bolt kit madness

[treed2 at u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

Okay, so I got my ring gear and differential removed from the tranny as a
unit, and I drilled and punched out the eight rivets holding the two parts
together. What a pain in the ass! It took me 5.5 hours to get all eight
out. In the process I managed to munge up the surface of the ring gear a
bit around one or two of the bolt holes. I hope that doesn't cause
problems (!)

I'm waiting for my bolt kit from peter@thescirocco, it should be here
tomorrow (friday). Peter says the kit HAS to be pressed in; which is fine
with me.. but since I don't have a press, does anyone have a homebrew
solution to this that has worked for a bolt kit before?

Since this is fresh in my mind, the process that worked for me to remove
the rivets is as follows:

First and foremost, build yourself a stand. You need 2 ~10" long 4x4s
and 2 ~10" long 2x4s. Set the 4x4s side by side with a gap between them
and then set the 2x4s flat on top of the 4x4s, also side by side with a
gap, but the opposite orientation. Now set the ring gear/diff assembly
(with the diff facing down) in the gap between the four boards. Scoot
them closer together so they hug the differential tightly (you'll need to
reposition it so that the two large rivet heads are in the "channel"
between the 2x4s). Get four long wood screws and screw the thing together.
Now you can set your stand on the drill press to do any drilling work,
and it holds the ring gear/diff solidly so you can clamp it to your drill
press if need be. It also makes punching the rivets through with a hammer
a little easier (although it only works for 1/2" or so until the rivet
hits the wood below, unless it is one of the large headed rivets that
has the empty "channel" below it)

You'll probably want to built a second stand that's not as tight so you
can spin the gear around to pound out more than just the two large headed
rivets. I was going to, but I didn't think it would take so many hours,
and I was out of wood.

To remove rivets:

1) mark the center of the rivet head on the ring gear side with a punch
2) use a center drill (tiny, cheap drill bit) to enlarge the hole made by
   the punch
3) use a 1/4" drill bit to drill half way (or thereabouts) through the
   rivet
4) use a larger drill bit (15/32? it's in the bentley..) to drill the
   rivet head off (on the ring gear side). Be careful to get it as well
   centered as possible
5) stop before you drill in to the ring gear
6) DON'T remove the burrs, carefully chisel them inward to expose the
   edge of the drilled hole in the ring gear. Spray some penetrating oil
   or WD-40 down the crack between the rivet and the hole's edge to loosen
   things up.
7) get a punch and start pounding. Be aware that if you have a tapered
   punch and it just keeps going deeper without pushing the rivet, you are
   just making things harder for yourself. Find something that has a fat
   enough head to catch the rivet before the edges of the hole.
8) keep hammering; this is not easy.
9) hammer some more. You should be using a 4 lb hand sledge by now.
10) get frustrated and start using a full sledge hammer. Use care not to
    hit the ring gear and chip teeth, or hit your toes with the sledge.
    Don't hit the final drive bearings either.
11) if you're not having success, you can run halfway through the rivet
    again with a slightly larger drill bit to relieve more pressure.
    Resist the urge to drill all the way through- it will NOT make things
    easier (I didn't figure this out nearly soon enough)
12) if you want to try punching out the opposite direction, you can drill
    with a 1/4" or so bit in to the diff side rivet head and then chisel
    it sideways and it will break off (usually quite cleanly). Then you
    can pound it through, out the ring gear side.
13) if you can get the rivet to spin, you can get it to come out. So when
    things get desperate, try forcing a cheap, very dull drill bit in to
    the hole and see if it will jam and break the rivet free. This is
    sorta along the lines of an easy-out. It worked for me for the two
    large headed rivets (which were both a HUGE pain; worse than the
    normal ones for some reason)
14) when you finally get a rivet out, save the mangled pieces to make a
    necklace to "wow" your friends.
15) repeat 7 times, or until you give up

Oh yeah, and make sure you protect the differential and the final drive
bearings REAL GOOD. Plastic baggies alone don't cut it! (as I found out)
Wrap those bastards in packing tape three times to make -sure- they don't
rip. And avoid using compressed air to blast the metal chips. Just flip,
tap and brush. It seems compressed air forces the chips up inside the
plastic baggies you so carefully tightly taped over the pieces you're
trying to protect.

I'm still cleaning metal shavings that got inside my differential (I can't
believe the one-piece thrust bearing is PLASTIC!!) and I picked a bunch
out of my final drive bearings. I feel bad putting those bearings back in
since I'm sure I missed some of the shavings but I can't really justify
putting new ones on since it seems like a lot more work. I'm already in
neck deep as is.

Oh yeah... I hate rivets!!! Pop rivets are alright but these things SUCK!

In other news, I scored some circlip pliers for $9.99 yesterday. I'm sure
Cheapass Ron is soo impressed! I -almost- bought the NAPA ones for 18
bucks but I decided to venture over to a local chain called B&B auto
parts and they sell a cheap line of tools called PG Performance.. they
happened to have one for $13 and it was on sale for $9.99. So yeah, I
rule.

So do the circlip pliers, as it turns out. Anyone who is considering doing
a job that involves removing or installing circlips; take Ron's advice
seriously. Just buy the damn pliers!! Snap ring pliers are garbage; stay
away! I still hate circlips, but the circlip pliers make them damned easy
to get in and out compared to the "three screwdrivers and two hands"
method that I've used a total of eight times (4 removals and 4 installs)
changing drive flange seals. Every time it takes me like 40 minutes to get
the circlip on or off, and I almost have a freakin' aneurism. Get the
pliers. I repeat, get the pliers!! After half an hour with the
screwdrivers you'll be crying for mercy "I'll pay anything! Anything!!"

Anyway, I'm gonna go back out to the shop, clean up the diff and bearings
some more and then go to bed.

-Toby