My rear diff replacement job begins today.

The project began here when I was prepping the rig for a 2,300 mile journey to a new home for the next couple of years:
https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr...94/#post942594

Since January of 2026, my 07 has still been a daily driver in our local Dallas/Fort Worth region. Still noisy, but no problems. Today it has 151,188 miles as I begin the replacement. I drained the Valvoline Extended Protection Gear Oil and it looked clear and clean after 4,000 miles. No new metal chunks and only a very small amount of gold specs in the drained fluid.

I'll post here as I go and try to provide any tips I learn along the way.

 

They are HEAVY. I am not looking forward to the day I have to do mine, because I know it will come. For now I need to get my front swapped which I should have finished rebuilding today. Good luck!

 

Chisel tap on the clamp after removing the bolt helped free it up.



Tie down straps work to keep the exhaust from crashing down.




Rear exhaust assembly is removed.

 

Right! I can’t lift the replacement by myself. Gonna need help for that.

 

I do have a nice used fuel tank pan for the nasty one you’re looking at.

 

Out with the old, in with the new. It wasn’t as bad as I expected.


Transmission jack worked great.




I hung the diff from the car, removed the trans jack, then lowed the car to set the diff on the ground.



Picked up the new one off the ground the same way.



Plenty more to do to finish this job, but so far so good.

 

So they tell you to mark the drive shaft to the differential flange, I presume for maintaining factory balance, but what do you do with a new one without a mark on the flange? Same problem if replacing the shaft. I never understood the point in marking when replacing parts.

 

Thank you for that question! It never, ever made sense to me either. Especially when the flange itself is usually balanced if needed. Never made any sense to me so I ignored doing so. Even with my crank pulley. It is itself balanced and so is the crank. I can't even see how they would balance them as a unit. And again, if replaced then????

 

I replaced one in an oil pit, floor jack, with the exhaust still connect and liberal application of "magic language". It was not fun but it did quiet the noise. I still have the old one sitting in the back yard where it is working on burying itself into the ground, and if I ever get bored enough I might do an autopsy.
It came to me via UPS from a ebay junkyard, and I imagine the UPS guy was not amused with the weight of the parcel.

 

Left-rear knuckle restored.