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ATF oil leak from tansfer box?


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Hi all,

Need some advice please.

I decided to change the transfer box oil yesterday as I thought that the cover plate was leaking, (it didn't click straight away that the oil drip on the lower section of the cover plate was red in colour and not clear). The oil drained well, removing and scraping the old gasket from the cover plate and corresponding area on the transfer box and cooing at the lovely gear type thingy's, marvelling that they all seemed to have their teeth remaining etc.

After a applying new RTV sealant and re-fitting the cover plate (couldn't find torque settings for the 8 bolts locating it) I added the new Comma posh and v.expensive synthetic 75/90 oil.

With everything all clean again underneath a quick test drive was carried out and to be honest, I couldn't tell any difference really (as much as I tried to convince myself that £33 for 3 litres of oil made the truck as quiet and smooth as my new Mazda 3 on the parkway! :-). Anyway, back at home I looked again underneath and noticed that the red ATF was back. It seems to be coming from the extension case part of the transfer box but not where it meets the LT77 but more to the right of the LT77 filter drainplug and the cover plate.

Any ideas of what it is likely to be?

Am I looking at having to split the transfer box from the gearbox or can the transfer box separate from the extension case? Bit confused as to how the gearbox is steel but the extension case is an alloy but all filled with ATF.

Thanks

Dave

pic4.jpg3= filter drain plug (leak from higher up to the right and running down the cover plate to drip at point 5

(thanks to Difflock for the picture)

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Firstly, shouldn't an LT230 have EP90 in it?

If you are finding an ATF leak then I am guessing that is what you have in your gearbox? You don't say what geaarbox you have though so no idea what it should or shouldn't be.

Either way, looks like you need to split the boxes to trace the leak from the gearbox.

Oh, and if your LT230 leaks, don't worry - they all do. It is a LR thing!

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75w90 is acceptable. TD5's and later discos ran it from the factory.

What do you mean by "extension case part of the transfer box"?

Number 3 on your diagram is the gearbox drain plug. 5 on your diagram is the transfer box drain plug.

The gearbox itself has both a cast iron and alloy part, the transfer box starts just behind the drain plug marked 3 on the diagram.

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Firstly, shouldn't an LT230 have EP90 in it?

If you are finding an ATF leak then I am guessing that is what you have in your gearbox? You don't say what geaarbox you have though so no idea what it should or shouldn't be.

Either way, looks like you need to split the boxes to trace the leak from the gearbox.

Oh, and if your LT230 leaks, don't worry - they all do. It is a LR thing!

Apologies, I thought I had mentioned that the gearbox is the LT77.

I researched the correct/best type of oil to put into the LT230 on this forum and the general concensus was that EP75/90 fully synthetic oil was good (bit of opinions regarding GL4 and GL5 type, but I took the risk anyways and went for GL5 spec) I have "Morris" Lodexol FS 75W/90 full Synthetic Gear Oil (LSF) in the transfer box and I have Comma AQ3 ATF in the gearbox.

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75w90 is acceptable. TD5's and later discos ran it from the factory.

What do you mean by "extension case part of the transfer box"?

Number 3 on your diagram is the gearbox drain plug. 5 on your diagram is the transfer box drain plug.

The gearbox itself has both a cast iron and alloy part, the transfer box starts just behind the drain plug marked 3 on the diagram.

Sorry, I meant that the 5 was the closest number to give a reference point for the cover plate I removed (it was a borrowed picture). The Number 3 is actually the gearbox filter cover that is removed with a 27mm socket in order to pull out a cylindrical filter that needs cleaning when changing the gearbox oil. True it does let a fair amount of ATF oil out too when removed, but that is the extension part of the gearbox, the cast steel part of the gearbox also has a drainplug and the filler plug

pic1.jpg

Number 2 is the gearbox drain plug. 1 is the square filler plug. The piccie also shows where the steel and alloy parts of the gearbox meetrolleyes.gif

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Sorry, I meant that the 5 was the closest number to give a reference point for the cover plate I removed (it was a borrowed picture). The Number 3 is actually the gearbox filter cover that is removed with a 27mm socket in order to pull out a cylindrical filter that needs cleaning when changing the gearbox oil. True it does let a fair amount of ATF oil out too when removed, but that is the extension part of the gearbox, the cast steel part of the gearbox also has a drainplug and the filler plug

pic1.jpg

Number 2 is the gearbox drain plug. 1 is the square filler plug. The piccie also shows where the steel and alloy parts of the gearbox meetrolleyes.gif (apologies if it sounds patronising)

A typo by me, I originally meant "extension part of the gearbox" not the transfer box, oops huh.gif

Thanks for the info though about the gearbox being in two pieces, I thought that the transfer box was the complete alloy piece and the gearbox was just the steel casting. Hence the mass confusion I had when removed the filter plug and ATF came out at a rate of knots down my arm! rolleyes.gif

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