Installing a diff drain plug

[Roger K]

What's the best way?  The diff is out of the car, so will be easier to drill, but that means the swarf will land inside on the working parts rather than collect around the hole to be flushed out.  Can I pull the output shafts easily, to enable me to remove the rear casing to drill and tap it?  Or will that upset any settings/seals etc.?

Thanks

[Pete Lewis]

removing the output shafts has no effect on any internal mesh setting 

in the good olde days we would use a well greased drill and tap so the grease catches the swarf  

the parts list never shows any gaskets on the  output housing faces  so a smear of sealer on reassembly is advisable 

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

Easy to do; just remove the output shafts - four allen bolts per side, no gasket - and take off the rear case which won't upset anything. On rebuild you'll need a gasket for the casing. 

[Roger K]

Thanks both - hoped that would be the case.

Roger

[ahebron]

You could drill and tap the hole with the diff full of oil while it is the correct way up. Need to be quick as it is self cleaning but messy😉

 

Adrian

[Peter Truman]

Colin not so easy when i did a friends Spit 1500 in a farm shed by taking only the front off to get the diff rebuilt, job was logical and progressed well until I looked over my shoulder to see a Copper Head snake curled up around a meter away, I was lying on my back under a mini hoist (tyre repairers hoist), I tell you I cleared out very quickly for a then 70 year old! Copper Heads are extremely poisonous & in Indy's words "I hate Snakes".

The shed was home to a couple of small ring tail possums & the snake probably fancied them, Possums are protected in Aus but Ahebron is from NZ where there hated and I believe they hunt them!

When I put the diff together I had loud music on, snakes hate noise!

 

[Colin Lindsay]

Before I got the lift installed I was lying under the GT6 working on the rear axle when the cat very unexpectedly climbed on top of me; I doubled up in surprise and banged my head off the diff. Thankfully there was no diff drain plug or I'd have a square scar on my forehead to this day... we don't get snakes here but there are some enormous spiders!

[ahebron]

13 hours ago, Peter Truman said:

Colin not so easy when i did a friends Spit 1500 in a farm shed by taking only the front off to get the diff rebuilt, job was logical and progressed well until I looked over my shoulder to see a Copper Head snake curled up around a meter away, I was lying on my back under a mini hoist (tyre repairers hoist), I tell you I cleared out very quickly for a then 70 year old! Copper Heads are extremely poisonous & in Indy's words "I hate Snakes".

The shed was home to a couple of small ring tail possums & the snake probably fancied them, Possums are protected in Aus but Ahebron is from NZ where there hated and I believe they hunt them!

When I put the diff together I had loud music on, snakes hate noise!

 

The joys of living in a country where the only creature that can kill you is your fellow human.

https://predatorfreenz.org/resources/introduced-predator-facts/possum-facts/

I have mentioned Hedgehogs in previous posts

 

Adrian

 

[Peter Truman]

Knew that'd get a response from Ahebron hadn't realised they were such a big problem over there in NZ, the ring tails are very small kitten sized, but the normal possum can be quite big but still protected here, the Leadbeaters Possum is the Victorian Animinal Emblem.

We've had them in the roof a couple of times "Peter the Possum Man" catch's them and moves them onto a new area supposedly a fair distance away BUT ???

We had a Tassie variation one time and also a white albino which ended up at Melb Zoo, not saying anything in case! 

[Roger K]

No snakes of any kind here in the Fens in good ol' East Anglia, thank heaven.  The only thing that threatens working underneath the car is the water table.

Did the job this afternoon - rear casing came off easily, 27/64" tapping bit in the pillar drill, 1/4NPT taper reamer, 1/4NPT taper tap.  Job's a good 'un.  I bought a 1/4NPT magnetic drain plug for a Harley from arh customs:

https://www.arhcustom.co.uk/product/doss-magnetic-drain-plug-1-4-inch-18-n-p-t-allen-style-for-2000-2016-softail-oil-tank-transmission-2001-2016-dyna-flt-transmission-2007-2016-softail-dyna-flt-primary-2004-2016-xl-primary-models-arm044205/37398

...which does the job very nicely.  Using the tapered reamer meant I could set the hole so that the head of the plug is flush with the casing.

