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Has anybody ever tried removing the bushes form the side covers in the diff and replacing them? At the moment I'm stripping my box down to the bare minimum to get it cleaned. I would ideally remove them to so I can replace them with new ones. Any tips?

I had mine done as there were too much play betwwen the covers and the outputs.
I sent the covers, new bushes and the outputs to the machine shop and they did all the matching as the bushes needed to be reamed and everything matched perfectly. This was done, obviously, after I broke one of the alloy covers at home trying to take the bush out. My advise would be to take everything to a good machine shop.

Looks like Ricardo beat me too it! Easy to do in a press. Hook the oil seal out using a screwdriver and use a stepped mandrel press out the old one, fit the new bush with a smear of loctite. Don't forget you need to ream the new bush to size in a lathe concentric to the raised lip which preloads the diff bearings.

at the risk of being hung drawn and quartered , i hoicked my ones out , drifted in the new ones ,then used a 3 stone expanding honing tool ,from sp, and gently honed them out watching where the wear marks were, to be as central as possible ,until the pot went in .

huge improvement in play ,but not perhaps totally professional . no problems with play or leaks so far after a year or so , this is on a fairly powerful turbo mini .

I pushed mine in and out with a fly press. Everything is still in bits, but I like Robert’s methods of sizing. I think I still have the mandrel I turned up if you need to borrow one. I’m sure a vice would work just as well.

Hi guys,
They should be properly done and a machine shop is the only option, as Ricardo suggests. Honing to size will not "true" them, it should be done in a lathe.

Al

obvioulsy hanging my head in abject shame ,nay ,humiliation ,this is the appallingly abusing crude tool i used to create such an abortion

http://www.cromwell.co.uk/SYK5031169B

so ,if as sick as i ,and given to breaking rules at any option ,there you go , a path to the dark side .

Robert, they way you did it will work, just not the proper way, that's all. Fine for a quick roadside repair though!

Al

When I do them , I have a steel fixture that I hold true in the lathe chuck . This has a counterbore machined in it that locates the diff bearing spigot and taped holes that line up with the bolt holes .

Simples , just bolt it in and bore out bush with boring bar .

The bores of the bushes are nowhere near round or true to .

Simon,

Sent you a mail regarding re-bushing... Did you get it?

I've done it with a reamer a couple of times. Although this is now frowned upon, I've had some good results ....