Replacement diff Mk1 Vitesse

[nickyhamilton99]

We're looking for a replacement diff... seems the only place is Rimmers, can anyone recommend any other sources, and has anyone had good/bad experiences with Rimmer recon diffs?  Thanks

[johny]

Whats happened to your diff? Usually they want a serviceable exchange unit as the gear wheels are very difficult/expensive to source..

[Wagger]

The previous post has just what you need. A 3.63:1 is a good fit for a Mk1 Vitesse. Even the 1600cc will pull with this ratio.

 

[trigolf]

Mike Papworth can rebuild your diff, if not available as exchange. Also TD Fitchett can supply to order. I believe they supply Rimmers, so it might be cheaper dealing direct with Fitchetts? BTW, they are old school re. WWW. Best to phone them.

Gav

[Dick Twitchen]

Second the recommendation for Mike Papworth and Coventry is not that far from you.  His details are in The Courier.

Dick

[Nigel Clark]

18 hours ago, trigolf said:

Mike Papworth can rebuild your diff, if not available as exchange. Also TD Fitchett can supply to order. I believe they supply Rimmers, so it might be cheaper dealing direct with Fitchetts? BTW, they are old school re. WWW. Best to phone them.

Gav

Correct! I bought a reconditioned diff from TD Fitchett, and am a satisfied customer, though can't comment on their price vs Rimmer Bros.

Nigel

[Paul Amey]

On this subject I need to remove the diff from my Mk1 Vitesse. I also want to remove the rear road spring. The manual talks about inserting a bar for tensioning the spring or something. I'm unsure what is meant by this.

[johny]

The spring is still under tension even with the both wheels off the ground ie. its still pushing the wheels down against the limits of their travel so making it difficult to unbolt the spring from the top of the diff or undo its fixings to each vertical link. The bar the manual talks about is a way of clamping the spring so its tension is held allowing you to undo at these point.

With the car off the ground and without the bar I carefully undid the spring to diff studs and it ended up pushed up to the underside of the floor pan. This allowed me to remove the diff and I think I could have then undone the bolts at each end of the spring to allow its removal. Once the diff was back in I used long studding of the correct thread to pull the spring back down onto the diff to then allow its original studs to be installed...

 

[Paul H]

You need a spring lifter to replace the spring . The Club Shop sells themhttps://shop.tssc.org.uk/product/rear-spring-lifter

Paul 

[NonMember]

8 hours ago, Paul H said:

You need a spring lifter to replace the spring 

No, you don't.  That's only needed for the Mk2 suspension. The swing axle can be done as johny said,  or even easier.

Put a jack under the vertical link to take the weight off the shock absorber, then undo the UJ from the diff before taking the shock off.  Lower the jack and undo the spring eye bolt. The half shaft is then free. With both sides done, there's no tension on the spring any more and you can just unbolt it.

[Paul Amey]

7 hours ago, NonMember said:

No, you don't.  That's only needed for the Mk2 suspension. The swing axle can be done as johny said,  or even easier.

Put a jack under the vertical link to take the weight off the shock absorber, then undo the UJ from the diff before taking the shock off.  Lower the jack and undo the spring eye bolt. The half shaft is then free. With both sides done, there's no tension on the spring any more and you can just unbolt it.

Thankyou very much!

[Paul Amey]

On 20/04/2023 at 14:27, Paul Amey said:

Thankyou very much!

Right, I've given this a good looking at and have disconnected the shock absorber, u/j bolts brake cable and flexi brake pipe on one side. I conclude that with both shocks disconnected the leaf spring is basically just bolted to the diff. I think that's right?

[Pete Lewis]

yes apart from the eye bolt to the upright needs removing 

remember you need enough side space to get the spring out the car , you will need to remove one row of studs to get the spring out as the clamps wont clear the studs 

Pete

[johny]

ok next I would start to evenly loosen the spring attachment bolts on the top of the diff as once its clamp plate is loose it proves all tension has been released from the spring and youre free, as Pete says, to undo the spring eye bolts either side....

[Paul Amey]

6 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

yes apart from the eye bolt to the upright needs removing 

remember you need enough side space to get the spring out the car , you will need to remove one row of studs to get the spring out as the clamps wont clear the studs 

Pete

Thanks, I'm taking the diff out as well.

[Paul Amey]

On 20/04/2023 at 07:14, NonMember said:

No, you don't.  That's only needed for the Mk2 suspension. The swing axle can be done as johny said,  or even easier.

Put a jack under the vertical link to take the weight off the shock absorber, then undo the UJ from the diff before taking the shock off.  Lower the jack and undo the spring eye bolt. The half shaft is then free. With both sides done, there's no tension on the spring any more and you can just unbolt it.

Do you need anything special to put the spring back?

[Pete Lewis]

no only on rotaflex   

a trolley/  jack to raise the upright and shaft up into place till you hook up the shocker 

 

[johny]

Will you give it a bit of love beforehand? Clean, paint, new rubber spacers etc? 

[Paul Amey]

14 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

no only on rotaflex   

a trolley/  jack to raise the upright and shaft up into place till you hook up the shocker 

 

Thank you.

[Paul Amey]

14 hours ago, johny said:

Will you give it a bit of love beforehand? Clean, paint, new rubber spacers etc? 

Oh yes, I will clean everything first and access what needs to be replaced etc. I'm leaning towards a replacement diff. I will inspect the spring and lubricate it at least, I only want to put it back once.