Thread: MT82 Adapter Shaft

Originally Posted by Pickles2

Which Dealer?
Pickles.

ULR!
So based on your experience, I'm hoping all goes well.

Originally Posted by Pickles2

G'Day Pete, They knew all about it, the W/S Manager has been doing Defenders for yonks, he even told me about the different sorts of grease & why they use it!!
Martin.

Hi Pickles,

What sort of grease did your W/S Manager use in the end. Was it the blue grease that most newish Defenders have leaking out, or was it the Weicon grease mentioned in the service bulletin?

Nigel

G'Day Nigel, I have no idea, but He gave me a very long detailed explanation of different greases & their uses!...I'm not a very "technical" person, so I just rely on them to use the right stuff.
Your Workshop manager would probably know.
Pickles.

I was booking my final service today at dealer and was chatting with mechanic about the output shaft and he did say they use copper grease to lubricate it.

Of course I couldn't convince him to do that as there is no symptoms that will warrant taking off the transfer case. I guess I just keep running it

Originally Posted by Pickles2

G'Day Pete, They knew all about it, the W/S Manager has been doing Defenders for yonks, he even told me about the different sorts of grease & why they use it!!
Martin.

Sounds good mate.

Did he tell you if the U/S shaft was dry... or greased?

If it was dry, I would be really interested if you could get 'his opinion' regarding owners 'should another Puma owner friend come in to have the grease added to avoid him having the same issue'...

Because, I actually don't know what to do!

Pete, trying to get the W.S. Manager is virtually impossible, He is a great bloke, but He's always "doing something", so He's hard to reach by phone.
I'm pretty certain mine was dry. However I was given an explanation of the two parts, and was told that they are of course made to manufacturers specifications/measurements, & if these were always EXACTLY the same, there would be no issue.
However, the problem arises when different "batches" have slightly different tolerances, so that the join is not "exactly" as it should be with just a very slight amount of variance/play,.....which is when the problem can occur.
I was pretty shocked when Gracie lost all drive let me tell you,...and the day before, we were about 300ks further from home, so things could've been much worse.
With your journey in mind, I'd DEFINITELY be getting yours checked, in fact I'd recommend anyone to do so,...it can't be that much of a job & I can assure anyone, that the nominal cost involved would be FAR preferable to a breakdown on the side of the road, miles from home, in 30C heat.
Martin.

Originally Posted by Pickles2

Pete, trying to get the W.S. Manager is virtually impossible, He is a great bloke, but He's always "doing something", so He's hard to reach by phone.
I'm pretty certain mine was dry. However I was given an explanation of the two parts, and was told that they are of course made to manufacturers specifications/measurements, & if these were always EXACTLY the same, there would be no issue.
However, the problem arises when different "batches" have slightly different tolerances, so that the join is not "exactly" as it should be with just a very slight amount of variance/play,.....which is when the problem can occur.
I was pretty shocked when Gracie lost all drive let me tell you,...and the day before, we were about 300ks further from home, so things could've been much worse.
With your journey in mind, I'd DEFINITELY be getting yours checked, in fact I'd recommend anyone to do so,...it can't be that much of a job & I can assure anyone, that the nominal cost involved would be FAR preferable to a breakdown on the side of the road, miles from home, in 30C heat.
Martin.

Cheers Pickles, great advice. Glad it worked out well for you at ULR too, I've had excellent service from them also.

just some added info (that has been covered)...

All splines will suffer fretting, the material that breaks away then oxidises (rusts) the oxides are then harder than the parent metal (the splines) and further cause wear.

What makes fretting worse is:
*Rotational torque.
*Vibration.
*lack of lubrication.
*A mis-match in the spline angle in relation to the male/female parts.
*Quality of material used.

*The purpose of lubrication is to prevent oxygen from coming in contact with the fretted material. So either bathe the splines in oil such as the Ashcroft Transmission fix or use a grease that will stay in place.

*In regards to some batches of the shafts being made better than other...
Either ALL of them are being made with mis-matched splines or they arent. You can bet they are manufactured in mass on a CNC machine, so all will be within so many thousands of a mm, they arent made by grandpa in the back shed.

Even if the smallest quantity are being made, its the machine setup that takes the time and money, once setup, you could do 10 or a 1000, all will be punched out the same.

As any land Rover repairer will tell you, I've yet to see an adapter shaft on a Defender TDCi that wasnt worn.

The use of an adapter shaft between gearbox and transfer case is nothing new on Land Rovers. The ZF auto in the early Discovery has one, they have not been prone to wearing out. The adapter shaft on a Disco is bolted to the end of the auto mainshaft, maybe that was enough to reduce vibration? and was likely assembled with lube, or the Defender MT82 adapter shaft is poor quality and a made with a mis-matched spline.

Regards
Daz