Differential stud stuck

earlingy

New Member
Sep 2, 2008
37
0
0
Huntsville
I recently bought an LSD, and today I was attempting to replace the rear main seal just for good measure before putting it in the car. All of the bolts holding the cover on came right off no problem, but the studs that bolt it to the car gave me issues. The bottom ones were never there, I got the top passenger's side one out, but the top driver's side one is totally stuck. The rear cover isn't even threaded to those studs, I guess it's just rusty? I put penetrant in there, I beat on it with a hammer, I vicegripped it and tried to unscrew it from the diff. I hammered on the opposite end where a part of the cover stuck out, and that got the side furthest from the bolt loose, so now I can get the rear cover to turn a little (didn't move it very much, was afraid it would hit the gears inside). I turned it just enough to where i could aim a cro-bar on the edge and hammer on it, but still nothing. I took pointy things and aimed them at the crack between the two and hammered on them, broke my screwdriver and chiseled a little bit of the cover off, but still won't budge. I was tempted to just put all the bolts back in and hope it didn't leak, but I stripped the stud with the vicegrips...

Any ideas? I was tempted to just take it to a machine shop or something and be like "Get this damn cover off"