RRC 91 Borg Warner TC broken - what could have caused this?

[Mihai]

Hello all👋. I am new on this forum and also only 8 months owner of a 91 RRC. Five months ago I changed the TC because something knocking seriously and I tought was the chain that was slippery. I put a SH one and all was good until now. I put the car in rear gear and suddenly a bad sound as if something broke came underneath.  After drive 500 meters the sound come again but terrible bad and when looked in the mirror I could see fallen pieces. I looked underneath and the Born Warner transfer case was totally KO. I put a photo here. Seems to be the planetary gears but what can cause that and how could be avoided? Has anyone seen something like that? It had no symptoms before. I am afraid to put another BW on the car and I am thinking of ls320 but I am not sure what linkage I will need. But that is another discution.

Thank you!

Edited September 25, 2023 by Mihai

[Bowie69]

The BW box is very strong in all honesty, and muuuuch quieter than the LT230. 

If you have your old one, I suggest a new chain and viscous and bolt it in. 

An LT230 conversion is fine, but more work than you think, including handbrake fiddling, linkage, maybe even cutting a bit out of the tunnel for the lever. 

 

[elbekko]

That's an impressive break (Coming from someone that split his in half on a rock)

Something must've been severely binding in there?

[Escape]

I remember we had a chain in a P38 where one of the links was coming lose. If that had gone much further, it could have machined away part of the housing, leading to such a break? But as it's a second hand box, there could have been previous damaged, either during use or being dropped when taking out of the car or such.

[Bowie69]

The fluid looks pretty brown, doesn't seem like it was maintained to any great degree....

[Snagger]

Presumably the fluid was replaced when the chain was swapped over, so it has burnt very quickly.  Something must have been binding inside since then.  Maybe a shim slipped out of position?

[Bowie69]

Can't think why it should burn unless the viscous has leg go, and let go open.

[Snagger]

If a space or shim was omitted and lead to excessive bearing preload, that could cause the overheating, eventually leading to seizure.  I have never opened one of these up, so don’t know where any shims might be installed, but it’d be an easy mistake with these consequences.

[Mihai]

I personally changed the oil when put on car. So, something burn it prematurely.

[Little mule]

When I was in the Canadian military as REME we used to change the BW transfer cases in the IVECO trucks .

thr truck had the 2.5 VM diesel with a HP22 and a BW transfer case .

The truck did not have the viscous coupler in it but rest was the same . The T case would have the chain break and just tear up everything attached with it . Most times we would have to order a tranny as well as the T case . 
if the front drive shaft broke it would did the very same as the Land Rover it would tear apart the tranny,t case , and we even had to order a engine as well because you could not turn over the engine to gat a t the torque con ether bolts . 
the chains ain the Bw T case stretch over time and the viscus coupler will seize and cause all kinds of problems like what you have there . The chain probably broke and piled up on the output bearing and boom now your into changing it out ..Let didn’t do anything to the tranny our the granny out put shaft.

it is easier to just change out to another BW style if you just want to drive your truck around but the LT230 is a little stronger and all gear drive . You just have to get the right speedo drive or T case gearing .

it will take some time but it can be done . 
I had a P38 here that had a chain problem and we caught it in time before it broke . The chain was so worn out it would jump the gears inside when you put any sort of power to get moving or off road . I just switched it out for a like for like Tcase. You can pick one up from a breakers in N\A for about $1100.00 bucks . That’s why I like to have spares around lol.

I wish I could get a drive train out of one of the Canadian LSVW(light service vehicle wheeled) 

it came with a iveco 2.5 TDI , a HP22 same as a D1 or RRC . Te BW transfer case actually had the two wheel drive option .

the engine was a VM with a single cylinder head and one piece head gasket . It had a timing chain not like the old VM 2.4/2.5 with gear drive .the turbo and injection pump were identical to a 300 Tdi same injectors as well ..

they thought a 2.5 Tdi would move a loaded 10,000 pound truck with a trailer on the back . It was only a 125 hp engine lol.

I tuned one up one day and it woke the truck up and the truck would now hold 110 Kph lol pretty slow but it worked . 

like I said the Tcase is done and you should be able to find one pretty easy at a breakers .