3.45 Differential install
Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 3:08 pm
I purchased a 2013 Camaro SS manual transmission differential on Ebay. It had 17,000 miles on it. $850 with free shipping and it had new axle seals installed. I removed the rear cover, checked for metal particles, drained the rest of the fluid, installed a new cover gasket and painted the rear cover. I also ordered some polyurethane, BMR BK-001, street durometer of 68. Drilled out the old bushings with a 2-1/4" hole saw and then with the edge of straight file cut a relief across the inside body of the remaining steel shell. Was very careful not to cut into the aluminum bushing housings. I used a couple of different drifts and chisels to push the old bushing shell towards the inside, peeling it away from the aluminum wall of the housing. I took my time and a lot of patience (two nights after work) to do this.
On Saturday morning I met my friend Jeff who owns J2 Speed here in Southwest Omaha, NE. With his help, we accomplished this swap in 2.5 hours.
Two things of note, from our mistakes that would make things go faster. 1) Drain the old differential first. We found out the hard way removing the old diff. 2) Set the trans into neutral BEFORE removing right rear caliper. We had the caliper removed before I had removed the 3 drive shaft bolts. I jumped into the car to put it into neutral to rotate the drive shaft. To get it into neutral you need to depress the brake pedal. DOH! Spent a little time gaining pad spacing to re-install the caliper.
NOTE: I have added the bushing removal pics further down this thread!
On Saturday morning I met my friend Jeff who owns J2 Speed here in Southwest Omaha, NE. With his help, we accomplished this swap in 2.5 hours.
Two things of note, from our mistakes that would make things go faster. 1) Drain the old differential first. We found out the hard way removing the old diff. 2) Set the trans into neutral BEFORE removing right rear caliper. We had the caliper removed before I had removed the 3 drive shaft bolts. I jumped into the car to put it into neutral to rotate the drive shaft. To get it into neutral you need to depress the brake pedal. DOH! Spent a little time gaining pad spacing to re-install the caliper.
NOTE: I have added the bushing removal pics further down this thread!