rusty. You could clean it up and slap some Chemical metal on
the holes, slap it on in a big patch and it should cure the problem.
Although you're probably best looking for a replacement axle in the
long term, as the rust problem is only going to get worse, not better
unless you have it cleaned, welded, and re-painted properly.

Alex

Alex wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
> <nigel.ince****[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is
>> dripping a nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he
>> reckons he can get it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is
>> he talking bollocks or do I need a new axle casing.
>>
>
> It's gone rusty. You could clean it up and slap some Chemical metal on
> the holes, slap it on in a big patch and it should cure the problem.
> Although you're probably best looking for a replacement axle in the
> long term, as the rust problem is only going to get worse, not better
> unless you have it cleaned, welded, and re-painted properly.
>
> Alex

Yeah, thought as much, how much for a cheapie casing or full axle roughly?

I'll clean the new one up & change everything over etc. But a full axle (less diff as it's good) would be
better.

Nige
--
Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Austin Shackles wrote:
> On or around Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
> <nigel.ince****[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:
>
>> Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is
>> dripping a nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he
>> reckons he can get it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is
>> he talking bollocks or do I need a new axle casing.
>
> can you spot where it's leaking from? Clean the axle casing, bet you
> find a small rust hole. Weld it up. YMMV, IMHO, etc.

I reckon it's goosed. It leaves a 10-15cm diameter puddle at every hour long stop when hot! I'll have a
good look & see what can be done. If not, how easy is it to change (all known to be good) diffs & bits
over to a new case, or at least a good case powder coated for the laugh!

Nige

--
Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Nige wrote:

> Alex wrote:
>> On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
>> <nigel.ince****[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is
>>> dripping a nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he
>>> reckons he can get it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is
>>> he talking bollocks or do I need a new axle casing.
>>>
>>
>> It's gone rusty. You could clean it up and slap some Chemical metal on
>> the holes, slap it on in a big patch and it should cure the problem.
>> Although you're probably best looking for a replacement axle in the
>> long term, as the rust problem is only going to get worse, not better
>> unless you have it cleaned, welded, and re-painted properly.
>>
>> Alex
>
> Yeah, thought as much, how much for a cheapie casing or full axle roughly?
>
> I'll clean the new one up & change everything over etc. But a full axle
> (less diff as it's good) would be better.
>

Thought occurs to check *where* it's leaking from

Porous axle in this case may only be a poor gasket seal between the diff and
the housing.

Yes, I suspect that I may not have got the best seal going when I did that,
but I damn well hope that diff's good - it cost enough grief to get in!

P.

Nige wrote:

> Austin Shackles wrote:
>> On or around Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
>> <nigel.ince****[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:
>>
>>> Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is
>>> dripping a nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he
>>> reckons he can get it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is
>>> he talking bollocks or do I need a new axle casing.
>>
>> can you spot where it's leaking from? Clean the axle casing, bet you
>> find a small rust hole. Weld it up. YMMV, IMHO, etc.
>
> I reckon it's goosed. It leaves a 10-15cm diameter puddle at every hour
> long stop when hot! I'll have a good look & see what can be done. If not,
> how easy is it to change (all known to be good) diffs & bits over to a new
> case, or at least a good case powder coated for the laugh!
>
> Nige
>
> --
> Subaru WRX (The Bitch)
>
> Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)
>
> "If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Changing all the bits over is not a difficult job, just a fairly big one,
particularly if (as is likely) some of the bolts are stubborn.
Remove axle complete assembly - u-bolts, prop shaft, brake line, shock
absorbers.
Remove brake drums, remove drive flanges and axles, remove hubs, remove stub
axles and complete brake assemblies. Remove differential assembly.
Reassemble in reverse, renewing bits as necessary. Bleed brakes, refill
diff.
As a minimum you will need gaskets for the diff and drive flanges, but it is
probably a good idea to replace the hub seals while you are at it, and you
will need new lock washers for the wheel bearings, and new nyloc nuts for
the prop shaft and u-bolts. other bits you may need include the u-bolts
that break while you are trying to undo them.
Think I've covered everything.
JD

