LT230 hot and feeling resistance/drag...

I've noticed that my transfer box gets quite hot after a blast down the motorway.

I took it out yesterday and it drove fine for probably a good 40 mins at 30-40mph and stop starts traffic. Went down the motorway for about 20 mins and as soon as I came off I could hear a slight intermittent squeak from under the transfer/gearbox area and it felt like there was some kind of resistance or drag going on there.

Once cooled it seemed to get better.

Now it's by no means a perfect t'box. It leaks from the intermediate shaft (which got considerably worse when hot, dripping every few seconds). The oil was changed last week and it was only half full and contaminated with water.

I'm guessing some bearings have gone or something is tighter and causing a load of friction to build up hence this being much more noticeable after driving at speed.

I'm gonna take the props off and turn it by hand to see what I can feel.

Any other suggestions before I start looking at getting a recon one?

Cheers!

So I took off the props and there doesn't feel like there's any resistance turning the outputs by hand, back or front. With the diff lock in there's probably just under 1/4 turn of play between front and rear. I think it should be more like 1/8th. Other than that it doesn't feel too bad.

So I checked the oil level in the transfer case to see if it had dropped much. This is was tricked out of the fill hole.

What came out before was pretty emulsified however this too appears contaminated.

It's barely been used since the oil change, probably less than 100 dry miles so not too sure how it's gotten like this so quickly unless that's from whatever residue was left behind?

Can transfer cases be flushed out?

Ignore the twig/dirt that's from the old bucket I used to catch it!

First step could be to flush it through and fill it with clean EP90, see if it makes a difference. Possibly the old oil was a bit contaminated.

Flush it with fresh oil or something else? I've heard of people putting a cup of diesel into engine oil to flush engines...

I would flush it with oil, let it drain fully overnight then fill the next day.

fill it with dexron 2 or 3 takes for a spin drain and refill with ep

In terms of the squeak, especially if it occurs under power, don't forget the handbrake. I've had this with a couple of sets of handbrake shoes over the years and after a while I've just given up and put new shoes on it and enjoyed a squeak free drive for about three years until it happens again. Yes, the transfer box gets hot. I've got an overdrive and a transfer box temperature gauge, and ended up making an oil cooler circuit for mine because the temperatures got so high on long motorway runs.

Brown said:

In terms of the squeak, especially if it occurs under power, don't forget the handbrake. I've had this with a couple of sets of handbrake shoes over the years and after a while I've just given up and put new shoes on it and enjoyed a squeak free drive for about three years until it happens again. Yes, the transfer box gets hot. I've got an overdrive and a transfer box temperature gauge, and ended up making an oil cooler circuit for mine because the temperatures got so high on long motorway runs.

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I think you might be right, I just took it for a run and after the drum was red hot! What causes it?!

There's no resistance turning the back wheel off the ground and equally I can turn the rear prop by hand also.

I'll order new shoes and see how we get on!

DecayingRat said:

I think you might be right, I just took it for a run and after the drum was red hot! What causes it?!

There's no resistance turning the back wheel off the ground and equally I can turn the rear prop by hand also.

I'll order new shoes and see how we get on!

Click to expand...

The transmission makes a lot of heat, plus there may be a small amount of drag from the handbrake, but hopefully not too much. Some of it may be friction and some may come from the churning action of the gears on the oil. A bit like those blenders that say they'll make soup; if you leave them running the action of the blades alone will heat the liquid. Last time I changed a handbrake cable the old one had a notch melted in the plastic covering where it had been touching the brake backplate. I don't think there's anything wrong with the transmission. Last time I had it apart the gears looked pretty much like new. I've seen badly worn gears with a distinct step on the teeth where they mesh, or ones which have begun to look like circular saws, but all that had happened to mine was that the machining marks had got polished off. So just getting nicely run in.

Old hand brake expander can stick and not close up properly causing shoes to rub even when lever is off. Not helped perhaps by weak return springs. Renew the lot.