Differential breather

[Colonel Mustard]

At the moment Colonel Mustard (my Mk 1 Stag) is up on axle stands with the gearbox removed...new clutch going in soon. Whilst under there I am trying to catch up on a few jobs that need doing. One of which is the final drive which leaks oil from the seals. When I check the oil level I can hear air escaping from the unit as the plug comes out...so I'm pretty sure that the breather is blocked. There's nothing in the workshop manual about it but I can feel something on the upper right corner of the diff backplate. I assume that this is the breather? How do you check and clear it? Do I need to remove the backplate?

Chris

[Kevin Garrod]

The breather contains a jiggle pin that needs periodically jiggling.
You don't need to remove anything.

[iani]

It's a split pin Chris, clean all the crud off the casing around the top of the pin and work it up and down, there shouldn't be any need to remove the backplate.

Ian

[Colonel Mustard]

Right...thanks for that...I'll have a jiggle when I go back to work on the car.

[Guest]

I wish I had tried that before I removed the quill shaft!

[Colonel Mustard]

Thanks for the advice...saved me a lot of unnecessary grief.

Chris