|
Final Assembly
All that's left is to put it all back together. If you are using a tranny jack, mount the pumpkin on the jack. In addition to the chain that comes on the jack, I used a small ratcheting tie-down to secure the diff on the jack. This would be a good time to fill the jack with oil. If you're careful not to tip the jack too far to the side or forward, the oil won't leak out. It sure beats spending 15 minutes pumping oil into the diff while under the car.
Diff oil tip: When you empty the diff, drain the oil into a plastic milk jug or some other translucent container. Use a sharpie to mark the level, then drain the jug. When filling the diff, fill the jug to the mark, and you have just the right amount. This assumes of course that when the diff was drained it had the right amount of oil in it.
Get the diff under the car, jack it up to where you can install the bolts though the diff bushings and put those bolts in. This will require a bit of maneuvering - take your time. No need to tighten the bolts yet, they just need to keep the diff in place. Next install the drive line and the PPF. Now tighten everything to spec.
If you've followed the FSM you probably ordered new clips for the half shafts. If you did, then now you need to replace them. Replacing those clips is the single hardest piece of this entire job if you ask me. Now you need to re-install the half shafts. Make sure the open end of the clip is facing up, and gently slide the half shaft into the diff. You may need to rotate it a bit to get the splines to engage.
Once the splines are engaged you need to get those clips to snap into the groove inside the differential. You probably can't do this just by pushing on them. What worked for me was to pull the half shaft out about 1/2", then give it a quick hard shove. You will definitely hear and feel the clips snap into place. Re-assembling everything twice this method worked well for me.
That's pretty much it. If you feel you have the car securely in the air, you may want to try running it through the gears while on the stands just to see how it sounds. Make sure no one gets near the car while your doing this.
If all seems OK, put it all together and take it for a spin.
Whew! It took almost as long to write this up as is did to do it.
I hope someone finds this useful.
|