Offroad-Express

as some of you may know i had a little runin with my truck a few weeks ago and smashed the front diff up up nicely,
i just managed to get around to replacing it the other day

for those that are interested heres a brief run down on how to do it. sizes of nuts used may vary from vehicle to vehicle and or i may be out with what size i quote (only a rough guide

lift front end of ground and support with jack stands or something solid.
remove front tires and bash plates
drain front diff oil
remove brake calipers 17mm nut and using a prody bar or long handled screwdriver pry off of disk
remove front hubs at ball joints, 7/8th sockect, strongarm and a BFH was needed to break the castle nuts
3 each side upper and lower arms and steering,
belt the outside of each joint with a hammer till joint pops out. avoid hitting the tread on the ball joint at all costs as you will never get the nut to thread on or up tight.
once hubs are loose using a proddy bar carefully remove the half shafts from the diff by levering of the diff housing or where evers easiest, the shafts should just slide out.
remove drive shaft 4 14mm bolts do not slide out of transfer case unless you want to loose all your oil
unbolt diff 14mm bolts X3 support with trolly jack or blocks
remove diff

now to replace the diff you have to unbolt the longer rear mount from the housing 17mm bolts
now with the help of a good trolly jack or a friend work the diff into position and get the front and drivers side mounts lightly secured
lightly secure the passenger side rear mount to the housing and chasie
tighten all bolts on the housing and mounts
slide hubs with half shafts back into place these should just slide back in but if not you may have to get someone to hold the hub straight while you hold a piece of wood over the end of it and drive it in with a BFH.
attach ball joints. calipers and drive shaft tires fill diff with oil attach bash plate

then last but not least go play again

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Thanks 2Roky, useful info there,
just one clafication, when your dropped the complete diff you didnt remove the CV's from the front hub, you just disconected the hubs from the control arms and slid them out from the diff end correct?

Is it just me or did you find that every single bolt in the diahatsu is tighter than the perverb *****? ive shifted bolts on a rusted old 30's relic easier than trying to shift some on the Fez.

yep thats what i did saved time helps to have a second set of hands there when ya putting back together this way though.
and yeh some bolts have been a bit tight, there tighter now though but do have a coating of never seize/dust graber on them. to break these types of bolts i just use a strong arm the correct sized socket and a big f#$%#n hammer.

if that doesn't work then it gets the heat treatment with the gas and if that still doesn't work they get cut off and replaced.

i think that they are so tight due to a mix of them being fine threaded and mud/water ingress into them also alot of the ones us 4wders have to undo will have never been undone since they were done up at the factory x amount of years ago