Quaife ATB diff fitting tips

[dabsy]

Right, got the Quaife ATB diff. to fit my F20, now time to fit.

Have been told that a special tool is required at some point, is this correct?

My Nova is my daily motor, so I want the old diff out and the ATB fitted all in one go, in an afternoon if possible. So can someone enlighten me past the obvious:-

1) drain gearbox oil
2) remove driveshafts
3) remove diff plate
4) ?.........

Cheers,

Dave.

[Lee]

First job is to go and get new bearings pressed onto the new diff, as well as a new speedo ring.

The castle tool you need is for removing the large locking plate which holds the diff in, so you need to get one, either from vaux or any good tool supplier.

You should be able to just remove the old and slap the new one in in around an hour if you do all that first. HTH

[dabsy]

Cheers, excellent response and very prompt.

I assume the locking plate can be reached through the diff. access plate once removed then?

I bought the diff 2nd hand of a guy called Oddball off Migweb who told me that the bearings on there were new when he fitted it, covering about 14k miles in it during his ownership, and a 'was' new speedo ring was supplied too. The bearing seem to be very smooth, with no flat spots ofrrougness to them. Would you still recommend replacing them?

My current F20 is likely to have covered well over 100k miles, so i'm sure the bearings on the GM diff. will have seem better days.

[Lee]

Well, all you can do is take his word for it lol Use the force luke!!

Anyway, simple swap, just messy.

Remove the bottom diff plate, and try to catch as much fluid as poss (most will go on the floor i bet lol)

Remove the castle nut on the passenger side of the diff housing with the 'spethial' tool AFTER you have marked on it where its tightened to.

Remove the diff

Refit the reverse of above, tightening caslte nut up to the mark you made, and fill the box with fluid. Done!

[garyc]

A company called Kent Moore make the castle nut socket. For a F10 the part number is KM447. Vauxhall wont sell you one. There is no need to mark where the diff came from as you will be using new bearings and a different diff. tighten it so it moves without any slop. An old vauxhall manual may tell you how to tension it properly.
for KM stuff try, but they werent all that helpful to me.
www.servicesolutions.spx.com (http://www.servicesolutions.spx.com)

[Lee]

Thats a good place to start from. I agree on the nut tightning, i couldnt find any info so i did it that way, and it felt good at the line, so left it at that.

[dabsy]

Thanks gents, time to get messy with the old gal then.

[dabsy]

Just out of interest, is it possible to make up a tool to do the job, or is it a real special?

Cheers,

Dave.

[Stuart]

i use a 5*5*25 piece of angle steel instead of a "tool"... its hard work but saves messing with a tool lol.

[garyc]

If the nut comes of easily then you can use the angle method, but having the tool would save time and knuckles, esp if its tight. You may find tapping it round with a screwdriver\ chisel should get it started when you undo it.

On reassembly, clean up the threads and oil them to make it easier to tighten up.

I think if I was to do it on car again ?40 for the proper tool would be a bargain.