I did a diff swap with Jon Estrella, he knew what he was doing and I did not. No 3/8" air rachet for axle & driveshaft Ebolts, all hand tools, he bitched a little but we got it done. You need a couple feet of 3/8" ratchet extensions to get to the axle bolts. Otherwise it's all pretty straight forward, not a very hard job but definitely need a second person for the dropping/raising of the diff. We accomplished the swap in about 2.5 hours on jack stands in my garage, no lift.
Bruce
21 GMC Sierra - mine
16 X5 M-Sport - wife
11 M3 - 1st son
04 Tundra - 2nd son
17 X1 M-Sport - daughter
Former (mo/yr sold):
15 335xi M-Sport (8/18)
11 335is (8/17)
11 X5 AW/blk (11/15)
04 330xi blk/gray (7/15)
06 ZHP SGM/blk (6/15)
08 335xi blue/blk (4/15)
04 ZHPci MB/blk (2/14)
04 ZHPcic IR/Alc (10/13)
01 540iT anthra/blk (7/13)
04 ZHPci TIAG/blk (9/12)
03 540i M-Sport (9/12)
01 325ci (3/12)
02 325iT 5MT (10/11)
05 ZHPci (7/11)
03 330cic (2/11)
00 323ci (10/10)
.
Last edited by JB3; 07-09-2015 at 01:46 PM. Reason: a word
This is what Stu used to ship my LSD from DC... Notice the holes drilled around the top. It was secured with plastic ties and packed with a shitload of cardboard. The idea is that you want to pack it tight enough to limit any movement during shipping. Something that heavy moving around during shipping is going to beak just about any kind of container.
Dinan CAI &Throttle body, ESS Tuning TS2, Bimmerbrakes gen3 headers, UUC SSK & DSSR. Achilles oil pump, VAC oil pan baffle
M3 Motor mounts, UUC Trans mounts, Modified clutch style LSD 3.15, TMS front subframe reinforcement, Koni Yellow sports,
H&R sport springs, UUC sway bars, BMW Perf. Rotors, UUC SS brake lines, Hawk HPS pads, CSL replica wheels,
Rotora strut bar, FXR HID conversion, M3 Mirror conversion, BSW stage 1 speakers
The only PITA thing that I had while swapping my diff is that the drive flange input was seized onto the driveshaft! Apparently, it is not just screwed together by the six bolts, but the flange is cupped and the driveshaft fits snug into it. After about half an hour of figuring, I just wacked it a few times with a hammer and it came out.
Yep. Same here until Sockethead Rob told me to do that!
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"ZHP is a garbage option anyway- just some cosmetic upgrades with a different cam and diff to claw back some of the performance lost fitting those hideous and heavy wheels. Any 330 with a 3.46 diff will smoke a ZHP every time. The whole Mafia thing reeks of childish behavior." - anonymous