Boydie

On the subject of differentials, while waiting for delivery of a new cylinder head for my 300 TDi I've been giving the old girl a complete service. total exchange of suspension rubbers, new timing belt and gears, I've replaced the radiator core with larger water-ways from 4 x 1/4" to 4 x 1/2" and then I checked the two diffs. I've put new universals in both propshafts and rubber cussion, the rear differential was replaced some 12000 k's ago with a brand new unit and only needed new bearings, (well actually only one of the carrier bearings was shot so I replaced them all) but the front diff needs a new crown wheel & pinion set. Can anyone advise me on where I can obtain a set, the local LR guy only has a listing for a complete new differential and I dont want to go to this level of expense as I fully intent installing ARB "Air-Lockers" to both axels later this year. Second question; How easy is it to upgrade the front and read disc brake calipers to the larger pad size units found on the TD5 ?

Durham huhh -- my mother was born in a village in County Durham called Easington, do you know it? I took both my parents out to Kenya to live when I was 18 weeks old (thats my story anyway) and only retuned to the UK to get an Education when I was 14 and my late dear Mum though I was going feral having avoided formal education up until then, anyway, seeing as I can get Eaton Trutrak's fairly cheaply in Oz I'll do the swap. By the way I though Trutrak's were "proper" LSD's -- are they not?

Humm........ good question. My workshop manual informs me that the pinion gear will have a numberal with a + or _ before it which is used to determine the shim washer thickness, mine has only the letters "PWT" stamped into it and the etched number "167" this number is also etched into the crown wheel, so I was wondering if the unit I have is a genuine LR unit or a after-market copy installed into the original housing. The wear in minimal and only the slightest mark on the pinion gears indicating that the gears are not fully meshing, my experience being that the greater the contact surface of the two gears on each other the better and the contact marks of these gears is no wider than 1.5mm. Any comments on fitting the Eaton Truetrak LSD's?

G'day I'm the second owner of a 1999 Series 1 300 TDi and I've just pulled out the rear diff to change a leaking propshaft oil seal and my differential seems to be a "recent" replacement. The differential casting has the following numbers cast into it:- 13 HRC 2669 LEE SG42 7 D 98 the Crown wheel and pinion gears both have the numbers "167" etched into them and the pinion gear has the letters "PWT" stamped into the end. None of the gears appear to have any serious wear and the entire assembly was sealed with silicon rather than a paper gasket. Can anyone identify this unit for me please? Also; if, like me you are endeavouring to dissasemble one of these units and you happen to have an old set of timing belt rollers the roller that carries the tension plate is ideal to make an extractor for the differential centre pin, simply knock out the bearing and weld onto the end of it a suitable 3mm thick washer, fit a bolt through the washer and hey presto it extracts the center pin. Don't discard the adjuster plate though, drill two holes in it to match the slotted adjustment nuts on the output bevel gears and fit two 1/4' dia high tensile bolts to fit into the slots of the nut -- the torque wrench will then fit into the existing square slot to enable correct torque settings to be made. Being an old rally driver I used to drill additional oil feeder holes in all my rally cars, rear and front wheel drive, to supply additional oil to the planetary gear bearings, I've done the same on this differential. Lastly has anyone fitted an Eaton Truetrak limited slip differential into this model/type differential and if so are there any problems in doing so?

I've had a similar experience, as in white smoke and only on start-up. it turned out to be a small coolant leak into number 3 cylinder, the only way I found out was the small (but constant) coolant loss, around 1/4 litre per 1000 kilometers

Could you email me a set, my works manual has everything but ......... and as the standard loom is designed to accomodate every possible LR Disco option there are miles of unrequired cables that I would dearly like to strip out if only to make the bas loom simple. My email is iain.boyd@bigpond.com thanks

Yeah, I read that too in my works manual, and I knew my bolts were the original and had done 230,000 kilometers before the head had to come off due to a shot valve and the experience cost me a AUD$200 head gasket, a cylinder head and an expensive tow 100 kilometers home. Given that can be the cost of head bolt failures I think the cost of a replacement set at around AUD$80.00 is money well invested. A question here, a paternmaker pal of mine who has access to a quality foundry is willing to cast me a steel cylinder head with improved waterways, the idea being to port the steel head to match the cylinder block waterways between the cylinders that are closed off by the alloy head. Given that the cost of a "Generation 2" alloy cylinder head is around AUD$1250.00 (and cannot be machined)and the steel one he is proposing will cost the same are there any interested parties? The head would be drilled and machined and valve guides and seats fitted but the valve sets would need to be transfered from your existing head and lapped in and new valve seals fitted, a "guestimate" of the additional weight is around 9 kilos over and above the alloy unit.

A word of caution, use NEW head bolts, discard the old ones! The degree method of torque settings is designed to stretch the head bolts - and they dont take too kindly to being stretched a second or even third time, my bitter experience is that they will be soft and the head gasket will fail!