Roger

[NonMember]

33 minutes ago, Roger K said:

No snakes of any kind here in the Fens in good ol' East Anglia

Not strictly true. My other half is still scared of the wheelie bins because she disturbed a grass snake when taking the rubbish out one time.

[Roger K]

21 minutes ago, NonMember said:

Not strictly true. My other half is still scared of the wheelie bins because she disturbed a grass snake when taking the rubbish out one time.

Snake?  Or worm?  You decide...

[Roger K]

22 minutes ago, NonMember said:

Not strictly true. My other half is still scared of the wheelie bins because she disturbed a grass snake when taking the rubbish out one time.

Snake?  Or worm?  You decide...

Just checked, and apparently it's a legless lizard.

[Peter Truman]

In the 60’s we lived on the NY moors and I believe there were adders which were moderately poisonious but not lethal to us humans only small animals I never saw one!

[Peter Truman]

Ref diff drain plug surely it can be done insitu as the dwarf will drop down and anything that remains in the diff can be flushed out thro the new drain hole and a magnetic plug will catch anything that there could be there!

[ahebron]

Not allowed to drop dwarfs in NZ but might different in OZ.

 

Adrian

[Roger K]

My diff is out already, and it is incredibly easy to do with the rear casing off.  Took me about 10 mins all in.

I wouldn't want to trust to gravity and sticky oil, to be honest, but that's a personal choice.  Having just done the job on the clean, degreased rear casing off the diff, there is a lot of swarf produced which would stick to any oil left around the new drain plug hole.  I just wouldn't want to take the risk, but that's not to say you shouldn't.

We don't even have dwarfs in the UK any more.  They're called something completely different (and much longer) now, but I can't remember what that is offhand.

[Peter Truman]

Dwarf, Swarf what the Heck! bl++dy predictive text!

Merry Christmas to All irrespective of persuasion, nationality, gender, religion, colour, politics, and all variations thereof, it is the season to be Merry! I hope you in the UK, and northern suburbs of Sydney cope with the isolation, Living in Melbourne been there and done that for 4 months continuous, a real bummer! My Triumphs have done less than 100klm this year.

Re diff plug insitu, when I pulled my diff down I found the planet gears brass hemi-spherical shims had sheared and only half the shim was still there, all still working OK, I did replace the shims with like.

[Colin Lindsay]

10 hours ago, Roger K said:

We don't even have dwarfs in the UK any more.  They're called something completely different (and much longer) now, but I can't remember what that is offhand.

Politicians and Political Representatives. In the good old days they were giants; now it's bow, scrape, apologise and give the country away...

However: Happy Christmas to you too, Peter, and to all no matter their background or beliefs. Even cyclists.

 

[Andyone]

22 hours ago, Roger K said:

Snake?  Or worm?  You decide...

Just checked, and apparently it's a legless lizard.

Slow worm = legless lizard

Grass snake and adder only true snakes in UK and all absent from ireland 

[Chris Longhurst]

11 hours ago, Andyone said:

Slow worm = legless lizard

Grass snake and adder only true snakes in UK and all absent from ireland 

The smooth snake is the 3rd UK 'true' snake - but rare.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/reptiles/smooth-snake

 

[johny]

When you see the title of the thread surely this has got to be a record drift😍

Happy Christmas all!

[Andyone]

49 minutes ago, Chris Longhurst said:

The smooth snake is the 3rd UK 'true' snake - but rare.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/reptiles/smooth-snake

 

Cheers Chris you learn something every day!

10 minutes ago, johny said:

When you see the title of the thread surely this has got to be a record drift😍

Happy Christmas all!

Its a snow drift!

[Bordfunker]

I stepped on a Adder once when I was a teenager, stepping over a style, it had been sunbathing when I placed my foot on it and it hissed and slid off into the long grass.

I saw the movement and looked down and instantly clocked the diamond pattern on the back which marked it out as an Adder!

Surprisingly no pee cam out!

And I didn’t grow up in the countryside, this was around Heathrow in the early 80s.

Karl

[daverclasper]

Oooops. Just deleted my last post, as got the wrong end of the stick