R380 or LT230 leak...?

[Hazza]

Any one experienced a leak like this who can give any pointers as to where it may be coming from?

 

Thanks!

[Hazza]

Just to add - no leak while parked (after the residue drops off), only when it's been driving 

[fmmv]

You should be able to smell which oil it is, EP90 has a distinctive smell. If it is EP90, it's the transfer box, and the layshaft O ring has to be prime suspect.

[Hazza]

It's definitely EP90.

Bugger - likely needs the case sleeving then I assume?

[hurbie]

first job is making sure the breathers work as they should do .... a blocked breather makes a gearbox/differential leak ....

and not all 230's need a sleeved casing when leaking from the o-ring ....sometimes a new o-ring will seal it for a long time .

[Hazza]

Ok, will blow through breathers first, fingers crossed for an easy fix!

[92a]

Mike from “Brittanica restorations” has done YouTube videos of changing the o ring and I’m sure people on here have managed it in situ too ? 

[FridgeFreezer]

3 hours ago, hurbie said:

and not all 230's need a sleeved casing when leaking from the o-ring ....sometimes a new o-ring will seal it for a long time .

^ this, it's worth remembering that could be a ~30-year-old O-ring and they do have a limit!

[stevebus]

I watched the brittanica restoration video on the exact same thing a day or so ago, i have the same thing going on,the way he plays it it seems a simple enough thing, mind you so is changing a wheel until it comes of the jack

[fmmv]

Not sure how you coulld change the O ring in situ but if you take the box out it's quite easy. There is a tech archive article, I think  'the O ring bodge' or similar. 

[vulcan bomber]

4 hours ago, Hazza said:

It's definitely EP90.

Bugger - likely needs the case sleeving then I assume?

I happen to know a bloke that does this....

[stevebus]

Don't know if it can be done situ, his video was done on a bench I'm assuming for ease of explaining it all I'm guessing, 

Edited April 6 by stevebus

[FridgeFreezer]

If it's the intermediate shaft I'm pretty sure you can do that in situ, just remove the sump and make sure the intermediate gear doesn't fall out on you when you pull the shaft out.

[Sigi_H]

Sorry, but before any recomendation this has to be cleaned and then checked localy where oil comes from.

Cleaning is best with high pressure cleaner and then remove remaining oil with brake cleaner.

A testdrive can show more then. This can be quite a lot, because the wind while driving will spray the oil everywhere.

This sounds a little bit to me like if someone is posting a pic of his Land Rover and " It makes a strange noise when driving, can you help me?"

Yes we can, but only after a thousand more questions 😇

Cleaning first can avoid 500 of them and save a lot of needless work.

[Hazza]

Thanks for everyone's input.

I'll watch the Brit. Rest. video and see how best to approach this.

@Sigi_H - fair point! I was just trying to consult the hive mind and see whether anyone looked at it and thought "that looks just like mine when I had x" as it looks like a very localised leak. I'll clean it up before I do anything else (even if it just gives me a cleaner bit to work with!!).

@vulcan bomber - I'll be in touch if required! Have a spare case which I could send down to you to keep me mobile.

@fmmv I'll find that thread too

Will report back - cheers all 

[Sigi_H]

Any oil-problem has to be cleaned first before anybody will be able to make recomendations. The wind while driving will make any leak apear bigger as it really is, because the oil will be sprayed around. Most of the gearbox leaks look exactly like this, so allmost everybody can say

16 minutes ago, Hazza said:

"that looks just like mine when I had x"

😉

[reb78]

@vulcan bomber has sleeved one of my cases. The other, wasnt so bad but was still leaking - when it was off for another gearbox problem, I knocked the intermediate shaft out a little, replaced the o ring on the shaft and gave it a good coating of sealant, knocked back in and torqued up. It hasnt leaked since.

[Sigi_H]

Bushrepair often works pretty good.

 

[Sigi_H]

One more addendum:
Why does the O-ring leak? In my opinion, it is due to the aluminium alloy used for the housing. It is too soft and therefore the intermediate shaft can press into the bore. This overstrains the O-ring, which can no longer compensate for the increased tolerance.
The familiar steel bushing helps because it distributes the forces that are introduced into the aluminium housing over a larger area in the aluminium.

The rep of reb78 helps because additional "filler" is inserted. However, it cannot compensate for the soft housing in the long term. I already had a stamp about 0.3mm deep. This also means a severe misalignment of the intermediate shaft with corresponding stress on the bearings. Only a bushing is a decent repair.

I made two bushings so far and both work fine. One since 300.000 km

[Snagger]

23 hours ago, Sigi_H said:

One more addendum:
Why does the O-ring leak? In my opinion, it is due to the aluminium alloy used for the housing. It is too soft and therefore the intermediate shaft can press into the bore. This overstrains the O-ring, which can no longer compensate for the increased tolerance.
The familiar steel bushing helps because it distributes the forces that are introduced into the aluminium housing over a larger area in the aluminium.

The rep of reb78 helps because additional "filler" is inserted. However, it cannot compensate for the soft housing in the long term. I already had a stamp about 0.3mm deep. This also means a severe misalignment of the intermediate shaft with corresponding stress on the bearings. Only a bushing is a decent repair.

I made two bushings so far and both work fine. One since 300.000 km

It is sometimes the bore for the shaft wearing oval, but more often than not, it is just the o-ring going hard and flat or being torn or split.  It’s hard to tell until the shaft is removed.

[reb78]

My bodge repair was meant to be temporary. It has done about 80k miles on that since with no ill effects. 

[fmmv]

All Land Rover repairs are temporary!  They just vary in temporariness. The intermediate shaft is an appalling design, it can wobble about on the O ring varying the gear mesh. I have wondered if it might be possible to fit a welch plug in the casing.

[Snagger]

On 4/10/2024 at 9:38 PM, fmmv said:

All Land Rover repairs are temporary!  They just vary in temporariness. The intermediate shaft is an appalling design, it can wobble about on the O ring varying the gear mesh. I have wondered if it might be possible to fit a welch plug in the casing.

Why not really cheer us all up by telling us life is only temporary! 😜😂😂😂

[FridgeFreezer]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:49 AM, Snagger said:

Why not really cheer us all up by telling us life is only temporary! 😜😂😂😂

Well, seems a good time to throw @Daan's signature in here:

Quote

It's better to have a good time, because we won't be here for a long time; Colin Mcrae 1968-2007

Amen to that!

[Daan]

On 4/15/2024 at 10:39 AM, FridgeFreezer said:

Well, seems a good time to throw @Daan's signature in here:

Amen to that!

It's just a quote...

With the transfer box, the O-ring is only 1 place where it leaks, and when it does, it can and potentially does leak everywhere else as well. There is also the bottom cover and drain plug (both leaked in my case).

Be care full when tightening up the drain plug to FT, because someone at Land rover (who I hope has now been sacked or retired) decided a fine thread in an aluminium casing is a good idea.

Also, the seal inside brake drum (could well be yours by the looks of it), between the casing and the speedo drive, and best of them all, between the gearbox and the transfer box. The last one is important, it can leak as mud gets in there and makes a nice groove in the wear bush, as it does with the prop shaft flanges. Replacing this wear bush is rather involved, but possible. I bought a puller to do this job, but the bush put up a big fight. I won the fight, but it was not easy:

All the best,

 

Daan