Shaune, any results you can share with us after taking it to your mechanic friend?

Thanks

 

Just an update to those still subscribed to this thread.

I will be taking the car in this Thursday or Friday to my friend's garage to hopefully change out the diff breather and add more fluid, and a few other maintenance tasks if time permits.

Full documentation in the form of photos & video with accompanying write-up to follow.

 

thank you Shaune,

I am very curious to see if the breather is removed by simply removing the circlip from outside, or whether it's required to remove the finned differential case in order to remove the breather from behind the case.

Looking forward to your findings

 

Me, too. I'm surprised there is no sketch of this part in the JTIS as I recall someone pointing out. I'm curious to see how the cap part will literally fit into this (from the original picture I posted near the beginning of this thread) since it's a loose fit. I'm betting the circlip is hidden and will require some mechanic mirrors strategically placed into an area with limited space.

I'm all ready to go as you can tell from the pic below, just waiting to hear when there will be an empty hoist to bring it in. I bought 2 litres of gear oil (second one has the gloves hanging off it) and some degreaser to clean the oil off the rest of the diff. so it will be easier to determing if it's fixed properly. I hope to have time to clean the throttle body and replace the Supercharger fluid, too.

 

looks like you are all set

I have never read the specs on that oil,.. is it GL5 spec and does it have the "extreme pressure" rating on it?

my best guess is that the breather fits like the ascii drawing below .. (but I have to emphasize, this is a guess at best and not meant to provide instructions or directions)

+---|]
|
|
|
|

where "]" is the cap, "|" is the lid and "---" is the short part of the breather, and "+" is the O ring. The 4 "|" lines are meant to show the long part of the breather that ends in the angel cut.

The long part with the angle cut end would be inside the differential housing but I am not sure if it points up/down/sideways/in an angle, etc

If this theory is correct, I am not sure if the breather assembly would come out if you remove the circlip.. if anything, it may just fall inside, so be careful.

this has become the most exciting shared investigative topic on this forum

 

The reacon for the hot topic is that the breather clogging may be the main reason for leaks and differential failure due to loss of oil. Solving the breather problem, if that is a problem, could get rid of a lot of grief.

 

I am wondering this, too, only because the breather isn't threaded, rather it's 'ribbed'.

It's making more sense to me that if it's positioned on the top like it is on the XJ8, then once [the new breather] dropped into place the circlip really cannot hold it tightly (without removing the finned part and using circlip inside as you suggested), of course, it may be orientated on the side of the diff such that the capped 'exhausting/spraying' section might actually be aimed sideway toward the driveshaft's U-joint.

Hmmm, then what is the other smaller cap that came with the new breather for?
Oh, I know, it's an extra, I always have extras after putting things back together

 

I think the lid may act as a 1 way valve to let the pressure out but not let anything back in...if the lid sits in the ribbed opening, the cap snaps on the ribbed part of the breathe piper, preventing the lid from falling off... I don't have the part here, just trying to decipher the best way this thing would fit together based on the pictures.. looking at the part, do you think it makes sense?

 

The lid came in the Jaguar bag fitted on the non-ribbed part while the little cap was plugged into the ribbed section.
Not saying thats how it goes back together though.
That makes better sense and is likely the case. Didn't even try dry-fitting that way only because of the way it came but I'll try after work.

 

that's how it was fitted on my car when I tried prying the cap off (then the lid fell off).. but that's not to say it was installed correctly from the first place.. I didn't buy my car brand new, so I am not sure if it has been touched/changed/modified previously, that's why I am curious to learn the correct and proper way

 

Sometimes the pictures posted on ebay can be quite clear. If there is a X300 diff for sale, then it might be helpful to all of you.

If the cap can be pried off without damage, then perhaps it would be possible to push a pipe cleaner through the passage and clear it out. That would certainly be easier than replacing the breather.

 

That time frame didn't work out. Aiming again for this week.

If I were in a hurry I would just request an indy to do the job but he likely wouldn't appreciate me over his shoulder saying jaguarforums say to do this...do that...and then this...(if he'd even let me on the floor with him as most do not allow that citing insurance rules) lol not to mention the extra money I'd be spending versus having a mechanic friend do it.

 

Well we finally changed the diff fluid today. Just a hair over 1L of old fluid came out. We put in just under 2L of 80/90 gear oil, and a 4oz bottle of GM limited slip axle lubricant additive as per Doug's suggestion in an old XJS post I came across, and we also cleaned up the diff breather as good as possible as per Plum's suggestion (we didn't put my new one in as it will require a lot more work, we'll save that for a day that's not like the -10°c weather of today)

Because I don't drive this car in the Winter I doubt I'll have the opportunity anytime soon to take the car out for a long enough drive to see how good or bad of a job was done, and if the leak persists.

I feel much better now that I know the fluid is new, there's an extra additive in there, and most importantly, a full amount of fluid. All I need to do now is clean the old diff fluid residue with engine degreaser and then monitor for leaks.

Extra thanks go to Doug, Plums, Motorcarman, and Jaguarforums.com for providing the venue.

 

fyi .. i had a leaky diff on another make that never got worse by keeping it topped up regularly. the back part of the under carriage was also rust free

 

Did you by chance take any pictues of the breather. And what did you do in the way of cleaning the breather. I'm planning on doing mine in my friends shop this Monday (in about 50F temperature). I'll try to get some pictures of what I can.

 

I did take a few pics although they're not very flattering.

Hope this works from cell phone and Dropbox, if not I'll go on the PC to edit.

http://db.tt/uIVFE3uY

http://db.tt/XcXMCzM7

http://db.tt/y0xPjW1J

The breather cap pulls off so we just used a rag to clean it up.
You can see by the one photo that there was fluid coming from the breather
as only that part of the diff has residue.

Once the weather gets better I'll put it on a hoist and do a proper cleaning.

 

was there a lid right under the cap?

 

These cars don't have limited slip differentials so not sure what good the additive will do you. The breather is the little screw-in 'plug' with the loose fitting cap as pictured further up in this thread. It's easily removed with a short spanner/wrench and can just be cleaned and re-installed. I did it while under there changing the fluid. I suppose dexterity and flexibility are your best tools to do the job.

 

The XJR has a limited slip, but not the other models.

 

The x300 sport has the LSD