...but not quite.
In between the paint stripping I've been playing with the differential
Normally or alternatively if you're lucky a bearing puller kit will get the bearings off the differential cage.
(^^^^ This is just showing the clamp part that goes round the bearing the other gubbins are not in view - just consists of two legs and a threaded cross piece that allows a threaded bar to be driven into the centre part of the bearing so it all gets yanked off)
'Cos these have been on for a long time I needed to cut the cage and remove the tapered rollers
Breaking out the oxy acetylene kit to heat up one side of the remaining inner bearing =>
^^^The plan here is to heat up a narrow strip so you expand one side - you don't need to go round and round the whole bearing - in practice trying to do that might also heat up the part of the differential cage that the bearing is fitted on as well - the plan is to expand the outer part faster than the heating effect has on the inner part
Once warm enough a few taps with a hammer and a chisel gets the remnants of the bearing off the differential cage
Save the shims that are under the bearing remnants - don't mix them up
After removing the crown wheel (probably needed to get the inner cogs out of the inner part of the differential cage) the locking pin for the inner cog axle can be tapped out
There's no need to remove it completely...
...and leaving it poking out is a good plan as it helps put it back in later on. These pins are easy to bend the wrong way if you're not careful.
Inner axle removed
Keeping note of where the cogs were positioned
The small differential inner cogs were a bit too loose for my liking - normally a series of shims can be added to make them mesh a bit closer - unfortunately Volvo don't seem to have made provisions for this so I reckon I'm flying solo with this one - I'll let you know if I find a cheap solution
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Notes about differential refurbishment.
Look in the workshop manual and you'll see loads of super expensive - probably now unobtainable - special tools and complicated measurement procedures.
This gives the impression that differential refurbishment is a seriously specialised job.
In many ways it is - but if you're careful I'm sure it is possible to adjust correctly in the DIY setting.
My plan (as always) is simple - the existing shims are more often than not a good starting point. If you keep them in order and don't loose their original positions you have quite a good fighting chance of getting things back up to scratch even though you are replacing the bearings.
The main trick - the most important part of adjusting a differential (which is also described in the workshop manual) is to apply engineers blue to the teeth and
UNDER LOAD make sure the contact patch is in the correct place on the helical gears.
In effect the method I'll be using is the last part / checking procedure in the workshop manual - I'm just skipping the special tools part and hoping for the best. If the meshing of the cogs isn't good enough then I'll have to take bits to pieces again (potentially damaging new bearings!) but hey ho that's the way it goes...
...to be continued.