LT230 rebuild

[Bennehboy]

A friend donated a damaged LT230 that I'm looking to refurbish.

The main issue is the destroyed rear input support bearing:

Also found a chip on the high range gear:

Is that gear now scrap, or will it operate OK but with some noise?

 

[jamesmartin]

scrap imo,run on low oil level id think

 

[Bennehboy]

Yeah guy donating it confirmed it had a prolonged leak.

Cheers for the info.

 

[Mr Noisy]

Pretty easy things to strip down, I took mine apart last year for a check/investigate/curiosity satisfaction thing and it was easy really, good fun finding out how it works

No special tools needed really

 

[Bennehboy]

The bearing housing is shagged too, the outer bearing track must've rotated when the bearing failed so the mating face is like the surface of the moon.

Took a fair bit of MAPP Pro and a BFH to get the track out.

 

[listerdiesel]

Always amazes me that people continue to drive a vehicle in that condition, it must have been pretty noisy!

Peter

 

[Bennehboy]

Always amazes me that people continue to drive a vehicle in that condition, it must have been pretty noisy!

Peter

Yeah that's what he said

I've another one coming soon so hopefully I can build a working one, swap that on to my car (no CDL in these 2), take my V8 CDL box off and refurb at leisure.

 

[Mr Noisy]

nice plan

 

[Bennehboy]

Did some more tear down on the knackered LT230, sorry if the piccies are a bit big!

Hi/Lo selector housing off

Front output flange off. Braced the flange with a pry bar and used a breaker bar to get the nylock out.

Front output housing off - you can see some odd milling marks in there, suspect some bearing fragments got caught here between the housing and the centre diff assembly:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...9rvPuvg/w1301-h976-no/IMG_20140131_134710.jpg

Here's the diff assembly exposed:

Locking nut, staked nut and retention plate off the intermediate shaft:

Intermediate shaft tapped out, gears, bearings and selectable centre shim removed and sat back on the shaft in the correct order:

Next job is getting the rear output housing off, there are some very thin nuts that need to come off, need to pick up some plus gas first because if I round these I'll have to wind the studs out of the housing. No idea where all my WD & PG has gone, suspect eldest son....

 

[Maaarrghk]

Keep them photos coming Bennehboy. I think I will find them very useful when I have a go at mine.

Thanks for putting them on here.

 

[Bennehboy]

Will do, might be some time gaps between though.

 

[Maaarrghk]

Thank you. It will be some time before I get round to doing mine anyway.

 

[Bennehboy]

Continued stripping the LT230 down

Turns out what I thought were thin nuts were actually integral to the studs holding the rear output housing on:

3 of those out, and a good clout with a rubber mallet to separate the housing from the main casting, it then just pulls out from the diff assembly:

Leaving this to look at:

You can see the end of the hi/lo selector rod at the top in the photo above... Before knocking that out, remove the spring and ball bearing detente (so it doesn't go flying):

Now the selector rod can be gently tapped out whilst feeding the diff assembly out of the case:

Next job is to disassemble the diff assembly so the thrust washers and sun/planet gears can be checked - looking down the centre of the diff, and around the two diff housing hemispheres there is no sign of cross pin wear.

 

[Bennehboy]

Some bits arrived from Ashcrofts - also doing an R380 rebuild so some bits for that too including V8 5th gear set for better motorway cruising.

 

[Bennehboy]

Donor boxes for the R380 rebuild collected today, both probably have worn rear support bearings - clicking in 5th gear, suspect broken teeth due to lay shaft movement.

 

[Mr Noisy]

enjoying this

looking forward to centre diff pics as i never ventured that far

 

[Bennehboy]

I'm off work this week, so if SWMBO doesn't have too much planned for me I'll strip it down soon. Just waiting for a set of bearing separators to arrive so I can crack on with the R380 teardown too.

 

[Bennehboy]

Found a few minutes so went and had a look in the centre diff assembly...

First job is to remove the bearing race on the bolt head side of the carrier - otherwise the bolts can't be removed...

This then means the bolts can be cracked off and removed (I'd already started above), here's what the front half of the carrier looked like with the back side removed - the cross pins and planet gears came away with the rear half, probably because this is the thrust direction...

Here's the front part with the cross pins and planet gears:

I can already notice a problem

The front sun gear is in great shape as is the nylon shim behind it:

Front side cross pin and planet gears removed, notice the distinct absence of brass thrust washers!

The only sign of the brass thrust washers is a fine paste of brass coating the inside of the carrier:

Front side pin and gears out, and the paste is a bit more noticeable:

 

[Bennehboy]

Good news is I have another LT230 being donated tomorrow, this one's in full working order unlike the one I've been taking apart here.

It has no CDL so the plan is to swap it onto the D2, then refurb the CDL equipped V8 box that I have on at the moment.

This duffer box has been a good learning experience though.

Also being donated a 3rd R380, so should have plenty of bits to make a good working box from!

 

[Bennehboy]

Some tools arrived...

Soft jaws for my vice, and a DTI and clamp - should make life easier...

Just waiting on the bearing splitters now - tried getting the oil collar off the 380 with 2 long pry bars and it's just not going to move.