Club 80-90 Forums

Hey-up.
Had a look on wiki but just a couple of questions.
I've stripped the front lock off but can't get the little shaft to move. Can it only move in & out? Can it twist? How much movement are we talking?
Has anyone got a spare roller pin thing? Lost mine!

Diff out job, easy to do on the bench, nigh on impossible on front insitu, I have the roll pins in stock and your friendly local vw dealer will relieve you of a few pennies for one too, get the 8mm for the front not the 10mm long one, should always have a magnet on it when extracting it

Check your boot soles Karl, if there's any mud in their treads it'll be stuck in there with it, like as not...

Yeah, I know I know, No, this one was lost sometime in the last year since I stripped down the diff-lock to fix it!!

Really don't want to remove diff. I've got loads of access as no drive-shaft or lower arm in the way. Still got to lie on my back though!!

How much moverment & can it twist?

Karl, I tried for ages with one of mine, and even considered a gram or two of semtex... I'm even less sane than I would otherwise be but for that front-difflock.
I couldn't work out what, why, where and how either, still haven't in fact because Aidan rebuilt the whole thing in the end... it's a mystery, but operation with somewhat less travel than the rear might have something to with it (could be wrong)...

very little twist,the shaft [on mine] pushes in past the roll pin hole,remember to turn one of the drive shaft flanges so the diff lock bit can en-gauge.
good luck.

virtually no twist, only the oil film gap between the sliding part and the fork internally - the problem on the front is that the pin has to go so far into the sleeve to actuate that the roll pin hole goes in too so the usual method of popping a 2.5mm allen key in the roll pin hole and some gear oil in the diff lock switch hole and gently reaming it back into operation with a straight in out motion doesn't work, you'd have to make a slide hammer adapter and fit that to the pin using the roll pin and do it that way, I tried once, made the tool, wasted a couple of hours of my life and still didn't free it, if you are that far in then it's less than hour to have the diff on the floor and a cup of tea and then take off the end cover and strip it out, ream it up in the hand and then reassemble, change the oil while you're at it, free the filler and drain plugs to make it easy next time, and do any brake pipes in the vicinity that might need doing in the next few years to save the job of stripping it out again or working in tight space sorted

put it this way even CJ would take out the diff to free the diff lock on the front

Wise words Aid.

Wiked