Sooner rather than later would be good for camp. Need to do it while car still works. Don't want to do it in a rental Corsa though.
Back in diff fix country tomorrow...

That should be a relatively easy fix Moray. It's not too deep

I know I said I didn't want to spend Summer Camp cleaning seats but I do have all the repair stuff. We can have a go at fixing the damage if you like. Stick up a pic of it.

I'll second Martys views on the Audi fit. Easily done. Bit of easing metal aside. You may need lots of lube to get hoses through bulkhead grommets or maybe I just had thickwall tube.

Upgrade to a larger hammer or a large dose of strong tranquillisers?
Sitting at a pavement cafe in the sunshine in Brighton. Rental Corsa dumped in expensive paid parking and not a P38 to be seen. Life's good. Pleased you sorted your door Morat by the way.

I had thought of that, briefly, but I've had enough of spannering cars at the moment. I'll be back fully charged after my break- even if it is in a rental.
I was definitely at the Basil Fawlty stage of giving the blue one a damn good thrashing with a stout stick this afternoon, but I'm happy to leave them both locked in the workshop for a few days.

Enjoy your holiday Tony.
Already dropped the prop off the black one to check for obvious loose nut issues, but no joy.
The intention was never to try and keep two of these on the road at the same time. One was always going to be sold. It was just handy to have the blue one on the road while the black one was being renovated.
Well, the black one is only a diff swap away from daily driver and the blue one (probably) needs a head job or two, so the new owner can continue to enjoy the benefits of P38 ownership.
Problem tracing can wait until next week when I'm back

I've never given a second thought to long journeys in the blue one (well apart from the first ever long trip!). Not Gilbertd's version of a long trip, but it's quite happily done 900 miles in a day before.
Probably a good thing I actually checked the oil as it has never used any oil between changes, and minimal coolant- a splash every 6 months.
Engine wouldn't have lasted too long on a water/ oil emulsion.

Not seriously, or even in passing, considered Dave!
Hired a car from the nice lady at Enterprise to cover the road trip. Not quite the same driving experience I was hoping for, driving a Focus rather than my lovingly restored Vogue SE, but I need the break from the workshop and cars in general.
When I'm back I'll drop a new diff into the black one and then do diagnostics on the blue one.

Checked oil on blue back-up RR, prior to my road trip/ holiday tour tomorrow and...

Yes- that's a lovely beige water/ oil emulsion. Checked coolant level in expansion tank- dropped around 1/4 litre and it never uses any.
So that's that, both P38s sidelined.
I am so pi$$ed off

Oh there's definitely a problem Shep. It's just the scale of the problem.
From an engineering point of view there should be effectively zero lateral movement in the pinion flange. Lateral movement will transfer through the driveline- the end of the prop will effectively orbit rather than rotating. This will cause rotational vibration which will impact the next "fixed" point in the system- the transfer box output bearing, as well as killing the UJ's.
That's the extreme consequence. mine isn't there- yet.
The heavy mass damper on the diff will tend to mask the vibration (that's kind of what it's there for).
What engineering analysis can't tell me is how long the failing bearing will last.
That's the quandary. It needs fixing. The question is when?!

Strange that the pinion oil seal isn't leaking, as the flange will be orbiting in the seal, rather than rotating.

2000 miles of fuel. Now that really would be a road trip!
I'll drop the prop tomorrow, just in case it's as simple as the lock nut working loose. Re-torque and see if the play goes away. Preload on the pinion is set with shims so shouldn't make anything any worse.

No noise at all- that's the weird thing. Failing diff's usually announce themselves, as you say, by screaming loudly in protest. I'd have expected to find metal in the oil as well.
There's about 1mm of lateral play at the flange though.
I have driven it up to around 90 (on a private road of course) and no strange noises, wobbles, or any strange behaviour generally.

Even more irritating is that I was going to take it on a road trip for a week or so on Wednesday, travelling the highways and byways of Britain catching up with old friends.
Going to have to take the blue one now.

It was time taken by a workshop that I was interested in. Never done a P38 diff before, but on the old hybrid I did a rear in a couple of hours, which was what made me think rear.
I was hoping that the front was the replacement, as it would then have only 73k on it rather than 280k making it the only high miles bit of the driveline left.
UJs look neglected but no obvious play in them. I've got 4 new ones on the shelf which I didn't get round to fitting the other day. Only noticed the play in the rear flange after I'd changed the oil. That came out pretty clean with no swarf on the magnet, so I had a brief warm glow of a well maintained problem free diff. Not the case.

Pinion bearing's gone on my rear diff.
Looking through bills, the car had a rebuilt 4 pin diff supplied and fitted 73 000 miles ago. Only problem is I don't know whether it was front or back. Workshop labour hours were 2.0 so I'm guessing rear, as I imagine front would be more of a pain/ take longer than that given hub removal etc and it was a 4 pin.
Anyone have experience of changing a diff, front or rear, and how long it took?
I don't think I'll be able to do a warranty claim (!) but I am curious about a diff that only lasted 73k.

Oh nuts- something else to replace now.
There's a bit of play in the rear pinion flange, which I'm guessing will be a failing pinion bearing. I don't have the bearing pullers etc to rebuild the diff myself, so I guess I'm going to have to give Ashcrofts 350.00 in drinking vouchers for a rebuilt one.
Damn.

Put your straight edge along the block face while you've got the head off, check liner tops etc just in case...

There's no f in chance!
For me, doing trimming is is like puking. Although I can do it I hate the experience...