Team 47 down but NOT out.

I had my suspicions about a front diff leak for some time - if you remember the CV joint rubbing saga.  Anyway today when I got to work there was oil dripping from both front drive shaft flanges - just visible on the part of the crossmember by the sump.

There's no way to risk the RBRR with leaks like this, as I am sure a new front diff would be very expensive.

So what to do?

When I removed the drive shaft and front hub this was visible

No nut inside the flange like with Triumph Diff flanges, but the whole assembly was held in with 5 nuts, which soon came undone, revealing this

The inner race supports the crown wheel, so I didn't remove the other side at this point.

Stripped down you get this

When looking at the output shaft its easy to spot the rust that caused the seal to fail

Now one advantage of living in Birmingham is that after 6 or 7 phone calls I had located new seals and outer bearings, and set off to purchase them.

Heading home at 3pm with the parts an 18 month old Range Rover (Anne's) decides to call it a day - dash flashes red warning triangle and Reduced Power mode enabled. I was on the M5 at the time, and reduced power was good for 10 mph - not safe on a Motorway so its a 1 hour wait for recovery. You can imagine how happy I was.... especially as when the recovery driver arrived the car had reset itself and now worked. he still took me home and the car onto a Dealer, but said they sometimes do this, and no one knows why!!  Even more anger £80k on a car and it does this - the dealer had better find the cause and fix it.

Anyway I cleaned the rust off with emery paper and reassembled the shaft

It slots into the diff here - which I didn't have to remove after all

Anyway 9pm and this side all finished

The caliper still has to go on but I want to degrease the disc first.

The other side is also stripped bar 2 nuts that I cannot get at that may require removal of the steering rack or exhaust manifold but that's for tomorrow.

I also need to refit the diff sump. It doesn't appear to be a breather issue, but simply worn seals - I may yet add another breather, but it looks like the RBRR is still on