My LR3 diff rebuild

[ColoDisco]

Well after a year I finally rebuilt my diff. With help from my good friend Morris we were able to sneak the diff out. My exhaust is welded as one piece thanks to the idiot who put on the full magnaflow with cats and destroyed my manifolds, but that's another story and will be corrected this winter.

Amazing that there wasn't more bearing damage considering l knew they were worn and kept driving on them figuring if it ever got louder I would address it immediately. Never did.

In case you are wondering the green lube is redline shockproof lightweight. It was recommended to me but in hindsight I wish I had kept with factory fluid. I switched back to factory fluid and will be changing it regularly.

After removing the diff and removing the case bolts:

First look inside housing. Can see the paint peeling inside. I ran the whole setup through the parts washer and sandblasted inside the case while it was completely disassembled:

Cover after the parts washer. Again I sandblasted off the remaining paint:

Moisture inside the case which mixed with the shockproof causing a thick slime. No doubt moisture had a role in the degradation of the bearings:

Race wear:

This is the worst bearing. It was the right output bearing:

Installation of the PDR kit was easy. You need a shop press some race drivers that fit (I improvised from a hub tamer kit) and a bearing splitter and removal pullers. Overall it took me 8-9 hours but I added some clean up of the case and had to deal with a one piece exhaust. Well that and I was on day 6 of automotive repair. Noise is gone. Diff works well. On a DIY list I would rate it as difficult. I have a complete shop at my disposal and the instructions are almost non existent. If you have done diffs ( this was my fifth including a 2016 Range Rover) then you should be fine. You need to know what kind of tension should be on the pinion as there is no spec sheet from the factory.


HUGE thank you to Todd (unseenone)!! He was instrumental on me getting this done. I will be buying the front kit in June (preemptive rebuild as I am closing in on 200k).

 

[DiscoDavis]

Did Todd's kit come with the crush washer ring thing?

Is he back in business doing diff refurbs or just offering the kit? I had a great front unit from him (or his business partner/source).

 

[ColoDisco]

Not sure of the back in business thing but he sold me the kit. It did come with the crush washer but I ended up using the old one as I did not have the proper torque for the pinion at the time of assembly. Felt fine with the old one anyway.

 

[Aakempvt]

Any chance you can do a write up for future reference? Did you change the ring and pinion as well?

I have a very high pitched whine with throttle above 70mph and between 35-45. LR4 with 46k miles.

 

[ColoDisco]

How are your tires? Any scalloping/cupping?

 

[Aakempvt]

How are your tires? Any scalloping/cupping?

7k miles on Cooper Xeon LTZs, wear is non-existent and I've rotated them once.

 

[ColoDisco]

Generally your diff should not be making noise at such a low mileage. I ask about your tires as they can make a similar noise. My duratracs are scalloped due to alignment issues which I have sorted but damage was done. As for a write up, I did not take step by step pictures as I was busy trying to get it done in 1 day. Almost accomplished it but ran out of energy. As I said it's not for a amateur to do this. I highly recommend having it done by someone who has done diffs before. I had to improvise along the way and my experience allowed me to adapt.

 

[jmartin20]

Generally your diff should not be making noise at such a low mileage. I ask about your tires as they can make a similar noise. My duratracs are scalloped due to alignment issues which I have sorted but damage was done. As for a write up, I did not take step by step pictures as I was busy trying to get it done in 1 day. Almost accomplished it but ran out of energy. As I said it's not for a amateur to do this. I highly recommend having it done by someone who has done diffs before. I had to improvise along the way and my experience allowed me to adapt.

I have an 08 LR3 with 135k miles. I bought it last year with 123k miles. I also own an 05 LR3 with 212k miles that I put 50k on it. On the 08, if I take my foot off the gas at any speed there is a slight vibration on the drivers side, notably on the gas pedal and a hum with it. When I accelerate from stop or from moving there is the same vibration and slight hum. I am trying to see if anyone has experienced this before I pull the front DIFF apart. I am looking into replacing the rear drive shaft and the front drive shaft. The wheel hub bearings seem to be new. Ive used multiple sets of wheels on it to see if it is the wheels and that is not the case as I do not have any of this on my 05 LR3. I am keeping the 05 LR3 as a daily driver and as a donor vehicle as the drive line seems in excellent condition. Any insight would be helpful!!

 

[ColoDisco]

Diff vibration is usually noticed at lower speed more than higher speed. I would inspect the front and rear prop shaft as a possible suspect. Front may have a blown boot on the tcase output side and the rear can have a blown carrier bearing bushing. If those are both ok find a shop that has a 4 post lift and can run it in the air. With a stethoscope you can listen to all the diff bearings pinion and both outputs. This is how I found the issue with my rear diff.

 

[dfout]

Diff vibration is usually noticed at lower speed more than higher speed. I would inspect the front and rear prop shaft as a possible suspect. Front may have a blown boot on the tcase output side and the rear can have a blown carrier bearing bushing. If those are both ok find a shop that has a 4 post lift and can run it in the air. With a stethoscope you can listen to all the diff bearings pinion and both outputs. This is how I found the issue with my rear diff.

I know this is a fairly old thread, but I am absolutely scouring the web for any help on rebuilding my front differential. I was wondering if you ever got around to it and if you did how it went? I am fairly handy, but I have not rebuilt the diff before And I am slightly apprehensive at giving it a go, although I’m not really willing to shell out the money to have a shop do it.

I know that people have had a hard time getting crushed sleeves, but I managed to source a company in Texas that manufactures them and have one on the way hopefully this week along with the bearings and new seals

 

[evsteroo]

I know this is a fairly old thread, but I am absolutely scouring the web for any help on rebuilding my front differential. I was wondering if you ever got around to it and if you did how it went? I am fairly handy, but I have not rebuilt the diff before And I am slightly apprehensive at giving it a go, although I’m not really willing to shell out the money to have a shop do it.

I know that people have had a hard time getting crushed sleeves, but I managed to source a company in Texas that manufactures them and have one on the way hopefully this week along with the bearings and new seals

I rebuilt my front diff about 3000 miles ago, including some off-road miles, and so far it's been running very smoothly (although I think the major problem with my differential was the bushings, not anything internal), so maybe I can answer some questions.

For starters, I will say, it is very unlikely that you actually need to replace the crush sleeve. I reused my crush sleeve and I was able to achieve the only two metrics that really matter, which are getting the bearing pre-load right (more accurately bearing "drag", IMO) while simultaneously getting a pinion nut torque that I was happy with. Do your own research, and don't take my word for it, but with my reused crush sleeve, I torqued the pinion nut to 170 ft-lbs and get a bearing "drag" of 15 in-lbs and I was happy with both of those numbers. I would actually be more afraid of using a non-OEM crush sleeve (because they are manufactured to "crush" at a very specific pinion nut torque) than I would be of reusing the original crush sleeve.

Maybe you already know this, but I think the confusion in the community about the crush sleeve is that it is what applies the pre-load to the bearings, and, in fact, it does the opposite, it prevents the pre-load created by the very large torque on the pinion nut from absolutely crushing your bearings.

To be totally honest, the hardest part of this job is getting to the bolt that holds the bushing bracket in place after you've removed the diff housing, but I would strongly recommend you replace all three diff housing bushings, which requires that you remove the bracket from the vehicle.