Paul S. Brown wrote:
> Nige wrote:
>
>> Alex wrote:
>>> On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
>>> <nigel.ince****[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is
>>>> dripping a nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he
>>>> reckons he can get it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is
>>>> he talking bollocks or do I need a new axle casing.
>>>>
>>>
>>> It's gone rusty. You could clean it up and slap some Chemical metal
>>> on the holes, slap it on in a big patch and it should cure the
>>> problem. Although you're probably best looking for a replacement
>>> axle in the long term, as the rust problem is only going to get
>>> worse, not better unless you have it cleaned, welded, and
>>> re-painted properly.
>>>
>>> Alex
>>
>> Yeah, thought as much, how much for a cheapie casing or full axle
>> roughly?
>>
>> I'll clean the new one up & change everything over etc. But a full
>> axle (less diff as it's good) would be better.
>>
>
> Thought occurs to check *where* it's leaking from
>
> Porous axle in this case may only be a poor gasket seal between the
> diff and the housing.
>
> Yes, I suspect that I may not have got the best seal going when I did
> that, but I damn well hope that diff's good - it cost enough grief to
> get in!
>
> P.

Na, chaps had a good look & he says it's corroded through the case. Not a big problem in a 23 year old S3
& to be expected at some point. Might be easier to just replace the whole axle/casing as the diffs fine
with no noise etc. Odd that the diff case should rot through & yet the chassis is solid!

Anyone got a S3 88" rear axle for sale?

Nige

--
Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

JD wrote:
> Nige wrote:
>
>> Austin Shackles wrote:
>>> On or around Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:12:42 -0000, "/\\/ / & E"
>>> <nigel.ince****[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:
>>>
>>>> Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is
>>>> dripping a nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he
>>>> reckons he can get it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is
>>>> he talking bollocks or do I need a new axle casing.
>>>
>>> can you spot where it's leaking from? Clean the axle casing, bet
>>> you find a small rust hole. Weld it up. YMMV, IMHO, etc.
>>
>> I reckon it's goosed. It leaves a 10-15cm diameter puddle at every
>> hour long stop when hot! I'll have a good look & see what can be
>> done. If not, how easy is it to change (all known to be good) diffs
>> & bits over to a new case, or at least a good case powder coated for
>> the laugh!
>>
>> Nige
>>
>> --
>> Subaru WRX (The Bitch)
>>
>> Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)
>>
>> "If you tolerate this then your children will be next"
>
> Changing all the bits over is not a difficult job, just a fairly big
> one, particularly if (as is likely) some of the bolts are stubborn.
> Remove axle complete assembly - u-bolts, prop shaft, brake line, shock
> absorbers.
> Remove brake drums, remove drive flanges and axles, remove hubs,
> remove stub axles and complete brake assemblies. Remove differential
> assembly. Reassemble in reverse, renewing bits as necessary. Bleed
> brakes, refill diff.
> As a minimum you will need gaskets for the diff and drive flanges,
> but it is probably a good idea to replace the hub seals while you are
> at it, and you will need new lock washers for the wheel bearings, and
> new nyloc nuts for the prop shaft and u-bolts. other bits you may
> need include the u-bolts that break while you are trying to undo them.
> Think I've covered everything.
> JD

New axle time then! Well, a decent 2nd hander will do as it only gte a bit of use really.

Nige

--
Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 06:40:33 +1100, JD <[email protected]> wrote:

>Changing all the bits over is not a difficult job, just a fairly big one,
>particularly if (as is likely) some of the bolts are stubborn.
>Remove axle complete assembly - u-bolts, prop shaft, brake line, shock
>absorbers.
>Remove brake drums, remove drive flanges and axles, remove hubs, remove stub
>axles and complete brake assemblies. Remove differential assembly.
>Reassemble in reverse, renewing bits as necessary. Bleed brakes, refill
>diff.

Youve made that a bit overly complicated!. Me and a mate managed to do
the rear axle casing and diff on his landy in only a couple of hours
one day after his diff blew up.
You can leave the shocks attached to the plate under the axle and the
chassis while you do the swap. You can also leave the brake system
intact - leave it all attached to the backplate and then just cable
tie or hang it out of the way while you replace bits to stop it

jack up landy and put axle stands under chassis at rear.
Take off the rear wheels
Remove prop from rear diff.
pull out rear half shafts attached to the end plates (6 bolts at each
end)
remove brake drum
remove hub
remove brake backplate. take shoes off if necessary but leave the
cylinder and flexy pipe alone (tie the cylinder down to stop it
expanding while its out). tie it up out of the way
chop u bolts with an angle grinder if they dont look like they will
undo (so if they have been on there more than a couple of years),
Pull out the axle casing and diff. leaving the shocks in and attached
to the plate that sits between the axle and spring. You might fid it
easier to shuffle if back one way then out under the rear x-member.

