Gregomatic
Active Member
Hey guys, I'm in a bit of a quandary and I need to draw from your expertise.
History of diff:
Bought the car 3 years ago with rear differential problems (amongst many others) with full knowledge I'd be fixing it. It makes a low growl as you drive, up to a fairly loud resonating hum at high speeds.
Upon ownership, I opened the case to change the lube and inspect all the gears and concluded at some point the seal between the pinion and drive shaft had slowly leaked to the point it overheated.
I'll get some pics up tomorrow, but the spider gears are blued from being tempered and worn to the point they're getting rounded. Still flat at the top of the teeth, but very worn. The ring and pinion don't look near as worn, but if I pull the axles, I'm overhauling everything. (The pony is about to hit 200 thou and my baby needs back!)
Other things had to take priority to keep the car mobile, namely a clutch. (4 siblings learned to drive clutch in it as they got old enough)
I'm a big fan of 'if it works, don't fix it', so I decided to repair other things until the diff went South.
I've changed the lube twice and each time I inspected it, you'd think I was panning for gold.
I fill it back up with heavy weight Lucas oil with Lucas Oil Anti Shudder additive and it's kept motoring on.
Last week I went to pull out of my work parking lot and POP, sounded like I hit something metal. Got out and inspected, found nothing eventful.
Pulled out onto the road and CLANK CLANK, I pulled in the next parking lot to reinspect. At this point I thought, "Well, it lasted waaay longer than I expected!"
Suspecting a chipped tooth, I decided to hobble it home. By half a block it had clanked 4 or 5 more times, so I aborted and headed back to work, where she has resided since.
Every time I felt a clank (probably just over a dozen in all) I could feel for just a fraction of a second the entire drive train lock up. Absolutely the worse sound I've ever heard her make. Tonight I got a chance to take the back off and inspect again. Short of the usual galaxy of glitter in the lube, everything looked the same. No broken teeth on the spider gears as expected.
Here is the quandary.
A mechanic friend of mine said "Are you sure it's the differential?"
I thought Well of COURSE it is!, but then I remembered what my trusted mechanic Josh said when he put in my new clutch. He told me the transmission was low and that he replaced a bad seal that was causing it. MY biggest fear right now is What if it IS the trans?? What does a trans sound like when it's failing?
Due to a catastrophic and unexpected financial crisis over a year ago, I have not been able to do anything but what is necessary to this car to keep it going. If I'm looking at a failed transmission, she's looking at a looong sit. I need to put finances toward exactly what's broke. Is there any definitive way to tell if a transmission is bad? Just MAYBE it's a tooth in the gear trying to high center on the crown of another tooth, but if I fix the rear and it's the trans, it's gonna be game over for a while. The thought of not having my pony just rips me.
I'll have many more questions and other info updated tomorrow and even more Monday, but I sure could use some of your knowledge fellas.
Any initial thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Grego
History of diff:
Bought the car 3 years ago with rear differential problems (amongst many others) with full knowledge I'd be fixing it. It makes a low growl as you drive, up to a fairly loud resonating hum at high speeds.
Upon ownership, I opened the case to change the lube and inspect all the gears and concluded at some point the seal between the pinion and drive shaft had slowly leaked to the point it overheated.
I'll get some pics up tomorrow, but the spider gears are blued from being tempered and worn to the point they're getting rounded. Still flat at the top of the teeth, but very worn. The ring and pinion don't look near as worn, but if I pull the axles, I'm overhauling everything. (The pony is about to hit 200 thou and my baby needs back!)
Other things had to take priority to keep the car mobile, namely a clutch. (4 siblings learned to drive clutch in it as they got old enough)
I'm a big fan of 'if it works, don't fix it', so I decided to repair other things until the diff went South.
I've changed the lube twice and each time I inspected it, you'd think I was panning for gold.
I fill it back up with heavy weight Lucas oil with Lucas Oil Anti Shudder additive and it's kept motoring on.
Last week I went to pull out of my work parking lot and POP, sounded like I hit something metal. Got out and inspected, found nothing eventful.
Pulled out onto the road and CLANK CLANK, I pulled in the next parking lot to reinspect. At this point I thought, "Well, it lasted waaay longer than I expected!"
Suspecting a chipped tooth, I decided to hobble it home. By half a block it had clanked 4 or 5 more times, so I aborted and headed back to work, where she has resided since.
Every time I felt a clank (probably just over a dozen in all) I could feel for just a fraction of a second the entire drive train lock up. Absolutely the worse sound I've ever heard her make. Tonight I got a chance to take the back off and inspect again. Short of the usual galaxy of glitter in the lube, everything looked the same. No broken teeth on the spider gears as expected.
Here is the quandary.
A mechanic friend of mine said "Are you sure it's the differential?"
I thought Well of COURSE it is!, but then I remembered what my trusted mechanic Josh said when he put in my new clutch. He told me the transmission was low and that he replaced a bad seal that was causing it. MY biggest fear right now is What if it IS the trans?? What does a trans sound like when it's failing?
Due to a catastrophic and unexpected financial crisis over a year ago, I have not been able to do anything but what is necessary to this car to keep it going. If I'm looking at a failed transmission, she's looking at a looong sit. I need to put finances toward exactly what's broke. Is there any definitive way to tell if a transmission is bad? Just MAYBE it's a tooth in the gear trying to high center on the crown of another tooth, but if I fix the rear and it's the trans, it's gonna be game over for a while. The thought of not having my pony just rips me.
I'll have many more questions and other info updated tomorrow and even more Monday, but I sure could use some of your knowledge fellas.
Any initial thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Grego