Thread: Replacement Input Shaft,..."Durability"?

The OP asks a valid question, which I've been asking myself and looking at valid alternatives..

Just to re-cap on the whole thing... (well only IMHO)
*All splines will suffer fretting.
*Fretting is the exchanged of metal between two close fitting surfaces.
*A mismatch in splines, rotational torque, vibration, no lubrication all increase fretting.
*The fretted material when it comes into contact with oxygen, causes oxides to form.
*Oxides are harder than the parent (original) metal.
*The oxides will encourage wear.
*The purpose of grease or oil is to prevent fretted material coming in contact with oxygen.
*Eventually yes the greased option will push out and eventually become dry.

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So options are:
*Replace adapter shaft and collar and grease on assembly.
*Do as above and fit a tight cv type boot to try and reduce the amount of grease that eventually gets pushed out of the splines.
*Do as above and add a grease nipple (and cut a access hole on the casing) the placement of the grease nipple would have to be exact to ensure it pumps grease into the small void between the end of the adapter shaft and the female coupling.
*Install the Ashcroft kit, thus allowing oil to be fed into the splines.
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Just a note on the Ashcroft kit, the removing of the two splines on the male adapter would have no applicable effect on the load bearing ability of the splines as the female coupling already has two splines missing as standard.
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Another alternative I have thought is...
If you look at both the female coupling on the MT82 gearbox, the similar adapter shaft on the Discovery 2 auto, both have a retaining bolt once the splines are mated together. neither (over the years that Ive seen) suffer any wear. So the bolting together of the two splines obviously has a big bearing on reducing the fretting wear.
Doing a similar method would require drilling a hole down the centre of the adapter shaft, when i say "drill" this isnt just getting out your fav Makita and a long reach drill bit, the shaft is as hard as hell and would need to be done with some precision in mind. Just this step is prolly already out of my scope even with my lathe, mill. After that a long enough bolt, and then tap a thread into the head of the short bolt that retains the female coupling to the MT82 box. the end result may not even be a realistic option from both cost or an engineering point of view.... but something to ponder non the less.

I've priced the Ashcroft kit and labour a bit keener to bring it into a more realistic option and is the method I'm going to offer customers.

Regards
Daz

Originally Posted by alien

As I've posted on other threads I looked at mine with @ 110'000 on the clock.
It was bone dry and is now greased.
The intermidiate shaft on the LT230 has O rings that will be leaking by 100'000 so the transfer has to come out around then anyway.
I'm planing on every 80'000 dropping the transfer box off for new O rings before the housing flogs out and grease the shaft while there.
Depending on service history on the Ashcroft modified shaft it may get one then, it will be few years away.

This is a good point Kyle , I agree that other parts , seals ect will need to be replace . So it will be a good opportunity to grease the Shaft . The thing is there are failures before there getting to high ks like , Pickles and other owners have found !!.. Jim

Dazza, Interesting information.

Could you fit a stainless steel shaft that would not rust? Greased before assembly of course!

Id imaging stainless it too weak, but im no steel dide.
My 2010 got done at 65k under warranty. It must have done a job as LR waited a week for a tool, and i got a new transfer box chucked in. At 155k the trannie is leaking oil and is going in for a fix in a few weeks. Will let you know how the shaft looks. Its about $650 in labour to fix the oil leak. But just thinking if its a 100k klm regular fix for the oil, and the shaft is fine, than to chuck another $1000 at it for the Ashcroft fix is probably not worth it. Anyone know what a standard shaft is worth. Just being lazy.