Think thats it!. Ive done this job a few times!

>As a minimum you will need gaskets for the diff and drive flanges, but it is
>probably a good idea to replace the hub seals while you are at it, and you
>will need new lock washers for the wheel bearings, and new nyloc nuts for
>the prop shaft and u-bolts. other bits you may need include the u-bolts
>that break while you are trying to undo them.

Aye. Make sure you have all the gaskets you need ready before you
start (will probably cost less than a quid for all of them)
I always keep a pile of hub lock washers, hub oil seals and hub
gaskets at home as i seem to get through a lot of them!

Also, you could do with a hub nut socket if you dont want to have to
chisel them in and out! (will only cost you a few quid and is very
useful to have!)

Tom Woods wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 06:40:33 +1100, JD <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Changing all the bits over is not a difficult job, just a fairly big
>> one, particularly if (as is likely) some of the bolts are stubborn.
>> Remove axle complete assembly - u-bolts, prop shaft, brake line,
>> shock absorbers.
>> Remove brake drums, remove drive flanges and axles, remove hubs,
>> remove stub axles and complete brake assemblies. Remove differential
>> assembly. Reassemble in reverse, renewing bits as necessary. Bleed
>> brakes, refill diff.
>
> Youve made that a bit overly complicated!. Me and a mate managed to do
> the rear axle casing and diff on his landy in only a couple of hours
> one day after his diff blew up.
> You can leave the shocks attached to the plate under the axle and the
> chassis while you do the swap. You can also leave the brake system
> intact - leave it all attached to the backplate and then just cable
> tie or hang it out of the way while you replace bits to stop it
>
> jack up landy and put axle stands under chassis at rear.
> Take off the rear wheels
> Remove prop from rear diff.
> pull out rear half shafts attached to the end plates (6 bolts at each
> end)
> remove brake drum
> remove hub
> remove brake backplate. take shoes off if necessary but leave the
> cylinder and flexy pipe alone (tie the cylinder down to stop it
> expanding while its out). tie it up out of the way
> chop u bolts with an angle grinder if they dont look like they will
> undo (so if they have been on there more than a couple of years),
> Pull out the axle casing and diff. leaving the shocks in and attached
> to the plate that sits between the axle and spring. You might fid it
> easier to shuffle if back one way then out under the rear x-member.
>
> Think thats it!. Ive done this job a few times!
>
>> As a minimum you will need gaskets for the diff and drive flanges,
>> but it is probably a good idea to replace the hub seals while you
>> are at it, and you will need new lock washers for the wheel
>> bearings, and new nyloc nuts for the prop shaft and u-bolts. other
>> bits you may need include the u-bolts that break while you are
>> trying to undo them.
>
> Aye. Make sure you have all the gaskets you need ready before you
> start (will probably cost less than a quid for all of them)
> I always keep a pile of hub lock washers, hub oil seals and hub
> gaskets at home as i seem to get through a lot of them!
>
> Also, you could do with a hub nut socket if you dont want to have to
> chisel them in and out! (will only cost you a few quid and is very
> useful to have!)

more like it!

Ta

Nige

--
Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 22:36:08 -0000, "Nige"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>more like it!
>
>Ta
>
>Nige

If i were you i'd try cleaning it up and welding it first like Austin
says as its a lot less hassle. since the rest of it is working fine
right now seems a bit silly to disturb it all if you dont have to!

In message <[email protected]>
"/\\/ / & E" <nigel.ince****[email protected]> wrote:

> Bugger! The rear diff housing is slightly porous on my S3 & is dripping a
> nice puddle. The bloke up the road in the garage says he reckons he can get
> it sealed with some chemical sealer or other. Is he talking bollocks or do I
> need a new axle casing.
>
> Nige
>
>
It's possible that he may be able to fix it - at least temporarily.

A more permanent fix would be to replace the diff pan:

DA1044 Replacement Diff Pan - Rear (With Hole For Filler Plug)
£38.66 inc VAT
DA1045 Replacement Diff Pan - Front & Rear (No Hole For Filler Plug)
£36.66 inc VAT

Cheers
Richard
--
www.beamends-lrspares.co.uk [email protected]
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