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Found myself with a bit of spare time this afternoon so decided to do the front diff/ARB drop using the kit from 4crawler that I bought some time ago (in anticipation of putting the ball joint spacers on, also from 4crawler).
Looked at the 4crawler website and it looked pretty straightforward. They say it should take about 30 mins or so. Rather embarrassingly it took me nearly 2 hours! You can tell I'm not used to working on the Surf yet...!
The reason it took me so bl00dy long was trying to do it on my own (not recommended - it would be much easier with an extra pair of hands to help out) coupled with the amount of caked on mud that I had to scrape off to get at anything. I spent a while puzzling how to get the spanner in to hold the top nut on the diff spacer bolt on the drivers side. Talk about fiddly! Until I worked out, just before I'd finished, that if I put the spanner in through the wheel arch through the middle of the brake pipe loops it sat on quite easily.
If I'd worked that one out earlier I would've saved myself quite a bit of cursing & swearing!
I reckon that if I were to do one again between 30 mins to an hour wouldn't be an unreasonable time to do it in (assuming there were no seized bolts, etc, to deal with)
Next on the to do list:
Glad I did it though. I needed to do something practical this afty - I was in that sort of mood.
Looked at the 4crawler website and it looked pretty straightforward. They say it should take about 30 mins or so. Rather embarrassingly it took me nearly 2 hours! You can tell I'm not used to working on the Surf yet...!
The reason it took me so bl00dy long was trying to do it on my own (not recommended - it would be much easier with an extra pair of hands to help out) coupled with the amount of caked on mud that I had to scrape off to get at anything. I spent a while puzzling how to get the spanner in to hold the top nut on the diff spacer bolt on the drivers side. Talk about fiddly! Until I worked out, just before I'd finished, that if I put the spanner in through the wheel arch through the middle of the brake pipe loops it sat on quite easily.
If I'd worked that one out earlier I would've saved myself quite a bit of cursing & swearing!
I reckon that if I were to do one again between 30 mins to an hour wouldn't be an unreasonable time to do it in (assuming there were no seized bolts, etc, to deal with)
Next on the to do list:
- sort out the exhaust (it has completely severed around the flexi-pipe join and has split from that join most of the way up towards where it turns up into the engine bay.
- do the body lift (or at least assist with it c/o animal!)
- fit new tyres - 33s
Glad I did it though. I needed to do something practical this afty - I was in that sort of mood.
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