AR7E - Alcester Racing 7's Equipe
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OK, so you've decided to top up the diff oil... ...sounds easy enough - just jack the car up, remove the filler plug on the back of the diff, pump in some oil until the diff can take no more, replace the plug... ...end of story. It's never so simple though... Let's recap:
The filler plug is on the back of the diff, on the right hand side (looking forwards). We shall remind you that in a De Dion car, the diff is bolted to the chassis and the de dion tube (seen in the pic above just behind the diff at the bottom of the picture) moves relative to the diff. You can probably appreciate from the above picture that space and access are extremely limited in this area - what you probably don't realise is that if the car is jacked up and supported in the normal way (so that the axle stands support the de dion tube rather than the chassis), the tube will actually be a few inches higher than in the above picture and will partially obscure the filler plug... First of all, however, let's prepare to defeat the space issue. Loosen the Right Rear Wheel NutsTo gain easier access to the diff - we're going to remove the right-rear wheel. So, before we jack the car, just loosen the RR wheel nuts slightly (once the car is in the air, it is very hard to undo the nuts from scratch - the whole wheel wants to rotate...) The wheel is actually only removed once the car is safely on axle stands. Next... Jacking The Car For Diff MaintenanceTo gain access to the diff, we want to get the suspension to hang down from the car - rather than the normal jacking method whereby the suspension still supports the car...
<Click Image for Full Size> The picture, above, shows how we manage this. The white arrow points to where we normally place the axle stand - i.e. underneath the extremities of the de dion tube. For diff maintenance, however, we'll carefully place the axle stand right at the edge of the rear left-to-right chassis tube (as pictured above). This lets the suspension hang down - unblocking the diff filler by the de dion tube - yet not stressing any of the more delicate chassis members. We do use the usual jacking point (refer to the picture below) - but once the car is on the axle stands, the jack remains in position and provides a light support to the de dion tube without actually raising it.
<Click Image for Full Size> Notice that a bunched-up, soft rag has been used to protect the powder coat on the A-frame bush from being scratched by the jack plate. Once the car is up on the stands, you can remove the RR wheel entirely in order to gain good access to the diff. (You might want to jack the front too - so that the car is level - but it is not too important as having the car tilting down slightly will allow a tiny bit of extra oil to stay in the diff) On to - Diff Oil - Access |
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