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It's removed a lot of backlash from the t/case. The ATB is a hell of a lot stronger than the standard centre diff, i use my 130 for work and I'm confident it's more than up to it. I'm in Australia, so climate wise similar to you, just keep decent oil to the t/case, at least a 75W-90GL5, MIL-PRF 2015E oil and it'll be fine (anything that is Mack G0-J Plus approved is a good oil), And you don't want any LSD friction modifiers in the oil either, they'll reduce the bias ratio of the diff a little. If you want, use an extended sump to give some more capacity.

Yep, seamless. Only been running it a few days, and expect it to be even better on dirt/loose stuff/wet bitumen.

This.^ If it has an API C*** rating (hopefully better than CD !) and an ACEA B or E rating it's a dual rated oil and fit for task.

The friction modifiers can take up to 800km to flush the old ones out of the clutch hub faces and embed themselves when changing fluid types. Most specific modern manual trans fluids use special friction modifiers to enhance synchro performance, they generally exhibit a higher coefficient of friction with lowering rotational face speeds. Generally speaking a lower viscosity fluid aids shiftability, particularly at low ambients/operating temps, but higher viscosity fluids protect bearings and gears better than lower viscosity ones. This doesn't take into account the additive package and base oils, which can totally change the outcome, nor does it take into account higher operating temps where the low visc fluid may become too thin and synchro clutch baulking may result. I've had this happen with a premium 75W-85 (11.9cSt@100*C) MTF oil in high ambient/high load situation in an R380. I'd hate to think what it would've been like with an ATF.

Agree, this is one place I prefer paper gaskets, as Les said it's horses for courses. A smear of grease on both sides of the gasket or a thin film of Hylomar spray and they don't leak and come apart clean. Mostly I dislike RTV silicone, I'll use Loctite 515 or 518 for rigid assemblies, eg stub axles to axle housings, t/case assembly and am using a thick cardboard type gasket instead of RTV on a 300Tdi sump. (not sure you can get those in the UK ?)

This. Generally it happens becouse the swivels aren't vented, and so when they get hot hot it pushes the 'one shot' slop past the seals. It isn't a biggy, just dip the swivels to make sure you have enough 'One Shot' still there. No one ever noticed it much in the past as we all used gear oil in the swivels, it was just a little curious if you opened the fill plug first (and always do that, nothing worse than draining a compartment then finding you can't undo the fill plug ! ) and oil dribbled out. "how did I overfill that ?"

A few blokes here have Dynamat'd the entire firewall, floor, roof, doors and that's made a big difference, but you'll never stop the wind noise, a Deefer is a shed on wheels ! Again, I'd be concerned about corrosion with the matting glued to panels. At least we don't salt roads here, even in the Alpine areas. The Aussie $ is carp ATM compared to Sterling, the price is basically double and then freight, and if it only drops the interior noise by one or two dB..... but it does look bloody good.

Ditto. Drove my Defender for two weeks with a broken fork while organising the new bits. Funnily enough the batteries and starter motor coped with the knock into neutral, turn off and start in first gear regime when coming to a dead stop, but I don't live in the city either.

Thanks for this, wanted to get these mats for a while now, but it's exxy with freight getting them to the other side of the world. The only thing that concerns me, other than you blokes noticing not too much change in noise levels, is the build up of condensation underneath considerering how badly the Defender leaks. At the moment it's easy to rip out an offending floor mat and let things dry. With the one piece setup, that isn't quite as easy.......

Yep, agree, and IMO Wabco are pretty poor, for an OE part, they aren't up to snuff. Had a problem with one Bearmach pump, but was replaced promptly (faulty batch, the welsch plug fell out !) but the last Bearmach one has been fine.

The problem with doing the R380 rear seal is you need to make a tool to get it over the sleeve surface for the T/case seal. Can be done but fiddly.

No it doesn't, this is an old wives tale that keeps being repeated. ;-)

Just bear in mind that repalcing the O ring doesn't always fix the leak as the shaft tends to ovalise the bore in the case. I did the O ring bodgie fix a long time ago when replacing the clutch, and it worked for a while, but after pulling the t/case last week to give it a thorough rebuild (including Maxi Drive low range gears and an ATB to minimise backlash in the driveline) the bore needs rebushing with a steel sleeve, which I'd planned on doing anyway, but the wear in the bore and on the shaft is significant.

Most of the time you won't need a case spreader, a couple of tyre levers will suffice. Having said that, I'm installing a new locker soon and will be borrowing a case spreader. All the bearings are available, Timken are generally the OE fitment, although I think Koyo were sometimes used ?

Just a quick FWIW, the sector shaft on these things tend to fatigue fail after a few km and years, I've heard of a few letting go here in Oz when they up around the 350,000km mark/over ten years old and there were a few letting go in South America, one of the Argentinian members posted photo's. One of the blokes on the AULRO forum ran off the highway and through a barbed wire fence when it let go, luckily not hitting anything but it really put the wind up him. It's just made me question the value of rebuilding them, mines leaking like a seive and I have a full seal kit (mainly leaking from that square section seal behind the adjuster) but I'll think I'll just stump up for a new 'box when I can afford it.

I agree, the genuine parts ones are absolute rubbish, and that's putting it kindly. Any decent VW air cooled 8mm forged cap will do, or an 8mm cap from one of the big valve train companies, I'm currently using US made Manley ones.

So I wonder why JRA fitted a HD tie rod and drag link to the Perentie for the Australian Army way back in the eighties ? Or Nissan upgraded the tie rod and drag link on the GU Patrol to around 32mm, including female tie rod ends in around 2002 ? or.... It's just typical Land Rover under engineering. My mate that was an engineer on the Oz army Perentie used words like 'joke' 'pathetic' and 'spaghetti' to describe the standard steering components, and he used some choice words for the aluminium channel under the diff.

Uninformed did this on his 2.8 engined Deefer and it works. I'll be doing it before summer here, my new, HD cored and closed baffle radiator isn't enough.

Those temps are well under what a Tdi will tolerate. Here where ambients exceed 40*C I've seen 110* coolant temp and not cooked an engine/head. These are temps from a mechanical VDO gauge. And FWIW, way back in another lifetime when I built Formula Ford 1600 engines, we found best power made was at least 95* coolant temp.

I've seen a GQ high pinion CWP grafted into a Landy housing A bit of work but doable

You can graft in a GQ or GU Patrol front end, much stronger than Toy and possibly easier to do (the radius arms pretty much bolt straight in, panhard, spring perches, etc need sorting) Quite a few here in Oz run GQ front and 80 Series rear.

Bill, you do realise you're sadly missed on AULRO, plenty of blokes would love to see you poke your head back in there occasionally too

FWIW the Bailey-Morris shafts have been failing here, or at least their DC shafts have. The DC centreing bearing can't take sustained speeds/loads. Have aTom Wood shaft coming from the US.

That's a really common mod here in Oz, stops the bloody axle/drive flange splines fretting and disappearing. Just make sure you use an RTC3511 hub seal, makes everything oil and water tight