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LT230 centre diff wear / ATB?


oneandtwo

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Currently rebuilding my transfer box with 1.2Q gears, sleeved casing etc.

On stripping the centre diff down, the bronze washers for the planetary gears had disintegrated and the gears had worn themselves into the housing. I then stripped two more LT230 centre diff which still had the washers intact however there is slight wear in the housings of both of them still - photos attached below.

How much, if any wear is acceptable? (anyone got a decent housing spare for sale?) or do I just buy an Ashcroft ATB and be done with it?

 

 

98AE4C75-7682-44D1-942D-BCD8416B0A8A.jpeg

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As a plant and agri fitter I can say that the planet and sun gears have a clearance and it is usually way bigger than in a gearbox or on the crown wheel and pinion. I’ve seen a ZF duetze tractor diff where the sun and planet bevel gear teeth were a fine cast finish with no machining. So these aren’t as critical a part as many other gears in a truck/car/tractor. I would reassemble one of the better housings.

What kills them is spinning the front wheels. They don’t turn much against themselves on the road. To blow the thrust washers a driver must have doing tight turns by applying the handbrake? They hate that. 

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5 hours ago, Team Idris said:

What kills them is spinning the front wheels. They don’t turn much against themselves on the road. To blow the thrust washers a driver must have doing tight turns by applying the handbrake? They hate that. 

Yep, one good way to kill any diff is spinning one end really fast as the planet gears are only there to allow a small difference whilst turning, not cope with huge speeds / loads.

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  • 2 years later...

I scrapped a 1996 discovery ES shortly after. I pulled the transfer box off and found it had been fitted with a LT230Q out of a late Disco2 with the later centre diff housing and reinforced casing. Stripped it apart to inspect it and it was like brand new, diff was unmarked, so I rebuilt that box instead, had the casing sleeved, fitted a Syncro gearboxes hardened intermediate shaft. Centre diff I rebuilt with Ashcroft 4 pin centre and set up correctly (notchy).

It is completely leak free still and very tight in use.

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5 minutes ago, oneandtwo said:

had the casing sleeved

Thank you for the reply. Sleeving is something I have read about but not enough to see what it is referring to. What is being sleeved?

Edit: why did you go for the Syncro shaft? Is it cheaper or better than Ashcroft's?

Edited by Peaklander
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The intermediate shaft hole in the casing is sleeved with stainless insert as the hole wears causing oil leak. Every transfer box I stripped (at least ten) has had a worn hole, either grooved or ovalised.

The Syncro intermediate shaft is a direct replacement for the standard intermediate shaft, but made from hardened steel - again all the boxes I stripped down have had wear to the intermediate shaft. Syncro were the only people at the time who produced an uprated shaft.

the Ashcroft 4 pin diff centre is an uprated stronger one piece centre to replace the weaker standard two pins. On my Puma LT230 I recently rebuilt I did exactly the same except I also fitted stronger TAS manufactured machined centre gears but that is probably overkill!

I also replaced all the bolts with 12.9 cap heads on both boxes.

There is a photo on this page - 

 

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14 hours ago, oneandtwo said:

The intermediate shaft hole in the casing is sleeved with stainless insert

Yep Ok I see now thanks. Looking at the Ashcroft re-build parts for the LT230 I can see that they supply the steel bush for diy sleeving but also do an exchange case with the bush pressed in.

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