Hello, i have a 1978 volare supersix and have a broken differential, the car has a 7.25 differential, i was thinking of keeping it in the garage for some time because right now i don't have the money to send it to be repaired but yesterday i was talking to my father and i told him that i was thinking of lifting the car and check the damage to see if maybe i was lucky and only a couple of parts where damaged and if that was the case maybe i will be able to send it to be repaired sooner, while we were talking i showed him a video i found here

368 - "Differential Clunk - Diagnosis and Adjustment" (July 1978)
Volume 78 #7(it's the one at the bottom of the page)

http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Lit/Master/index.htm

of the master technician series where they show how to pull the differential and repair it (not completely but in general) and although i think that it is a very difficult task specially for a newbie, my father started talking that it really isn't so hard to do it and that i really don't need many special tools and that the only difficult thing is getting the correct tolerances for the adjustments.

He told me that he has repaired a differential at least once on another car (many years ago and i think it was a ford or a beetle i'm not sure)
so it got me thinking if it really was so hard to remove the differential from the car, repair it and put it back on my own with some help from his part if it is easy enough maybe i will be able to repair it sooner because i wouldn't need to pay the mechanic, only the parts and maybe a couple of tools.

And that is my question

how difficult is to remove and repair a 7.25 differential from a 1978 volare?

and if it is as "easy" as the above video shows

what tools do i have to get to be able to do it?

Thanks in advance for all the help you can give me

By the way i don't want to change to a different rear end because i live in Mexico city and i don't even know where are the nearest junkyards here (also for what i have been told in this part of mexico the junkyards are in very very bad neighborhoods in the poorest parts of the outskirts of the city) so i prefer not going near those places

bueno amigo yo tmb soy de mexico y hace unos meces tuve el mismo problema, lo que te conviene as es comprar todo el diferencial ya que te sale la misma en cuestion de precios comprarlo todo en vez de cambiar las piezas quebradas, otra cosa, si los engranes, ya sean planetarios, satelites, corona o piñon deben ser del mismo diferencial, ya que si no lo son van a zumbar y se pueden quebrar, lo que yo hice fue ponerle uno de duster, es la misma relacion pero esta mas reforsado, y no es dificil cambiarlo, nada que un dado largo de 11/16 para soltar los muelles, 3/8 para las lineas de los frenos y 5/8 para los amortiguadores

Translation to English

good friend I'm from mexico tmb ago you rock and I had the same problem, you should buy as is all the difference because it leaves you in a matter of prices buy everything instead of changing broken parts, otherwise, if gears, whether planetary satellites, crown or pinion differential should be the same as if they are not going to whine and can break, what I did was put one duster, is the same ratio but is more reforsado and it is not difficult to change, nothing over a given 11/16 to release the springs, 3 / 8 for the brake lines and 5 / 8 for the cushions


Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

thanks for the answer but i still have my doubts, because what i understand from your answer is that what you did was change the entire rear end, you found a duster rear end and made the swap (please correct me if i'm mistaken), and i don't want to do that, besides i don't even know where to find one, what i want to do is only remove the differential (as they do in the video i posted above) and repair only the differential, also i don't want to put old parts because i don't know how much wear this parts have and how much time they are going to last. I prefer the idea of putting brand new parts (some i can find here in mexico and some i can order online).

By the way i have found several sites (like http://www.superioraxlegear.com ) where they sell many of the parts but which one are the best, the more reliable an better made?

And also i have one last question is the 7.25 differential really that bad? i mean the first differential that my car had lasted like 25 years(most of those years the car was used almost every day), the second only lasted like 5-7 years(but only 3 or 4 being a driven every day) but i believe that only lasted so little because of a bad repair job

thanks in advance for any help you can give me

The last part of rebuilding the differential is torquing the nut to 250 ft. lbs.
If you have a hoist and a wrench that can grasp the u-joint yoke when you torque the nut, you could get away with a proper build, thats my take, Ive set up maybe 10 differential gears all on the bench.

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Advise should be taken as ongoing, that way, when you get to realizing what you are doing you can include yourself.

I agree with frutsy that it makes more sense for a novice mechanic to swap in a complete 7.25 rear assembly, because it's much easier. To attempt to repair the differential will cost as much in parts and tools, and take longer. If you get too much pre-load on the pinion bearing, you have to start over. It takes some experience to reach the correct torque on the pinion nut, as icepaddles says.
Unless you're an extreme driver, the 7.25 rear should be strong enough for a slant.

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/6 '67 Barracuda convertible, electronic ignition, 4-OD, street cam, SBP KH discs, 3.55 SG 7.25" 1" t-bars. Bilstein.
340 '67 fastback, Doug Nash 5-speed.
1988 Toyota pickup work truck

yeah i did that, but if you really wanna repair the differential you must check some thinks, like the distance between the pinion and the crown, and i must say that is not so easy, thats why i bought the whole rear end, is almost the same cost and you will save oneself lots of work

thanks for you answers, just like i thought the repair is quite more complicated than what my father thinks it is, i think that i will have to leave it to a qualified mechanic.

I think that all of you are right that changing the rear end will be something easier for an amateur like me, but i still think that an used rear end will end up being a temporary repair that will only give me a couple of years tops before i end up having to repair it again because of the regular wear of the "new" differential.

So what do you think? is it really worth it as a long term solution (something that will last at least 5 to 10 years of regular driving) to find an entire rear end and make the swap? or is it better to just wait, gather the money and send it to a mechanic and get brand new parts for the entire differential?

I'm asking because if in your experience the difference between both solutions is almost the same (thinking of the time the repair lasted and the money that you spent on it) what is better?

By the way frutsy where did you get your rear end here in mexico and how much did you spent on it?

And also how good are the parts from sites like www.superioraxlegear.com, are those parts good enough or is it better to stay away from them ?

thanks in advance for any help you can give me