016 tranny & diff question...

[Gerard]

I'm opening my mouth again before I actually go look up information. But
too late in the evening to do investigation, so here come some of my
questions... :)

Transmission is a front-wheel drive 016 UW from 1980. I managed to get
it dismantled and today pulled out the diff, removed the ring gear and
lined it all up with the new diff going in.

The new Torsen diff is beefier, the tubes that hold the drive flanges is
thicker, but has the same inner diameter.

Now the problem is that the original differential has 2 different sized
roller bearings on each side. The side where the ring gear is is much
larger than the other end. On this 016 the diff cover on the gearbox
housing is on the right-hand side, opposite to the ring gear side.

My new diff has the same large diameter bearings on the left and right.
Same as the ring gear end of the original diff.

Why did they use 2 different sized bearings in the 016? The rough
measurements I made indicate the diameters are different by about 1cm.

Anyway, the big problem is how to fit the larger bearings. I can't pull
the outer race from the diff cover 'cos that'd eventually mean having to
machine that whole area out by more than 1cm and there's not much
material in there (at first glance).

I'm not the most clued up on the 016, but I'm interested to know if all
016 used to have 2 different sized bearings on the diff.

I'll put some pics up later to show what I mean.