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LT230 reassembly...or rather, not.


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Hi folks,

Brace yourselves. In a fit of New Year enthusiasm (and having temporarily finished the million and three jobs my wife found for me) I have attacked my re-engining project. Last year I stripped what actually appears to have been a perfectly good transfer box prior to installing it, along with a gearbox (also to be stripped and overhauled) and (yep, you guessed, to be stripped and overhauled) V8. 

I'm reassembling the transfer box at the moment and...I can't get it to go back together. I have taken literally everything out, replaced all bearings, bearing shells and oil seals (I used an overhaul kit from onlinegearboxparts.com who seem pretty decent) and I stripped it by the LR manual.

I've got the diff and diff lock actuator back into the main case, checked the bearings are seated as per the book and it's all good. But when I try to put the rest of the case back on to lock the diff in...I can't. I jiggle around and get it to within a millimetre or so of home, but the blessed thing won't go any further. There's a lot of jiggling to even get it there, and almost as much to get it off again.

So I thought I'd be creating and fit the mainshaft instead - maybe if I also fitted the intermediate then I could lock it all up it would slip together. No, because the bearing carrier plate for the mainshaft won't go on either - again it's a millimetre or so proud and doesn't want to know.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd be very happy to hear them.

Cheers,

Simon

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK. So does anyone know, by any chance, how far the shaft should stick out of the front output housing? Either with or without the drive shaft flange? 

Wondering if I need to drift it in a bit further but don't really want to beat sven bells out of it if there's nowhere else to go - strikes me as a surefire route to knackering it...

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On 2/27/2022 at 3:55 PM, JeffR said:

Try watching these youtube vids:

 

That video didn't do it... but I think one of the others that linked from it did.

Looks like I basically haven't hit the bearings hard enough (and that's a first!) and they aren't seated on the shaft properly. 

(I'll be using a press, don't worry - beating seven shades of shoot out of taper rollers has never struck me as a smart idea)

Thanks :)

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On 2/28/2022 at 6:27 AM, Sigi_H said:

It is possible to mount the difflock in the wrong direction. Did this hapen to you?

29844027xh.jpg.936f9bc8493b97f958ca0da9b84f8ff4.jpg

It didn't, but I did take the cover back off to make sure...

Thanks for the suggestion!

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And...

It's back together!

Here are a couple of tips, because it's fair to say that the legendary Haynes quote "Assembly is the above reversed" isn't entirely true.

First some obvious things - forgive me if they really are obvious, but having rebuilt dozens of engines and gearboxes (albeit rather smaller) they still caught me out...

When you replace bearings, make sure the races in particular are seated properly. Then give them a bit extra, just in case.

Same for bearing tracks, especially the ones buried in the intermediate gears, because they are a very tight fit in the case.

While we're on the intermediate gears, look out for the short bolts securing the PTO cover/main shaft bearing - they must go next to the intermediate shaft as if you use a longer bolt it'll foul the intermediate gear. If you're lucky you'll realise because you can't get the *%$@! gear cluster in. Ask me how I know this.

Now for the bit that really caught me.

Putting the front casing on. It simply would not go, no matter how much fiddling and farting I did. My sense of humour was getting frayed. I took the dog clutch and selector out and it all slipped together fine. I then discovered just how exactly the dog clutch engages on the diff shaft splines - the slightest error and it wouldn't go. And it was nigh on impossible to line it up assembling by the book. What I ended up doing was swapping it around. I fitted the dog clutch onto the diff splines (make sure you get it the right way round), fitted that into the front case, replaced the selector and then fitted that to the main case. It's not quite as easy because it's bloomin' heavy but it worked and just slipped together.

DO NOT think you can fit the diff lock selector fork afterwards. You can't - the low ratio gear is in the way so you can't get the shaft in. Again, ask me how I know this...

I decided to fit an Ashcroft HD diff pin, and I'l glad I did because I discovered that three of the four domed copper washers inside were in small pieces. Everything is currently a bit stiff, but it turns and I'm pretty confident it will loosen up a bit after a couple of miles. Or it'll explode - at least I know how to rebuild it now...

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