Differential Assembly

The differential assembly is supported at the front and rear by taper roller bearings, the front bearing outer track is located in the front output housing and the rear bearing outer track is located in the main casing by the rear output housing. Bearing pre-load is achieved by means of a selective shim located in the front output housing.

The differential rear shaft carries the low range gear, high/low selector sleeve and hub, high range gear and bush and the differential rear bearing; these components being secured to the shaft by a special staked nut.

The differential assembly comprises front and rear half carriers with integral shafts and with sun and planet gears mounted on cross shafts within the half carriers. Dished, non-selective thrust washers control the engagement of the planet gears with the sun gears, while selective thrust washers are used to control engagement of the sun gears and torque-to-turn of the differential. The differential carrier halves are bolted together, a retaining ring providing positive location of the cross shafts.

The high/low selector shaft and fork are located at the side of the differential, movement of the shaft, fork and selector sleeve being controlled by the high/low selector finger. A spring loaded detent ball fitted in the main casing, locates in grooves in the shaft.

On vehicles from 03 model year, the selector fork is modified and fitted with a spring assister and clips to reduce the effort required to move the selector lever.