Thread: Viscous coupling...vicious price

About $1200 from MR Automotive

Solved: -I hope...Thanks for the PMs.

Ah! the marvels of the internet...phoned a chap in the UK (Coventry) last night (my time)- gave him a Mastercard number and in return he promised to despatch on Monday, via international courier a brand new Borg Warner RTC6044 viscous coupling plus 2 trailing arm bushes (ANR3285) ...all up including courier charge A$700...

Geez that is a good deal - freight alone on such a heavy item would be a couple hundred (I've bought a lot of Freelander parts from UK inc viscous coupling)

Apparently he sends it as part of a larger consignment UPS/DHL which means that he can track it but not end customer...much chealer that way ...so he sends out an email just prior to delivery...expect Th/Fri next week... fingers crossed

Who was the chap in the UK??

Hi 51jay Got it from Land Rover Engine Gearbox Steering Brake Parts ask for Stuart or Steve...

Well it arrived today: The unit came boxed/stamped " made by BorgWarner in the EU..." ...along with 2 trailing arm bushes, 343GBP ($600) including UPS airfreight (gotta love a strong A$) (left UK early Tues morning Bris time).. now I have work out how to get the old one out and the new one in. The front prop shaft is out...probably need to drop the cross bar and find someone with a decent press remove/install in the VC housing...not a job for the faint hearted with the truck on jack stands, airsprings at max (with wooden blocks between bump stop and axle plate for safety) and trying to manipulate the lot laying on one's back...

The Ashcroft Transmission instructions are beguillingly minimalist giving the impression that it's a 30 min job... not likely!

I got a set of viscous fan removal spanners from difflock.com recently...because... they are drilled such that they can also be bolted to the flange on the VC for leverage when removing/installing the the flange nut...

Also noticed: when cleaning propshaft and renewing UJ's: Front UJ is offset from rear UJ about 2 splines worth...

Have also discovered Lanotec "orange" degreaser made from orange juice. 50 ml in a coffee tin and add a handful of seriously grotty nuts/bolts, swirl around for a while ...simply wash the lot out with water and dry off with a cup of metho (no do not mix metho with orange cleaner) and they're sparkling clean ...what's more it removed grease from hands in a flash...much better than kero based stuff.

Will report on progress in due course

Long post:

Well it's done..AND I'm still married...I think...I promise not to walk "black stuff" through the house ...again...

couple of things: 13mm and 15mm sockets/spanners and every combination thereof are needed to remove the centre bar (13mm bolt head /15mm nut.

Remove underneath nuts (4) and two bolts securing gearbox mounts (3) (all 15mm).

Levered centre bar down both sides about 5cm and liberally sprayed exposed chassis section with Lanotec heavy duty to soak in to surface rust between ends of cross bar and chassis. Don't remove bar completely unless you have means of spreading chassis enough to get it back in place...

5cm is ample to remove the LHS gear box mount (undo 15mm nut on the top...) and then attack the 6 bolts securing the VC housing to the TF case.The dexterity and strength of a steel fingered pixi is handy for this part of the exercise.

The RAVE says to twist the housing to break the silicone rubber seal..."Pixi..are you there?" Ended up I used percussive persuasion...a piece of timber helped along with a hammer to tap firmly the protruding lugs...and it popped off! Expect about 500ml of oil fromo the sump of the TF case...so have a tray ready

Now you need to get the flange nut off...30mm socket. Not wanting to experience a repeat of a hernia op ... there was no way I could apply such force (170 ft pounds...so I used the difflock viscous fan removal spanner spanner (which has several holes in one end and if manipulated correctly can be bolted to the flange. I put a block of wood under the spanner end and stood on it. Next I reached for my $75 Chinese made electric rattle gun wheel nut remover which spins up to how-many-revs then THWACK...they claim 400newton metres (250 ft pounds...well it THWACKED twice and then the 30mm nylok nut spun off. (no hernia this time...)

Then, with the $$$ I saved from stealer prices on the VC , I had scouted Trade Tools Direct and they had a DIY 12 ton hydraulic press (flat pack) for ....$168...and it's bright red and all...

Well three gentle strokes on the jackhandle and the VC squeezed out of its housing nicely. Took only a few mins to squeeze the new one back in the housing...seals etc were in excellent condition...just as well ...I didn't have spares.

Refitted the spline seal and washer and slid the flange on and loosely did up the flange nut.

I'd cleaned the facings off with a scotchbright/white spirit for resealing and applied the 2mm bead of Loctite GreyMax RTV... offered up the VC + housing and managed to get it aligned... This has to be done quickly..the damned thing weighs about 5 kg and it get tiresome on your back trying to align it first time so the seal is not disturbed before mating with the TF case...otherwise you have to pull it all out , clean the faces and re-bead...

The 6 bolts are done up gradually to 35ft pounds, which homes the casing securely.

I tightened up the flange nut in situ using my feet on the torque wrench (needs 170 ft pounds) and space is confined...would be a lot easier on a 4 post lift...

Well I got it pretty tight so then I THWACKED it once (and a bit!) with the 250 ft pound electric rattle gun...yep I did put some thread locker on it first!

To get the cross bar into position...sprayed more Lanotec on then used the Rangie hydraulic jack to push it back ...plus fine tuning tapping from a 3 lb engineers hammer...excellent result!

The rest is standard procedure as per RAVE... not forgetting to refill the TF case.

sorry no photos... need 3 hands to do same!

Hope this is useful to someone contemplating a new VC...I have great admiration of those who have removed/repaired/replaced the whole transfer case without a good workshop!

thanks for the address and the job details. Do you have a genuine workshop manual? much more convenient than a cd. Have had the T box off last week and the Tbox and ZF off several times now. Finally everything is good now.