My new 101 The Red Camper but not happy

**dseddn** · 19th July 2013, 04:49 PM

Hi all, sorry in advance for the log winded post
Pick up this 101 about six weeks ago some of you will know it as the red camper. Mazda 3.5lt turbo diesel, Lt95 gearbox, rear McNamara diff lock, PTO winch, 200lts fuel,
One of the reasons I chose this 101 was that a lot of work had been carried out on the mechanicals including a rebuild of the gearbox transfer case 23000 kms ago.
After picking it up in Sydney drove it back to Melbourne with the Help of AJ got it roadworthy and registered while it was at AJ’s we replaced all the oils as and found it had diff oil in the gear box and transfer case. Then drove to Port Hughes SA were I am living at the moment.
We then went on a trip up to Alice via the Oodnadatta Track and Mt Dare, but due to a very leaky transfer case I decided to not proceed past Oodnadatta and came back via the Painted Desert and Coober Pedy.
The 101 has performed faultless and I am very happy with it except for the leaky transfer!
A couple of days ago I decided to have a look at the leaky transfer case, and found it was leaking out of the seal on the rear extension housing and the o ring on the intermediate shaft.
So after cleaning it all down I proceed to strip it down to do the seals. After dropping the oil which was as black as the ace of spades with a few shiny bits in it, I removed the rear housing to find the centre diff bearing is loose and upon having a look at realize it is very badly worn it should not be so I think to myself this is only 23000 since the rebuild. I was only going to slide the intermediate shaft out far enough to replace the o ring but not now I decided to have a good look inside.
I removed the PTO cover of the bottom; the sump in the PTO was full of brass and shiny bits. This is not looking good. Removed the intermediate shaft and found that it was also worn, the 4 oil drains were blocked with grit. The gears are also scored on the inside. On removal of the diff find the other bearing is also lose, strip the diff down and surprise surprise it is also stuffed!
On inspection everything in the transfer case is totalled.
I assume the black oil was caused by the engine oil we stuck in cleaning all the black of the thrust washers ect.
So I am waiting on prices for the internals or maybe just put in a replacement box, anybody got one for sale?
I have the receipts of the work and servicing and it is clear they used Diff oil Repsol gear oil 80/90

Here are some pics of the 101 Camper and transfer case bits

**dseddn** · 19th July 2013, 04:53 PM

Centre diff

**dseddn** · 19th July 2013, 04:59 PM

**goingbush** · 19th July 2013, 05:05 PM

nice truck,

would not be surprised at all if it was 'recoed' using a britpart kit, 80w90 not the ideal TC oil but dosen't account for that mess.

I had a LT230 professionally rebuilt which involved boring out the case and steel sleeve inserted so that intermediate shaft would not need redoing. The transfer case was 'unprofessionally' only filled with ONE LITRE of oil, which I only discovered 10,000k later when it was due for an oil change. It made no noises nor overheated, no chunks or brass in oil.

Subsequently filled with 3.5l syntrax and its going strong.

**alan48** · 19th July 2013, 05:16 PM

Hi all,
I have been made aware of this issue but must state that when I sold the car it was unknown to me as yes it was rebuilt by a professional LR centre just 23K ago and thus should have given many years of service--that is what I paid for.

I am dumfounded at the failure and agree with the new owner it should never have happened.

**dseddn** · 19th July 2013, 05:21 PM

Hi sorry Alan48 I did not mean it to sound like I was blaming you that is why I had placed no names ect in the post.
Just to make this very clear to all, in no way am I implying or believe it is the fault of Alan48

Dseddn

**justinc** · 19th July 2013, 05:23 PM

To be fair, I have seen similar destruction of these transfer cases due to heat/ high loads. The 101 is a very heavy truck, and the engine very torquey. I have regularly seen 100+ degreesC in my transfer case towing a small caravan and MY transfer case thrusts wore away worse than those after only 1 trip from Albany home to Tasmania. I had to upgrade to a taper roller case to avoid this happening. I now see less than 60 degrees oil temps.

Oil is only part of the problem IMO, High loads are the bain of these transfer cases.

Sorry to see the destruction but I would say it is mandatory for a taper roller upgrade for anyone heavy towing OR big engines in heavy vehicles. No synthetic oils or additives will stop this happening I'm afraid. It is purely that the transmission has a design loading and the combination of big loads etc will exceed this. it is a well known fact to anyone who knows these gearboxes.

JC

**101RRS** · 19th July 2013, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by dseddn

while it was at AJ’s we replaced all the oils as and found it had diff oil in the gear box and transfer case.

Surely if the transfer case was as stuffed as you have indicated then it would have been obvious when the oil was dropped as above. The oil would have had fine metallic particles through the oil and the fact it had issues would have been obvious.

How do you know if the oil was wrong?? It should have had standard 20w50 engine oil in it. I do not know the oil you mentioned but if it was an EP90 equivalent then definitely not suitable for the transfer case as if can damage bushes and some bearings.

Use engine oil in the engine/gearbox/tfr case and you should have minimal issues once rebuilt.

The fact that you were able to drive all the way from Sydney to Melbourne then to SA and up to Onnadatta shows that the transfer case must not have been too bad at that stage.

I am sorry to say that when you buy old second hand vehicles these little surprises do pop up.

What is the gearbox like - if the gearbox has had EP90 in it you could have the same issues as the transfer case.

I am sure the previous owner will be along before too long to talk about what was done during his ownership.

Good luck with your search for bits.

Garry

**dseddn** · 19th July 2013, 05:45 PM

As stated in the original post it was reconditioned 23000 kms ago and the previous owner had it services by a Land Rover service centre on a regular basis.
The way I know what oil was used as the previous owner gave me all the receipts of work and services.
repsol 80/90 was used and is a EP90 equivalent.

We did find stuff at the oil change in melbourne but did not think much of it as it was a small amount. The majority of the rubbish was only found in the
PTO sump when it was removed, which is lower than the plug.
It does show how tough the LT95 box is as I had no idea there was a issue, I believed it was going fine except for a bad oil leak.
I was only fixing the oil leak and found all this damage.

Dseddn

**Mick_Marsh** · 19th July 2013, 05:48 PM

I had a similar problem with my LT95 some years ago. It was caused by some person who had no idea about what he was doing putting gear oil in it.
I've never done that again.
When the transfer case was rebuilt, I had a tapered roller kit put through it.

Are you able you put it back on the people who rebuilt it for using the wrong oil?

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My new 101 The Red Camper but not happy

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