Install of Eseries diff and EBII handbrake into XE sedan

[wagoon 2,429]

I know there are countless threads on diff and handbrake installs so if mods don't think this has anything new happy for it to be removed.

 

I am unsure of the exact e series diff that I have but when comparing it to the ED and EBII diff I have sitting on my shed floor it looks pretty much the same, I was told that this diff is possibly an EF diff. Now the diff install was as per all the threads covered before regarding needing to change one end of the lower trailing arms to suit either the body end if you use E series arms or change diff end bush if using X series arms. I was lucky enough to pickup a full set of virtually brand new nolethane arms ages ago off gumtree for $20 so these are what I used for my trailing arms, these nolethane arms are to suit x series

 

Now with the brake lines I did not buy the "required" brake line adapter as I'm far to cheap for that. What I did was remove all the hard lines, diff breather and flexible line from diff to body from the original XE drum brake diff and I fitted them to the E series diff. The only real drama I had was the hard lines are bent at a 90 degree angle where they go into the drum brakes on the x series diff, but the disc brakes on the e series diff have a straight flexible line coming from the caliper. So I gently straighten the drum brake 90 degree bend till it lined up with the flexible line from the disc, now I wont win any show contests with the sort of "mod" as it doesn't look pretty but I took my time and very gently and very slowly bent the hard line around and it meets up fine.

 

 

Next was sorting out the handbrake cable. I used an EBII handbrake cable which I believe from what I've read the ED cable is the same. So I started hooking up the handbrake cable from the caliper on the passenger side and moving forward all the grommets that fit into the body brackets where exactly the same, every single one fit perfectly into the original brackets on the body with even the clips lining up perfectly(this happened on the drivers side as well) . This pic is a bit fuzzy but you can see how the hard grommet on the cable fits perfectly into the original body bracket (just past the axle stand)

 

 

In this pic you can see the hard plastic grommet once again fitting perfectly in place on the far left of the pic. Now one problem I did encounter was the body bracket which is just to the left of the gearbox was to large and the hard plastic grommet just pulled straight through it when I applied pressure to the cable. Now since these hard plastic grommets are bullet shaped I just placed a steel washer over the end of the plastic grommet so that grommet wouldn't pull through the washer and the washer sits against the flat surface of the body bracket. I have no idea how long this will last but I will keep on eye on it.

 

 

The major problem I had fitting the handbrake cable to the car was that it just wasn't long enough. No matter what I tried I just couldn't stretch the cable far enough to connect the entire system together. So modification time. This pic shows the only things I had to remove from the EBII handbrake cable to make it fit, the pivoting arm. The pin was through one of the holes with the washer on the other side stopping it from coming out. The dome head was sticking through the U shaped cable guide at the top of the pic. All I did was grind the end of the pin so I could remove the washer and pin and separate everything.

 

Then I put the original pivoting arm back in position  and slid the original u Shaped cable guide over the very long thread bar (this is the original undercar adjustment system for original handbrake setup). This original setup was the perfect length to make the e series handbrake fit. I did make up some washer to go onto the long threaded rod, they were not in the original system but I wasn't sure if the e series disc brake handbrake needed more tension applied so just in case I put the washer on.

 

In this pic you can seen the original adjuster in the background and the e series adjuster in the foreground. When I put the original adjuster on there was a heap of slack in the cable so again for safety sake I wound the e series adjust down about a 1/4 of the way on it's thread so that it wasn't near the end and couldn't pull off. I then used the original adjusted to tension the cable properly, or at least what I deem to be properly. I did try pulling on the lever inside the cabin a couple of times and it worked fine, and I just kept adjusting the tension of the cable till I was happy. I will rechcek the tension once the car is back on it's wheel.

 

 

So putting the e series diff and handbrake cable in my car cost me absolutely nothing apart from the cost of the diff and handbrake cable itself. And thanks to Ando76 who gave my the idea of making spacers to suit the trailing arm I didn't have to fit wider bushes to the diff side of the x series trailing arm, so I made them out of stuff I already had and that cost me nothing other than my time.

[CHESTNUTXE 7,354]

when installing the arms put vasoline or similar on the bushes otherwise they squeak and fart.