Blew a hole in my diff cover

Let me just preface this by saying I still have a lot to learn about cars, so forgive my ignorance on a lot of this stuff.

I bought an '86 245 about 6 months ago. 4 speed w/ overdrive, cut springs, welded diff. It's been a blast to own and drive so far aside from a few setbacks until last week. I dumped the clutch at a stop sign in the rain and it just kinda stopped moving lol. Limped her home and fast forward to the next day when I had some light to see what might have happened. I find a nice big hole in my differential cover.

So I guess I'm just wondering what's the best way to go about finding a fix for it? Looked in to some LSD options but I'm not sure if I can swing that financially right now. I also own a 740 that's died on me at school this week but from what I've come to understand I don't think I can swap the diff from that to the 240 right?

I appreciate any help you all might have to offer, thanks.

Personally, unless the 740 is a parts car I wouldn't start stripping it down yet. But I do have the (G80) differential from a 940 in my 240.

There's a 240 here: https://upullandpay.com/albuquerque/search-inventory/

Odds are the rear end is still in it. I'd go pull the entire axle - that way you don't have to worry about setting up the ring and pinion gear spacing *just* right.

I'm not too sure what's going on with the 740 quite yet, but I plan on getting another thread going to see if I can get an understanding of what might be going on before making any decisions of what to do with it.

Thank you for checking that out for me though. I'll probably make a trip down there this weekend to see if I can snag the rear end from that one if its still there! Fingers crossed.

I'll update on junkyard findings soon.

I didn't check what was in the yard that John linked to your post. Just be aware that a manual trans 240 of your year will have a 3.31 gear set in the axle. An automatic trans 240 will have 3.73 gears. You need a rear axle from a car with the 12 tooth tone ring so your speedo will work. That will range from 85-91. A 91-93 240 that is equipped with ABS will have a 48 tooth tone ring and your speedo will read 4 times the actual speed you are going.

That junkyard has an '89 240.

3.73 vs. 3.31? I wouldn't sweat it too much when you're just trying to get rolling again. I drove my 240 for a while with an M47/3.73, just a little short geared in 5th, nothing too traumatic.

I would rather have the 3.73 than the 3.31. The stick cars were too high geared, IMO. It was just a heads up before he pulls the trigger. OP, the gear ratio will not affect your speedo reading since the speedo uses axle RPM via. the tone ring.

So we pulled the rear end from that one at the junkyard. It was an auto but speedo reading hasn't changed (noticeably at least). That 3.73 is definitely noticeable though lol I'm kinda liking it! The rear end came from a sedan and going into the wagon it seems like the e-brake cables were a bit shorter. Its either that or my old ones were just ****ed. Regardless everything is hooked up now and driving fine! Thanks for the help guys. Now I've gotta tow that 740 and start trying to figure out whats going on there.

Like 2Manyturbos said /\ /\ /\ - the speedo will still be accurate, or at least as accurate as it ever was. It reads off the diff rotation, so all the gearing is said and done at that point, you are reading actual tire rotations.

Nice to hear it worked out so well. A 3.73 will pep it up in the lower gears. Just might be a bit busy sounding on a long highway trip at 75 mph.

nice to hear it worked out! was it hard to swap the entire rear end?

The hardest part imo is dealing with the parking brakes/cables.