I know the subject of what upper arms to use when fitting an EL diff to an earlier model has been advised on many times, yet despite the accurate info posted by some members, the waters get muddied time and again.
I thought I'd post pics of my recent diff adjustment with the aim of giving someone a visual guide to the solution of my pinion alignment problem.
If your car is lower than mine [-50mm at rear] XR6 arms may be needed to lower the pinion angle even further than the std EL arms I used.
Pic 1: Is of the car to illustrate the ride hight.
Pic 2: BenJ and I re-fitted the larger and longer EB2 arms to see what angle we'd have to fix with either std EL or XR6 arms. [muddied waters]
The rest of the pictures are self explanatory, I think, but if anyone is unclear on them I will be glad to explain what they're meant to highlight.
The last pic is the happy ending, good to 5K rpm smooth and strong, notice the impact marks just up from the uni joint.
After fitting the front bolts of both EL arms to the body, the pinion was lowered by placing the floor jack under the Watts link and gently raising that until the rear bolt holes aligned.
It is much easier having a second person on the jack, I had sadly lost the services of BenJ for this last exercise as I think he could have mastered 'floorjack 101' with a little effort. In his favour he does the complex things well.
All up, less travel time, removing the arms at the wreckers and re-fitting them took less than 2 hours, a quick and easy fix to bad problem.
Paul
PS I must have hit the upload wall, Pics 1 and 2 to follow.

 

 

Attachments:

File comment: Short but strong IMG_0298 (Small).jpg [ 38.53 KiB | Viewed 145 times ]

File comment: Another View IMG_0299 (Small).jpg [ 25.84 KiB | Viewed 138 times ]

File comment: EL bolt and retainer IMG_0300 (Small).jpg [ 54.2 KiB | Viewed 154 times ]

File comment: One arm in place, note gap. IMG_0301 (Small).jpg [ 147.09 KiB | Viewed 146 times ]

File comment: Straight enough IMG_0303 (Small).jpg [ 102.73 KiB | Viewed 156 times ]

I should make it clear that the standard arms only fit the front [upper] captive nut location, only the XR6 'bent' arms will fit the lower hole without problems.
Pics 1 & 2 attached. 3 for good measure.
Paul

 

 

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File comment: Ride Height Diffdun (Small).jpg [ 142.61 KiB | Viewed 148 times ]

File comment: EB2 arms, pinion angle way too high. IMG_0302 (Small).jpg [ 115.39 KiB | Viewed 156 times ]

File comment: Comparison, EL std arm on top. IMG_0297 (Small).jpg [ 50.83 KiB | Viewed 130 times ]

Excellent write up.

Vote one for addition to Diff Sticky.

Do you think using the standard EL arms in a lowered car with a non EL diff will help with the pinion angle?

BenJ

Hi Ben,
Good question,
If the pinion is sitting high then it would be worth exploring. Probably the best thing to do is, with the car supported [for those who can't assume such things], undo the rear upper arm bolts and lift the ends clear of the mounting brackets. Place a mark 20mm towards the front, on top of the arm, sit them back in the brackets. Using a jack as described above rotate the pinion down and note when it's level. If the mounting bracket holes align with the mark then the shorter EL arms would probably solve the problem. If it is very close but not exact, it would be up to the individual to experiment to see if the improvement is actually workable.
Hope I have explained that well enough.
The most accurate method would be rotate the diff until the pinion angle is correct, mark the arms at the bolt holes and measure the distance from the front bolts to the mark. If carefully done this should give the length of the arm required.
Paul

PaulC and TerroristGhia,
Here is the bump up you asked for, any details you want post here or PM me and I'll send you my phone number.
Paul

How did u end up going with this?

Hi OZFORDAU,
I should have made it clearer I think but in the middle of the first post I wrote:
"The last pic is the happy ending, good to 5K rpm smooth and strong".
It's still going really smooth up to 5200RPM [only for testing] loaded and empty and I'm very happy with the result.
I haven't had the pinion angle properly measured yet but as I'm up for a wheel alignment soon, I'll get it done then just for the record.
Total cost $70 plus 2hrs total time @ wreckers/home.
Cheers,
Paul