Swapped out the axles in my 1985 300D last night and into some headaches worked later than I should have and may have done a couple dumb things. Here goes:
1.) new chinese axle stubs were noticeably shorter than OEM's on the diff side so I couldn't get the clips on with the original spacers in place. I didn't see a procedure for setting spacer thickness in Haynes so I just guessed that the object is to not have any in/out play after the clip is on. The right side fit perfectly with no spacer. The left side had play with no spacer so I hand ground the original spacer from about 0.040"thk. to about 0.020"thk. Getting the clip on was hard but a couple taps with a screwdriver pushed it into place. I noticed though that the axles became difficult to rotate....seems with the originals still on I could turn each by hand and spin the diff. With the new ones installed the diff feels much stiffer. Is this a problem? Is it possible to make the new axles fit too tight, or as long as you can get the clip on are you OK?

2.) I stripped one of the diff mount bolts that bolt up to the underside of the body/frame. Looks like these bolts go into some kind of threaded strip slipped in on the other inside of the frame member. Any idea how to fix this? Or are these bolts not actually doing much and leaving one stripped one isn't the worst thing in the world? Any torque or big loads on this mount?

Tired this AM, I really need to discipline myself and call it quits at a reasonable hour next time and avoid dumb mistakes......

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1985 300D 231K anthracite grey w/black int.

I have done this job recently but not with replacement axles - I re-booted my old ones and so they went back on as they are intended.

In response to question 1:-

I guess the axles are sitting too tightly up against the seal on the output "shafts" of the differential. I think that this could cause you trouble in the form of leaks in the future - but that is only a guess. As I haven't fitted these replacement axles I can't say with 100% certainty.

Response to question 2:-

If you've stripped one of the bolts on the upper side of the diff (not the rear diff mount) then they go through a non threaded clearance hole in the sub frame. I messed up one of mine here too. I bought a replacement bolt and nut and washer from the dealer for about 10 euros. I think it is best to replace damaged items here!

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

thanks for the comments Army. The stripped bolt is one of the rear diff mount bolts. The rear diff mount is held to the underside of a body frame member with 4 bolts, it's one of those 4 that I stripped. I think you are talking about 4 bolts that hold the diff itself to the subframe.....I didn't touch those.

About the axles rubbing the diff. output seals, I don't think that is the case. When I slid the axles into the diff. I heard them both bottom down solidly against metal. If the seal was rubbing I wouldn't have heard that metal-on-metal clink. I'm mostly concerned that the axle stub ends in the diff may somehow effect internal gear clearance within the diff. and if so I'm worried about having taken out too much clearance.

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1985 300D 231K anthracite grey w/black int.

IIRC, there were other posts about not using the Chinese made axle shafts, and having the same problems. I do know that the axles are supposed to fit tightly when the clips are installed, but there should be no rubbing. The spacers are of different thickness, to make sure there is no play of the axle splines/shaft in the differential.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

I had the exact same spacer situation as you with my chinese axles but once installed they spun freely with no play.
15k miles and counting with fingers crossed and I check the can bolts regularly for tightness.

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1981 240D 143k 4 spd manual -SOLD

2004 VW Jetta TDI 5 speed 300k -still driven daily

I could'nt get the spacer on all the way with the chinese axles as the shoulder that the spacer rides against was not squarely cut but rather tapered as oppossed to the factory axles. I did'nt use the spacers at all, seems fine no noise that was'nt already there.

Hmmm did you strip just the bolt and not the captive nut inside the chassis... I hope for you it is just the bolt. In this case replace it with a 8.8 strength bolt of a similar size. I think you need to make sure all four bolts are tightly in there. Imagine those coming loose - the whole back end and sub frame would move about...

With regards to the rubbing sound - if the axle isn't rubbing on the seals then you could be pulling the gears in the diff too far up against the diff bearings... Before you RTV the diff cover and re-fill the diff I'd take a look inside and see what is going on. But from the comments above it sounds like you need a different sized clips / spacers...

...Just so you don't feel left out - this job was also a pain for me - I carefully covered the back end of my diff (without cover) with a plastic bag to go and have a tea break... only to come back and see said plastic bag floating off down the road and loads of sand being blown onto the gears... I had to remove the whole unit and clean it out.

Good luck

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

<>

I can't get the bolt out as it just spins in both directions now, I'll have to pry down on it while unscrewing and see if I can get it to back out. For some reason I feel like the captive nut is what got stripped as the threads looked fine before I put it all back together and I didn't think I was really overdoing it on the torque (lying on my back in an awkward position and all....hard to imagine really overloading it but I guess I did).

Well, at this point I may as well put the wheels on and fill up the diff with oil and take it for a test ride. If the tight diff. makes any weird noise I'll be back into pulling the thing apart again anyway. Otherwise if all is OK with the diff, I'll get the car onto some ramps to deal with that stripped bolt.

Mark

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1985 300D 231K anthracite grey w/black int.

Actually it is just as the harpu00 has said. above the Differential Mount sanwitched between under chassis sheetmetal and the bottom of the Trunk metal is a flat iron Bar. I believe there are threaded holes in the Bar.
It is possible that you could install a Helicoil into the stripped hole in the Bar.

However, the reason I can see the Bar on my car is because part of it is rusted through. I do not think missing one of 3 Bolts will cause an issue.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Speaking from experience, return those Chinese junk axles and ask for some made just about anywhere else or get a refund and find some elsewhere. We have had a lot of problems with Chinese junk axles and no longer accept them at our shop. The first clue you had was shafts were too short.
Paul

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84 500 SEL (307,xxx miles)

<>

Indeed I am slowly coming to the realization that cheapo chinese components are cheap for a reason. In additon to this axle issue, I'm having troubles with two sets of cheap chinese rotors installed 5k miles ago......one set is badly warped already, the other oddly grabby at low speeds like when inching along in bad traffic. Shockingly, it looks like I may be getting what I paid for........

How is it exactly that China is taking over the world??

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1985 300D 231K anthracite grey w/black int.

For your broken bolt try this thread.

I cannot get this bolt out


I ended up using a dremel to grind the bolt down and pulling it out that way. Roy posted the part numbers for the replacement metal. He mentions it in there, but there is a small cover that once you remove it can let you access the piece of metal.

If you need to drive in the mean time, you can bolt up the differential with only three bolts. I drove from January to mid July with this. Just remember to get Loctite on the bolts and apply 25 nm of torque to a set of brand new bolts.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

That looks like a good fix for the bolt problem. (I've book marked it anyway!)

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Keep this to yourself but I don't think they are - in the 1980s Hollywood was paranoid about a world wide Japanese take over - times they are a changing but it all often remains the same...

Oh and buy yourself some good quality brake parts say like ATE

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Where do we get ATE axles in The USofA,, are empi axles junk?