Leaky De Dion Diffs!

[Edzup Ezzer]

The halfshaft oil seal on the my diff drips a small amount of oil.

 

The diff has been changed (twice in fact but the first replacement supplied by Caterham [under warranty] - was v.noisy and leaked even more than the first! Turned out to be one of their development diffs! They then supplied a new diff [LSD].)

 

Checked the oil level - not a problem but it shouldn't leak. Asked at a local Ford dealer (it's a Ford diff of course) but they had no experience of leaky diffs. So how come I've had two 'leakers' (discounting Caterhams dev't diff). I've checked the half shaft sealing face and it is concentric with the stub axle.

 

Anybody got any experience of this problem? Car is a '98 1.6K SS.

First diff was a std non-LSD unit - changed it to an LSD when it started leaking.

[Alex Wong1697456877]

I had to replace a halfshaft oil seal on my diff not too long ago. I think I must have damaged it when I replaced the half shaft after changing de dion ears. It did spray oil everwhere as it leaked onto the halfshaft which was spinning pretty quickly, if I say so myself! I also put a bottle (upside down 500ml diet coke bottle) on the breather which has breathed a little since I last topped it up. This is probably due to overfilling. At the moment (touch wood) it seems to be not leaking.

 

Incidentally the leaky seal did not look damaged and appeared to be concentric until I measured it's depth with a vernier caliper which showed one side to be about 2mm deeper than the other. They do leak if they're not in square.

 

 

Alex Wong

www.alexwong.net

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Edited by - Alex Wong on 15 Oct 2000 15:57:28