R380 difflock lever.

[130man]

Hi all. The transfer/difflock lever on my 130 operates through a rectangular hole in a 3mm thick plate immediately below the rubber gaiter around the lever.What does this plate do? At the moment it is limiting the difflock lever from moving enough to the left to fully engage the diff lock mechanism in the Transfer case.Something has changed but I can't see what.Can I safely grind out some of this plate to allow the lever to move more to the left? Can I do without the plate altogether? I assume the plate must serve a particular purpose but what is it? Thanks in advance.130man.

[Bush65]

Sorry I'm not that familiar with defenders to tell by your description.

I do suggest you look at your engine and gearbox mounts in case they are the reason the lever can no longer travel far enough.

[130man]

Thanks, John, I will look at that in the morning. Cheers, 130man.

[ashtrans]

Hi before you start to cut anything check the linkage, the stud on top of the Tbox has a small lever attached, this lever should move from 12 o'clock straight ahead to 10min past. There is another ghost position at 10min before 12.00 ignore it, set the lever to move from dead ahead to clockwise position only. The lever can be adjusted on the pivot bolt at the side of the R380 box to get full engagement of diff lock. Regards Ian Ashcroft

[lardy]

if its not returning to high after being engaged easily you might just have gearbox wind up.
Put it in forward or reverse gear to release the bound up gears and then try again, this saves you blowing the gearbox driving off with the gearbox wound up which leaves it in a state of prepariedness for off roading ,same for all defenders. but doesn't happen all the while.
That is unless you really have an issue that is not gearbox wind up and something has changed...when was the last time you checked your oils in the transfer case ?

[Bush65]

Below is a pic of the plate I think you are describing. This R380 is from a disco - I don't know if defender R380's are the same.

When I replied above I thought you may have meant a different plate on the transmission tunnel or console - not something on the gearbox.

If the pictured plate is indeed what you described, then you have to look elsewhere to fix the problem.

IMHO, the linkage that was fitted to the gearbox in this pic, was a very poor design. It required careful adjustment when I first fitted it into my rangie to get the diff lock to work. The lever on the LT77 that came out was a much better design. Your 130 may be different again.

When the lever is moved between the diff locked and unlocked positions, there is some lost motion in the linkage due to twisting on the pivot and clevice pins. Any wear (the pivot has small plastic bushes) or maladjustment magnifies the lost motion and the diff won't lock.

Mud/muck built up around the linkage, will create resistance to proper operation of the linkage, and the lost motion will account for your lever hitting the side of the opening in the plate before the diff locks.

The other thing that will stop the diff from locking is the switch for the diff lock indicator lamp.

The lever and linkage do not positively engage the diff lock. They only act on one end of a spring, and the spring has to engage the diff lock. If the plunger of the switch is adjusted down too far or is sticking, it will prevent the spring form engaging the diff lock.

Have a good look around the linkage, give it a good hose out to remove mud/muck and apply liberal amounts of spray lubricant to all pivots, pins.

While you are looking there, have someone move the lever fully from side to side so you can see how far the parts of the linkage are moving and if it is sloppy in the area of the pivot on the side of the gearbox.

Check if the linkage is moving the small lever (that Ian Ashcroft mentioned) through its full travel by pushing/pulling on the lever.

[rick130]

Ross, as John mentioned there are small nylon top hat bushes in all the pivots, check to make sure they aren't flogged out. I replaced all mine when I did the clutch a few years back, mainly as I lost one :angel:
I'll get back to you on that report you sent me.

[130man]

Hi to all those who took the trouble to reply.I sorted out the problem this morning before having to leave in a hurry. Ian was quite correct. The pivot point bolt was poorly adjusted, obviously from when I reassembled the bits and pieces when I replaced the gearbox quite some time ago. It has probably not been engaging correctly all that time but I rarely need it and only now and then noticed any difficulty.Once I had aligned the diff lock operating lever , on the T/Case, as per Ian's instructions, I adjusted the pivot bolt by screwing it out 4 turns and reassembled the linkage and tested it. The motion of the difflock lever at the top of the gearbox now is within the limits set by the metal plate mentioned in the first post and the diff lock seems to fully engage.I will test it out during the week.While everything was out I cleaned the area and the linkage and checked the plastic bushes at the pivot and the oil level in the T/C. All was good.Once again, thank you to all who replied. Good , sound advice all round, particularly Ian Ashcroft's information on the correct position of the little lever on the T/Case. Cheers, 130man.

[Bush65]

That is good news.