164 Differential oi seals - follow up message

[Jonathan Coates <jon@domain.elided>]

Looking at the manual, it appears that the cover holding the seal on the 
side with the intermediate shaft (RHS) has shims hidden underneath. Be 
careful not to alter the shims and not to use any gasket or sealant which 
would alter the total distance from one seal holding cover to the other.
The reason for this is that the shims are used to adjust the preload on the 
taper roller bearings that support the differential assembly. Mess this up 
and your differential bearings go bad.
Apparently mine went bad enough to alter the heat treatment of the four 
bevel gears inside the Diff, one broke which wrecked the others and the 
bits got between the rotating bits and the case then escaped through the 
case.
Big mess, money all over the floor.

Symptoms of this failare are not as spectacular as they sound, the gearbox 
oil began coming out of the hole where you check TDC on the flywheel. I 
thought that the crank rear oil seal had gone, so I pulled the gearbox 
assembly off to have a look. When I cut my hand on the edge of the hole in 
the Diff case, I had found the real problem.
Note. Car was still driveable, I had driven at least 100 miles with it in 
this condition, so who says these cars are fragile?

HTH
Jonathan
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