308 Transaxle Help..

If what you're saying is that, "the movement (and it will move a little) is prohibiting the ability to get any real "travel" on the torque wrench, such that you cannot get the bolts to break loose", then....

I had the same problem, and here is how I overcame it:

First of all; Do not remove the bolts and nuts from the differential (side), prior to removing the bolts and nuts from the wheel (side). You will have nothing but the wheel and emergency brake to use as a block to remove those bolts. If you have a tremendously powerful emergency brake, maybe you can do it that way. I do not. And I was lucky to have realized this before I began removing the bolts.

I did it as follows:

(Note: There is precious little room for a torque wrench between the trunk and the rear head. So I could only get a little turn at a time on the torque wrench. Mabye 2 inches at most, working from the top)



1) Put the car in neutral.
2) Insert the socket into the bolt
3) Roll the differential either forwards or backwards, depending on which side you’re working on, until the torque wrench is hard-up against the trunk or the head.
4) Go put the car in gear (pref. 1st or reverse)
5) Pull/push the torque wrench until it reaches the limit of it’s range. (if you started with it hard-up on the head (doing the passenger side as in your photo), then move it to the trunk. If it doesn’t break loose, don’t worry. It will, eventually.
6) Put the car in neutral
7) Repeat step 3-6 until the bolt has been broken loose.

Doing 16 bolts per axel is tedious. But it doesn’t really take that long once you get the routine down.

 

Note that it says "roll the differential" What I mean is, put the socket in the bolt. Make sure you're in neutral. Then reach down and roll the hub until the top of the torque wrench is all the way against whatever limits your range of movement (trunk or head), and make sure you firmly press it against that limit by turning the hub with your hands.

And then go set it in gear. Go back and pull on the torque wrench until you reach the other side of the opening. The first time or two, it will not break loose. So, go put it in neutral. Then roll the hub back, (again) until the top of the wrench is once again against whatever object (a cylinder head or a trunk cavety) limits your range of movement. Then put it back in gear and pull the wrench again. Then put it in neutral again. Then back to move the set the wrench again. Back and forth and back and forth, until you're done.

It is a PITA. And there are a lot of them too! But be patient. They'll break loose. It may take 3 or 4 small iterations of the above before each one does break loose. But they will break loose. ...eventually

So plan on going back and forth between 18 and 25 times (maybe more) for each journal.

 

I just R&R'd my right rear axle last month since I also had torn CV boots. The best advice I received was to use a 24" extension to remove the diff side bolts. That way you can position yourself in the wheel well and get good leverage to break these. Even better if you have an impact wrench! My diff side bolts were a breeze compared to the outside ones. The outside bolts took 60 minutes of sweat and pain to break loose, the inside ones took less than 5 minutes. One of the outside nuts rounded off against the shoulder and I had to cut it off with a Dremel. Try to get an open ended wrench on the nuts to prevent this. Use a high quality impact hex and a breaker bar for the bolts and use a hammer to tap it fully into the hex opening after cleaning the gunk out of the opening with a small screwdriver. You can insert a large screwdriver into the brake disk vents to keep the axle from moving during the process. If you do strip the bolts, a Dremel is your best friend! As a final note, don't use a torque wrench to initially break the bolts since you will ruin the wrench. Good luck.

Two threads that really helped me do this job:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=78188&highlight=CV+joint

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94363&highlight=CV+joint

 

All the 308's seem to have some play on this part . . . I measured what felt like a "loose" one and compared it to a "tight" one . . . I wrote it down somewhere, think there was only about .005" difference (.015"-.020" total from memory) in the end float which felt like a ton radially because you're also feeling spider gear clearance . .. I think when you're driving the load/geometry of the spider gears on these shafts pushes them completely "out" against a couple of thrust washers.

I tore my diff apart originally thinking this was a problem . . . the only thing that really seemed "wrong" was the thrust washer tabs were broken . . .wasn't much wear (001"?) compared to the new ones . . . that's why I figured it must of been the wear on the spider gears. Ran the crap out of that diff for another year before putting in the rebuilt lump (not 'cause of the diff).

Sean

 

Rjay,
4Webers asked about Axial play & received input from several professional F* technicians in this thread:

308 Differential Bearing Preload
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101755

Recommend you put a dial indicator on it & see how much you've got.

I noticed a small amount, similar to luckydynes & 4Webers, when I had my differential apart a couple of years ago. Decided to live with it.

 

Mine's on the bench. So I'll check it out. And reply with the amount of play in a little bit..

I notices when I removed the shaft on the passenger side though, that there was a small amount of fluid (not grease) that dripped out, when I pulled it apart. The other (drivers) side just had grease.

So I think I may need a seal too.

ON another note:

Mine is a little noisy (I think, since I have little experience with Ferrari's) and I'm wondering.. Are they normally fairly loud? Or might that have simply been the transmission or dropdown gears? Does it take a lot to rebuild the differential? Is a newer one significantly quieter than one with 80Kmiles on it?

Just curious...

 

The wobble/radial play can only be from several areas.

Loose bolt that holds the flange to the output shaft/side gear

Loose splines between the flange and output shaft/side gear

Excessive clearance between the output shaft/side gear and the differntial housing.


End clearance or in/out movement would be from loose clutch packs or worrn side gear teeth.

Mine was very loose, but I found swapping side gears side to side took out just about all the play.