I'm not being a dick but 2.5 hours? This should take not more than 45 minutes. Invest in air tools my friends. This is childs play. I pulled my diff completely out, installed hasport mounts and one piece spacers, put it back together, and drove home from the shop in under an hour. You guys are taking wayyyy to much stuff off. There is no need to remove the wheels, exhaust, or anything on the rear suspension. Just unbolt the diff and axles, slide it one side, pull out the axle, slide to the other side, pull the other axle, take out diff. Easy, peasy.

 

where can i get the proper tool to remove the ball joint?

 

Much easier than I thought. Took me about two hours...

Some considerations:

• If your car is lowered, I believe you can wiggle the diff out. Mine practically fell out of the car.
• Remove the rear sway bar hangers for more room (I didn't need to)
• Empty Diff before removal.
• Be patient, and have a smaller breaker bar (or hollow bar) handy.

Great write up tho! Prepared me for the job at hand.

 

Willie Gee your still around man! Long time no, anything.. How have you been after all these years?

 

I'll add a couple things from my experience since the thread helped me out.

I did it by myself with basic hand tools with the car on jack stands.

-removal of exhaust and or sway bar gives additional clearance (which you may need) and can help better position wrenches for more leverage but is not at all necessary. I live in an apartment in an urban area and didn't feel like having to potentially keep the exhaust in my living room.
-you can leave the front and rear mounting 'arms' on the diff or take them off. I left them on but it probably would have been much easier to remove them, especially at the final awkward stage of getting the diff out. If you know your diff is busted or you are replacing it you might as well remove them while it's still on the car.
-use the e-brake to get the drive shaft and axle bolts exactly where you need them, even if this means adjusting the e-brake after each bolt. The drive shaft bolts will strip very easily (I got 5 off clean, the last one I got in a hurry and almost stripped).
-the axle bolts may be on extremely tight, the driver's side went ok but I couldn't get a single passenger side bolt to break loose with the wrench on the axle side. I put an open wrench on the diff side (nut instead of the bolt) and bashed it with a hammer to get them loose. Bashing wrenches with hammers to break nuts loose was a common theme. With more ground clearance (ability to fit at least a small breaker bar) or power tools this will not be an issue.
-removing one upper control arm, which is very easy if the spring is not in the way, allows the diff to be removed with some finesse once everything is loose. Removing both makes it fairly easy; I ended up removing both because it takes <5 minutes per side. Removing the ball joint or some other technique may work as well or better but frankly loosening the upper control arm is a joke compared to the drive shaft and axles and I didn't want to take my 50th trip to sears to get a ball joint puller.
-if you remove the mounting 'arms' as I call them from the diff, I do not see why you'd mess with the differential mounts themselves (as billman mentioned).
-you'll need a slide hammer or careful work with pry bars to remove the output shafts from the differential if you plan on opening up the pumpkin after removal.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, do what you can to avoid having to remove the differential because I've done my fair share of wrenching and this one is not fun without power tools and a lift.

 

Bumping an old thread here but I had a couple of questions I was hoping someone might shine light on:

The service manual says two things I am questioning.

1) it says mark the axles and the diff so you can reinstall the diff exactly as it was from the factory. I can't figure out why this should really matter?

2) It says the bolts attaching the diff to the axles and the propeller-shaft are "special" and should be replaced each time they are removed. Again, I am somewhat questioning this, not trying to be cheap but I can't see any reason the bolts couldn't be reused...

 

I have reused the bolts a few,times no issues. Just make sure there in gd shape

 

Thanks, I kind of figured it would be fine. Obviously if they were rounded off or something it would be sketchy to use them.

 

Anyone know the part number from Majestic Honda for the driveshaft bolts? 6 bolts that take a 6mm allen socket that hold the driveshaft to the diff? I want to have some on hand in case they strip out on me. I checked majestics and I am not sure which part it is so if you have ordered them and know the part number I would appreciate it.

 

If your looking for the AP1 bolts they are listed under propeller shaft Majestic number is, 90183-S2A-000 005 006 BOLT, SOCKET (8X65) 3.18 2.13 Qty:

You can also buy them from a local hardware store the size is 8mm x 65mm long 125 fine pitch

Good luck