I've started taking my transfer box to pieces this weekend. It's leaking oil and so far I have kept going by topping it up but it's getting to the point where new seals and gaskets are needed.
Right, seats out, cubby box out, mats out, handbrake lever out:
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You can see how juicy it looks down there. Transmission tunnel out:
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That area was pristine in January 2021 when I fitted a reconditioned gearbox. It's certainly got dirty since. Oil out next. The drain plug is getting into the festive spirit with is own little Christmas tree:
View attachment 330133On rubbing it between finger and thumb, there aren't any big lumps in there. It's more a kind of grey paste. So maybe thing aren't as bad as all that.
Props off next. Oh no, I can't. The captive bolts at the handbrake end have liberated themselves and spin freely. Hmm. How am I going to get those out? Fortunately I have a die grinder and a set of tungsten carbide burrs. So the nuts ended up looking a bit like this:
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I just ground them away until there was hardly anything left clinging on to the bolts. I can't find any 3/8" UNF bolts the right length in the house so I may have to order some.
Eager to get a scent of EP90 in my nostrils, I took the input shaft out:
View attachment 330135The teeth look fairly decent still. It's not shaped like a circular saw. Indeed, if I didn't know which way round it goes, I'd be hard pressed to tell which was the loadbearing side of the teeth. With all that done, I could start disconnecting earth wires, warning light cables and gear shift mechanisms, then undoing the bolts and lowering the transfer box so that the entire weight was suspended on a breather pipe. Forgot about that one. On bringing it inside and taking the sump off, the gears look like they're reasonably happy and will go back in for another round:
View attachment 330137Those bright spots aren't chips, it's just how the light is catching them. So far the bearings look OK too - the rollers are nice and round and shiny. I've seen roller bearings in the past where the case hardening has delaminated off the rollers in big flakes, so I'm always on the lookout for that sort of thing. But it looks to me like it just needs seals and gaskets on this occasion. Tomorrow I'll change the seals on the intermediate shaft (which is why its out of the vehicle) and start putting things back together.