Thread: LT230 rebuild now has backlash after 10,000kms.

Because the input shaft has a PTO drive connect to it, there is more space required at the back, basically the input shaft was longer. The gears all lined up correctly and there was an alloy spacer for the housing. Without this housing spacer it would not have been possible to shim the input bearing.

Yes I agree the front shaft seems to have more play than the rear. Interesting also the gap between the input gear and the interment gear is slightly greater than the gap between the intermediate gear and the output shaft gear. I've checked in housing for intermediate shaft hole wear and there isn't any, the hole is still round on both ends.

After going away on the weekend to Mt Skene and then doing Burgoynes Track. My front diff appears to have finally given up the ghost. I believe the backlash may have been from the front diff the whole time.

Now it is whining when I back off the throttle, which it was not doing previously. I took another video today i'll post it shortly.

Front diff backlash vs rear. This was in neutral with the hand brake off. I had just rolled the car backwards to find the grease nipple to grease the uni's thinking it might have been them.
Front diff worn - YouTube

I'd be doing both, but front definitely, most likely spider gears

Originally Posted by discorevy

I'd be doing both, but front definitely, most likely spider gears

The rear has recently been rebuilt with an Ashcroft ATB but using the crown wheel and pinion from the original diff as they were OK. Interesting you say this as the backlash was set for a front diff to make it a little tighter.

I think from here the plan is to rebuild the front and see how we go. The ball joints and CV's are also 390,000kms old so who knows what I'm about to find.

Yeah , with those Kay's there might be a fair bit of spline, CV , hub wear as well, I imagine a lot weren't easy Kay's either, excuse for a front atb/ locker?

Originally Posted by discorevy

Yeah , with those Kay's there might be a fair bit of spline, CV , hub wear as well, I imagine a lot weren't easy Kay's either, excuse for a front atb/ locker?

You are not wrong. I've got it all back together with my spare front final drive (diff centre) fitted, new seals and ball joints. I've taken some pictures of the process, there is one of the spline wear. Something I did notice on the axle is the dust cover / seal runner must be cleaned exceptionally well before reassembly, if not the new seal will be damaged very quickly. I went to town on mine with a wire brush on the end of an electric drill. I hope that is enough as I've heard many have had issues with them leaking.

I couldn't work out how to check the CV's, I didn't disassemble the half shaft from the hub which might have had something to do with it. I would have cut the boot off if I had a replacement one.

If I didn't have a spare diff I would have brought an ATB for it. The conversion rate is great at the moment, I even checked the Ashcroft website for the front axle and CV upgrade kit but they were out of stock.

Here are some pictures of what was found when I pulled apart the front end.

Drain plug.jpgFront broken diff.jpgNew ball joints.jpgOil.jpgOld seal and ball joints.jpgSpline wear.jpgWoops.jpg