Pinzgauer Diff Rebuild
The work that I was doing on the Pinzgauer (called Arnie because he is Austrian and is a muscly little bugger ) got mentioned in the thread about the Bundaberg Swim In so I thought I should put up a separate thread with some details.
In January last year we were heading down to Guyra for a military vehicle get together and met up with the Ho Hars at Beadesert Maccas. After our coffee we came out and Carolyn said "What is that puddle of oil under your truck?". Turned out that the rear diff had dumped almost all it's oil out on the carpark bitumen, not good, so it was back to Brisbane on a tow truck. Arnie then sat there for quite a while as the prospect of taking the whole diff out to replace the seals was a bit daunting. It is independent suspension and a backbone chassis so not like a Landrover at all. When Bundaberg came up again I decided I had to get him going again so finally ordered the parts from the US. It's actually cheaper to buy parts from there than from Europe. They arrived in time for me to have just under 4 weeks to do the job.
This is a picture of Arnie up at Bundaberg for those that don't know what one looks like.
I had read of being able to change the seals without actually taking out the whole diff so started to do that job. The rear axles come apart and the wheel drives (portals), brake drum and outer half of the axles comes off, of course not as easily as that as it required the making of a special tool to do it. But then I found that there was oil in places it should not be, not just in the places I thought it would be and that pointed to seals inside the diff that could not be got at so the whole lot had to come out.
This is what it looks like without the rear diff unit there. Jack it up, put the body on stands and get it out.
The unit comprises the transfer case, a distance piece with a drive shaft, crossmember, rear diff, locker, handbrake and tow hitch all joined together.
Basically it is disconnected from everything then just lowered with the trolley jack and pulled out (it balances well if you get under it at the right place) then lifted onto a workbench with the engine crane. In the manual there is a very fancy looking cradle to put it on so it can be taken apart easier.
These are all the bits as they get pulled off.
Transfer Case (and the tools I had to make to get the axles apart)
Distance piece and crossmember.
Then start from the other end, Towing support.
Handbrake housing (disc brake) and the long bolts that hold it all together.
And that leaves the diff with the locker attached to the rear of it.
The seals that had to be replaced are around the swivel ball of the independent axles and also inside the half axle which is the one that needed the whole diff pulled apart. I didn't take any photos of the inside of the diff but it is fascinating the way it works. This is a video that one of the suppliers in the US has put up to explain it all - [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9wNbXZf6wU]Pinzgauer Driveline Operation - YouTube[/ame] if you are interested.
While it was all apart I spent a lot of time cleaning and painting everything and also discovered that the hydraulic slave cylinders for the lockers and 4wd activation needed to be rekitted. A mob called BHSS-TBS down at Capalaba always seem to be able to come through with this sort of fix, even for an odd vehicle like this. I also replaced every seal and oring that I could find in there as I don't want to have to do this again soon. Most of them came from a local seal place called AB Seals. I turned up there with the old seals and they measured and matched them all.
This is where things start to look better, all clean, painted and put back together.
Then the outer axles put on and back onto the trolley jack.
From then on put it back in, get the bolts and shafts to all line up, put the suspension back in, connect all the brake and hydraulic lines, wires, handbrake
and all that sort of stuff. Then get a little help from Harry to bleed the brakes and locker circuits and adjust the brakes, muffler and heat shield back in, put the new batteries in and get all the electricals going again then it started after a few minutes of cranking. Then take nearly two full days to clean it as the hood was covered in 18 months of dirt and bloody mould. Drive it to the garage for Petrol and up to the Autobahn to get some Vinyl Care and that was the extent of the test drives before driving to Bundaberg. It seems that I got things right though, no oil leaks at all and we got there and back. Now just have to fix the exhaust leak that developed on the way and revisit the leak from the seals at the top of the petrol tank that stop me from filling it right up.
Cheers,
TimJ.
Snowy - 2010 Range Rover Vogue
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Gumnut - 1953 Series I 80"
Poverty - 1958 Series I 88"
Barney - 1979 S3 GS ex ADF with 300tdi
Arnie - 1975 710M Pinzgauer
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