Berto Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Afternoon All, Just drained off the oil from my '93 200tdi's transfer box and was greeted with this... The oil smelled pretty bad too... I do get a bit of play/slip/backlash going from forward to reverse and vice verser and had suspected the splines between gearbox and transfer box were worn. Anyone tell how bad things might be from the pics? Appreciate the help! Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 How long since last change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berto Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 How long since last change? Can't say (don't know), but suspect at least 5 years and 14K miles. Had to use a breaker bar to remove the plugs (very gently)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveturnbull Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 I've seen worse. General forum consensus recently was to only start to worry if complete gear teeth were attached to the magnet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berto Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 I've seen worse. General forum consensus recently was to only start to worry if complete gear teeth were attached to the magnet. Cheers Dave. I love a consensus, especially when it means my vehicle's not completely ****ed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frax Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 I would do your oil change and run it for 50 - 100 miles and then change the oil again just to see how bad it is. Also this would help give the box a good clean out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berto Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 I would do your oil change and run it for 50 - 100 miles and then change the oil again just to see how bad it is. Also this would help give the box a good clean out. shSounds like a good plan, cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash.Witty Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 If you remove the 6 bolt plate where the pto would fit, you can pull the rear bearing carrier and input gear out. You can have a good look at the splines then. LT77 and early transfer boxes were prone to wearing with a 2" spline section and poor lubrication, rectified with cross drilled gears. the R380 and later LT230 transfer boxes had a 3" spline section and cross drilled gear as standard, the larger spline surface along with good lubrication decreased wear substantially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tychoS Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Once I drained a LT230 transfer box on a recently purchased 90", and what came out was a brownish muddy watery substance. Obviously the previous owner had not done his maintenance work properly. I put proper oil into it, drove it for a week or so and changed the oil again. 10 years, 100.000 km and yearly oilchanges later, it still works just fine. I know of a 90" that was driven something like 150 km with a large chunk of the casing of its LT230 missing after a rock impact at an event. Of course all fluids had completely drained through the gaping hole. The LT230 made the trip, but had to be replaced afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Judging by the amount of swarf my various magnets extract - I have a feeling that the axles, gearbox & engine are in fact empty! Still seems to work OK though - must be running on Magic! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagger Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 From what I have seen elsewhere, that amount of material is pretty common and even normal for infrequent oil changes. The magnets pick up almost all of the steel particles, but it looks worse than it really is because it collects with low density. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweetyduck Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 That oil drop looked clear. Which is good. If the metal was paste then good. If it were sharp fragments then bad. looks normal to me. Previous advice was good. Pull the plug in a few weeks and stick your finger in the hole. No need to drain it all if its looking clear and magnet is OK. Just top it back up. Take few hundred mL in a glass to see. Magnet speaks for itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berto Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 Thanks for all the replies chaps! I'll keep an eye on it as suggested. Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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