On Thu, 6 Apr 1995, jpratchi wrote:
> Can anyone tell me how much backlash it tolerable on a Spitfire
> differential and what is the preferred method for measuring it on
> the car. A good question for Greg Meboe maybe?
If we applied industry-accepted tolerance standards to Spitfire
differentials, it might be difficult to find even one acceptable unit
amongst all of our cars collectively!
If someone who has a manual handy could look up the backlash spec, we
could easily relate that to play felt at the flange.
I'd suggest measuring the play by getting under the car and
frobbing the driveshaft with the trans in neutral and the E-brake on.
Look at how far (in inches) the outside of the U-Joint flange moves back and
forth as you frob the joint. Divide this number by 2 and that's the
total play between the pinion and ring.
Seriously though, I don't know if I'd even care if the backlash
was twice what the manual said is acceptable. The current diff in my
spit has been whining for 10,000 miles; I'll change it when it seizes or
when I have an excess of cash, whichever comes first. :-)
Make sure you're not mistaking diff clunk for U-joint click. I
replace the u-joints in the spit at the first sign of noise, because I
think failure would be catastrophic. This turns out to be about every
10,000 miles. The diff on the other hand, well, the last one seized on
the freeway, and it wasn't really that hard to pull over safely. It was
rather embarrassing though.
Does this help?
Greg
Greg Meboe meboe@wsunix.wsu.edu
Dept. of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Washington State University, Pullman, Wa.
'85 XJ-12 H.E. (daily) '67 Spit-6 '74 TR-6
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