Thread: 91 with viscous TC

I am a bit of a fan of The Borg warner transfer case having driven my 91 around Oz a couple of times and up the Northern Half of the Tele track towing 1tonne.

The weakest part of the BW is the rear output shaft splines in the centre diff. If you have 200KK on the car it is pretty sure they are very worn. I decided to check mine before Cape York and found them a bees dick from disengaging ( I had to drive it out with a hammer). I also bought another case for $20 on ebay where the owner thought he had a broken chain but sure enough it was a stripped output shaft. There is no drive with a stripped rear output shaft so it is something to look at or possibly be stranded .

The VC also can seize but IMHO this is from people sitting there with one front spinning as mine was still OK at 240KK when I sold the car. I understand Ashcroft are going to recondition them again soon. An LT230 centre diff will die if a wheel is excessively spun unlocked also.

The chain rarely breaks although on 38As the chain stretches while the out put shaft is OK. Go figure as they are the same case but flipped.

They are also tough. I had a rear main seal done on my 91 and the specialist "forgot" to refill the transfer after having it lying on the floor. A couple of weeks later I decided to do an oil change and found only 200Ml of oil in it. They have an oil pump which probably saved it by pumping the limited oil around.

Regards Philip A

My experience is with the two 92'ish models I purchased in teh last couple of years ... one was nice and smooth ... probably low'ish milage and it trashed the driveline not long after I purchased the car ( the VC locked up and took out a CV joint). The 2nd was stuck "open" ... my best guess is the viscous unit died hundreds of thousands of kms ago in this car ... but because it failed open the driveline didn't get trashed. It had HUGE lash in it (no doubt the chain was completely flogged out).

If you have a rebuilt one I'm sure it's great. For an old car of unknown milage ... I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole, as I don't reckon you could ever trust it not to die on you at the most in-opportune time (well I guess you could always rebuilt it so you don't have a concern). It's way cheaper to fit a noisy LT230 and forgot about the issue forever though (and hey, it's fun putting the diff lock in right ).

seeya,
Shane L.

It was the the locked up VC on my Classic that 'killed' it for me... As has been mentioned, they almost always fail in the LOCKED mode, and therefore take out bits of driveline, like CVs.
My own personal suspicion is that they are slooooowwwly wearing it anyway, by the mere fact that the VC 'resists' the geared centre-diff from...'diffing'

As to 'why' they have different failure patterns, Classic vs P38, maybe 'cos the front-rear weight distribution is not identical, and/or
- a long shot - placarded tyre pressures on the Classic are lower Front than Rear.

Bottom line is, the VC is IMHO, an unpredictable, consumable and over-priced item, impossible to buy for reasonable dollars,,, which is why I never replaced mine, just drove it as a RWD (no front prop shaft)

And yes, I would agree with all of you who suggested a T/C swap, - should have $pent a few $$s and had a re-con LT230 installed and kept the car (in AWD) Turn the radio up a bit if extra soundproofing doesn't solve the 'noise problem'.

Anyway, both the car and spare ("OK"?) BW case have emigrated to Good Homes, and we use the Father-In Law's Ssyang Yong when we need load space/trailer towing.

- And everything on it works properly, including rain sensing wipers, auto-dim interior mirror, AWD system, etc....