Both of us woke to an unusual sound. Eventually I realised it was rain and thunder; along with knife, fork and spoon lightning! Not a good start to the day when you are planning to work under the vehicle in the garage, where the floor floods during rain. That’s another task on the ‘To Do’ list.
I got the front of the Isuzu up on the wheel ramps and made reasonable progress removing the original cross member support which secures the front differential. The replacement part went in without too much of an issue. I’ve been following the you tube video instructions of a young man (almost all of them are younger than me) who is a mechanic and has a similar model Isuzu. He installed the Diff Drop kit in 30 minutes. It’s taken me 2½ hours! Yes, I struggled at times.
The issue wasn’t fitting the new cross member but rather the two long bolts that secure the leading ends of the differential. One of the bolts had been installed by Hercules and his brother! I needed to push the differential up with my left arm and back with my right arm. Then I needed to insert the retaining blot with my third arm. Oh… That’s right… I don’t have a third arm! Eventually I resorted to using the hydraulic jack to raise the differential and by wriggling it around got the first bolt to line up with the hole. The second was much easier.
Arrow pointing to the new cross ember
The CV’s are now almost horizontal
With the vehicle back on level ground I was able to measure the ground clearance. Before fitting the 30mm Diff Drop Kit the clearance was 265mm. It’s now 235mm. I think this brings the vehicle back to original manufactured height which is what I wanted to achieve. (Veggie this means the prop shaft is now at OEM specifications).
I need to do something about the third bash plate which currently can’t be fitted as the new cross member doesn’t have the brackets.
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