I've got basicly a stock '98 SVT Cobra and I'm not sure if its got problems. I'mnoteing a bit of "slop" in the rear end when shifting, or when hitting the accelerator after slowing with a downshift. I've checked the simple things in hopes of finding a simple fix. The U-Joints both look fine, I cant get any slop in them. While I was there I discovered the pinion seal is leaking a bit and I figured while I'm fixing that I may just consider looking into the differential slop. Basicly I need to know how much slop is too much. I've got maybe 10-15 degrees of turn on the driveshaft of play. I have not noticed any abnormal noise and maybe a little slight vibration at high speed. (Which I figure is most likely a simple tire balance issue.) When I drain the pumpkin for the pinion seal change, what should I be looking for? I haven't got much experiance in rear ends, so any help offered would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave

 

You shouldn't even have to drain the diff to change the seal because the fluid isn't suppose to be that high. It leaks when the car is moving. I can't stresss enough, be careful when you retighten the pinion bolt. You need to torque it to specs since the crush collar has already been properly "crushed" once. This will ruin your pattern check. As far as the slop, maybe the seal was replaced once and tigthened down too much? After all that's the poor mans way of doing it. Your suppose to remove the entire carrier assembly to essentially do things "right". I do know that worn out spider gears inside the carrier can cause the issue your experiencing because at a stop, the driveshaft has little play because the ring and pinion is prperly set, but the next thing inline for slop are the spider gears! I just replced them on my truck because it would literally Bang when I would cruise at 20mph with my foot off the gas and then step on the gas hard. I thought it was my tranny until I opened up the rear end and found terribly pitted and worn down spider gears! It was an open carrier though (non posi)

 

I opened up the rear end and found terribly pitted (broke)and worn down spider gears
1^

check the spider gears,you can see them just by takinng the cover off.

good luck