OK, update time!
Rear diff first.
My boss put me in touch with a master diff builder who after speaking with on the phone I decided I would see if he can fix my factory locked rear diff and if he can then I can fit the E locker into my front diff.
So I decided to pull the entire rear axle off so that I could make a few repairs to the axle and change the rear bushes in the trailing arms.
Drained the oil.
And unsurprisingly the magnetic drain plug looked like this.
I pulled the half shafts and diff out.
As suspected much more teeth damage to when I had the diff out last year.
Then I took the broken diff, the KZJ78 diff, the KZJ78 axle housing and the new E locker to the diff guy.
The reason I was taking the diff casing was because he had a 4:8 Hilux diff he was willing to give me, if he couldnt fix the factory locker and he was going to rebuild it with a solid pinion spacer and the E locker. And I wanted to confirm the Hilux diff would indeed fit my KZJ78 axle.
But as it turned out he was quite confident he would be able to fix it using the Hilux aftermarket ring and pinion that a guy in Brisbane had fitted to his factory locked LJ78 diff.
I pulled the trailing arms off.
The bushes in each arm were completely knackered but I had a spare set with just one knackered bush in each arm that I chose to replace them with.
The axle casing was also damaged where the shocks mount as obviously at some point the bushes had completely worn out and the pin on the shock had flogged the holes out.
I hung it up to fully drain all the oil out.
I dug out some spare arms with decent bushes.
And took the whole lot to work.
Where I repaired the axle first.
Marked around the thick 5mm thick repair washers I chose to weld into the axle.
Die ground the holes out and tapped the washers in place.
And TIG welded them in.
With that done, I pressed the old bushes and replacement bushes out.
Old versus new.
Arms all ready for the new bushes to be pressed in.
And in they went.
I brought it all home and today I picked up some paint.
I cleaned everything up and hung them up in the workshop ready to paint.
I also hung the KZJ78 casing up as I had obviously already repaired it and cleaned it all up with a wire wheel in the grinder so to preserve it until I need it I figured I should probably paint it too.
And hit it with a good coat of paint.
Tomorrow I will give them a second coat and then the LJ78 axle casting and arms can go back on.
*Next update coming shortly.