I recently purchased a complete 4.77 geared diff for my S2K. When shipped, it was packed with some foam to protect it from being banged around. My concern is that when I pulled the diff out of it's packaging some of the foam shavings fell into the holes where the half shafts/rear axles slide into the diff housing. I know it's only foam but what concerns me is the fact that they are in an area where I can't really dig them out especially since they have some grease all over them now.

Should I be worried? If I can clean that area what would you recommend I use?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Id say anything other then oil in your diff is bad. Your the one looking at it, so if you think some stuff could have fallen in, then Id say make sure its clean before install... But I suspect you already knew that or you wouldn't have asked

 

If the foam only fell straight into the holes, you can get some long thin tweezers and pick them out. If there's a chance some fell into the diff casing, if it were me, I would take the cover off, and clean it all out really well, and re-seal the cover.

 

I definately want to clean it out beofre I intall it. Im wondering if break clean would be alright to use to clean it out?

Anyone?

 

[QUOTE=xviper,Jul 16 2006, 06:34 PM] If the foam only fell straight into the holes, you can get some long thin tweezers and pick them out.

 

Not sure "brake clean" is a good idea. It's used to get grease off metal parts. You are dealing with rubber seals in the diff. Brake clean might dry out rubber.
Only you can determine the likelihood of foam getting into the housing. You never mentioned the size of the foam pieces and whether or not they would even get past the space between the seal in the holes of the cover and the LSD bearings.

 

Try using a strong vacuum cleaner to draw out the foam through the same holes it went in. Best to get it out even though its soft if its gets into a bearing it can spend a lot of time going round and round a roller.

 

IMO better safe then sorry : take the cover off, clean the insides and put it back on.
It only takes a bit of new sealant.
Allthough its "only foam" it may be caugth in the Torsen and/or bearings.

But then again.. crushed foam may be very good for break-in

 

The foam particals vary in size. There are some small sprinkle like pieces, and some larger one's no bigger than a peanut out of the shell.

 

It is my impression that there is grease/oily residue inside the diff to start with. If this is so, you aren't going to get anything out with a vacuum.