<VV> Early Differential Yoke failure....Follow up report

[Dan & Synde]

Hi All,

Follow up report on my differential yoke failure on our Greenbrier a couple
of weeks ago.   Finally go some time to really look at it and it is
incredible the amount of damage it can cause.  In our case, it broke while
pulling away from a stop light and we were under load.  Broke half way
through the intersection and we coasted to the curb.  It was the driver's
side.

I thought I might get off lite and just have to replace the yoke and u-joint
but no cigar.  

1) Broke one of the mounting ears off the starter.

2) Chewed up the teeth on the differential adjusting sleeve and broke the
adjusting sleeve lock allowing the sleeve to spin a full turn.

3) Due to #2, lost preload on the carrier bearings.

4) Chewed up the U-bolts and U-joint.

5) Destroyed a fairly new speedo cable


I popped the top on the differential and the gears look okay so I just spun
the adjusting sleeve back to take out the lateral play and then preloaded it
two notches just like I did when I put it together a few years ago.  Problem
is that all the teeth on the adjusting sleeve in the area where the locking
tabe needs to go are gone.  I think the proper way to fix it would be to
disassemble the whole thing, get a replacement adjusting sleeve and new
bearing/cone but that's a heck of alot of work.  

Question.....What about just replacing the adjusting sleeve and using the
old cone or using a new cone?  The differential has about 40,000 miles on it
since all the bearings, gears were replaced.  Doing that would sure save
alot of time but would it be a mistake?

Only other easy way would be to make an offset locking tab to grab one of
the good teeth in the damaged sleeve.

What do you think,

Dan Kling

1961 Greenbrier Deluxe, 4spd, 3.89  On the Road Again,  yeehaw :)
1963 Spyder, restored   4spd Saginaw
1967 Ultravan #299  Newest of the herd!! Almost killed me already!!


http://photos.yahoo.com/duchesskyra
A few pictures of the Greenbrier, UltraVan, engine and tranny tear down with
more to come!