I need to remove the differential in an original owners 87 S3 with 152k miles. The car is located in north Florida. The diff is leaking bad from pinion and output shaft seals and I have no intention of just installing new seals in it and calling it a day. I need to get it rebuilt but I have no clue who would even be able to rebuild it. I know that as the death clock marches on, fewer and fewer people have actually worked on these cars. I would feel way more comfortable shipping it somewhere in the USA that actually knows what to do rather than blindly letting someone rebuild it locally. I have driven the car and there is no gear or bearing noise but, it’s way too much work to R&R it and find out the bearings have too much play and still leaks oil even with new seals. I want to ‘one and done’ with the diff replacement.

Does anybody have either a trusting source to rebuild a diff or know where I can buy a rebuilt diff from? Please and thank you for your time.

 

There's nothing very exotic about the diff. It's a kissin' cousin to the rather common Dana 44. I'd think that any local diff rebuilding shop could handle it. Maybe give them the ROM, if you have one, so they can read-up on setting the output shaft bearings.

Cheers
DD

 

Doug, I appreciate the words of confidence. Would you know where the rebuild specifications for this diff might be?

 

When I did mine, i just took it to a 4x4 shop, they knew all the info etc, but I had mine regeared as well

 

Darren, did the shop have the input seal and the correct output shaft seals? May I ask what it cost you to have it rebuilt?

 

I supplied everything as I was originally going to do it myself, but being as I was changing to an auburn limited slip, nothing was stock, but everything was available off the shelf, when I was calling around ( to find someone that would do the rebuild with my parts) ( I was just asking about rebuilding a jag irs diff) nobody has any issues or was worried about instructions, then place I ended up using charged me 400