1 2 3 Easy Diff Removal.

The time will arrive one day when you will need to remove the differential from your Lotus elan. This is a job that most owners try to avoid if they can.

But there’s a few small tricks that can be applied that make the removal of the diff really quite easy, we’ve made a short video to explain how its done.

The easiest way to remove the diff is with the car placed over a floor pit, or raised up on a hoist, trying to do the job with the rear of the car up on ramps, and laying on your back on the workshop floor is probably not the most comfortable way to do the job.

123 Easy Diff Removal

Some Notes and Pointers to Ponder.
The reason why the diff snags on the elan chassis bottom tray is that the underneath of the nose at the front of the diff has an excess of metal, this can be ground off to allow extra clearance. There is also excess metal at the very bottom rear of the diff where the aluminium housing bolts on, (Closest to the under-tray) it is possible to remove about 1.5mm of metal to allow more clearance for easy removal of the diff.

As you’ll note in the video, with a bit of a jiggle, the diff simply falls out, there is no need to cuss, wriggle, and shunt it around, (What we used to do previously) its really quite simple, get rid of the snag points and it just falls out.

it is possible to have the diff out of the car in well under the hour.

There is also a second video on the way of how to replace the pinion bearing seal in the elan diff…. Watch this space.