DIFF HOUSING FAILURE

[griffipaul]

Any one seen this happen before ? Car is vitesse mk 2

Failure is between rear mounting lugs.

had a strange noise from rear for a while but not able to track it down , a road speed related metallic rubbing type noise was only with power on , nothing with power off but when on cusp between the two sounded like a tinkling bearing type noise . on a run yesterday when accelerating hard there was a load bang from the rear and power off noise was now evident much more prevalent than power on hard to describe  but limped home and jacked car up on rear uprights to run with engine on to ascertain what noise was.

Started engine put car in gear and raised revs a bit . Suddenly a horrible noise from the rear end , investigated to find a lake of black oil under the car and broken casing pieces. broken piece is 2.5 " x 12 approx looks like evidence of witness marks inside.

 

 

 

 

[johny]

Had a similar incident many years ago with a Mk1 Vitesse and it was a factory recon unit fitted by the PO. I tried to claim back but it was a good few months out of warranty so had no luck. I didnt notice any noises prior to the failure and it went with a loud bang and holed casing while coming down a long motorway incline - might have been on trailing throttle but cant remember now and never did identify cause.... 

[NonMember]

Not personally but someone I knew near Buckingham had something very similar on a Mk2 Vitesse.

As you caught it when the casing gave way, and haven't driven any distance with it like that, there may be some salvageable parts in there still. You probably won't get away with just replacing the rear casing, though.

[Pete Lewis]

that looks like a foreign body has been fired into the rear case

something like a sheared crownwheel bolt or an escaped taper  roller 

Pete

[Peter Truman]

Surprised with a Mk2 Diff as the Rotaflex's take a lot of the transmission load, Eon's ago when I was restoring my Mk2 I stripped the diff rear cover off to find the pinion gears brass spherical thrust washers ripped apart and sitting in the bottom of the diff, it had obviously happened early in the cars life as the shim thickness was still clearly stamped on the washer (0.037 in), the car was restored at around 75,000 miles. I simply replaced it & the opposite one.

[Ben Caswell]

My car was a Mk1 2lt and what happened was a tooth had snapped off the pinion due to worn bearings allowing the pinion to move up and down

and there wasn't room between the crown wheel and the casing. The tooth punched a similar sized hole to yours

in the casing. 500 yards later the diff started making whining noises and I stopped. I traced the streak of oil back 

to its beginning and there was the piece of casing and the broken tooth laying in the road.