Cleaning a LSD

[E30ISMIKE]

Hello there fellow zoners,

I am completey new to the zone and just brought my first E30 IS and well happy with it. Just brought my first mod a 3.91 LSD but has a lot of surface rust was wondering what is best to clean that nasty stuff off with?

Many thanks

mike

[Speedtouch]

You could try a wire brush then Jenolite rust remover, then some black paint. Alternatively, you could leave it to soak in Malt vinegar overnight (you can buy in bulk cheap from Tescos, etc.) which is surprisingly effective at removing the worst of the rust. Oh, and welcome to the Zone!

[E30ISMIKE]

Thank you very much speedtoch im a complete blonde when it comes to this stuff

[Speedtouch]

Blondes have more fun...you should see what we get up to with a few litres of Malt vinegar

[E30ISMIKE]

lol could just imagine so which do you think is most effective and with using malt vinegar would i fill it up to the top just below the breather pipe?

[Speedtouch]

Not sure Mike, I've personally only ever tried this with a pair of brake calipers and it worked quite well, but some on here have dipped alsorts in a bath of vinegar overnight with stunning results. I guess if you intend to renew the LSD oil anyway, it doesn't matter if some gets inside...

[E30ISMIKE]

Yeah mate needs oil change not much in there anyways will find out some more info on this to see if it will be to give a bath overnight if not then will use wire brush method. Thanks for your welcoming really appreciate the info too speedtouch top lad will let you know what happens hpefully tomorrow

[Speedtouch]

Be sure to refill with the correct LSD oil and NOT normal axle oil, which will kill your LSD's clutches

[E30ISMIKE]

yeah was told by the guy i brought the lsd off what would oil you recommend i use?

[Speedtouch]

I'd go for some of BMW's finest if you can, but any appropriate LSD oil will do - try a search on here for recommendations.

[JazzMan]

yeah was told by the guy i brought the lsd off what would oil you recommend i use?

Castrol SAF-XJ works very well in my LSD:

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... highlight=

[Chris-W]

Castrol SAF-XJ or B373.

[Chris-W]

Oh, and must say I'd not be immersing a diff in vinegar, personally.

[fuzzy]

ive just cleaned up my diff and used the old faithful chisel/hammer/wire brush/elbow grease method. took me a good day to get it all nice clean and black hammerited.

[stonesie]

Maby this stuff would be worth a try, im going to get some to tackle the rusty sill on the turd im trying to sell

http://www.bilthamber.com/deoxgel.html

[JazzMan]

When I cleaned mine up I started with degreaser to get the gunge off then went over it with a hard wire brush and then a drill and wire brush attachment.

It should look something like this after a clean up:



After that I used some POR15 to cover it but hammerite should do the trick too.