Thread: Wombats are not cute, furry animals.

Question re diff running without oil: Firstly, how it happened.
Where I live is bore and tank water, supplied from header tanks on a hill. The toilets are filled from the bore tank (which leaves nasty brown stains in the bowl). A couple of months ago one of the wombats here decides that under the bore tank (gal iron) would be a nice place to live, so it digs a burrow directly in under the tank, which caused the 12000 litres of water to bulge the floor and split the seam, discouraging further digging. The pump doesn't recognise no water and pumps air until it burns itself out. Bugger. Anyway, been catching shower water with a bucket and using same to flush.

Moving on, decide to get bright new toilets and get a plumber to switch to the tank water to overcome the stain problem. He comes last Tuesday and while I'm waiting decide to check over the 130. Check the rear (salisbury) diff oil level - fine, but can't quite get the half inch drive from the socket set onto the filler plug to do it up tight (diff guard in the way) so go to get the extension, just as the plumber pulls up. Everything hooked up and I go to turn on the toilet tap (been off for a couple of months) and its stuck. Grab a multi grip and turn the tap, which seems to turn ok, but the turning bit at the top is still stuck and I'm unscrewing the body, which becomes clear when my 45 lpm pumpmaster starts gushing strongly from the now open pipe. Quick (for me) 50 metre uphill sprint to the remote header tank to turn off the water. Pumpmaster are good pumps, the water has managed to overflow bathroom and now covers half the lounge room carpet. Long story long, with all the cleaning up and mopping up, forget the diff plug.

NOW FOR THE PROBLEM
Yesterday, go for the weekly shopping trip (70km round trip to Mudgee), get home and soon as I open the door there is an overpowering smell of very hot oil. I immediately feel very ill. Look under the back and there is oil everywhere and a hole where the filler should be.

Good bits: Didn't notice any strange noises anywhere on the trip home, however, it is a Defender, how could you hear anyway. When I drained the oil it was dark grey coloured and still very slippery. I use fully synthetic 80w-140 diff oil (overkill but if it saved me this one time - worth it). There was still a good litre of oil in the diff.

Bad bits: There was a small amount of very fine black coloured grit, about 1/2 mm, felt hard between the fingers, but not enough to cover your little pinky finger nail. One large hunk of shiny metal, wedge shaped about 5mm long and tapered from about 2mm to a needle point.

Further info: Diff centre is a Detroit no spin. Worn diff flange was replaced (by a proper workshop of good repute at Gulgong) about 3000km ago with the later flange and pinion seal (with the outer mud shield). Oil was changed then so I suppose the gunk dates from after that event.

So, what is the consensus on damaged done?

The tyranny of cause and effect. Thank you for your patience.

Thanks guys. From the local diff bloke, "If you still had a litre of oil in it I guarantee you, you have done no damage whatsoever." As for dust, probably, I have 2kms of dirt to get home. As for the metal fragment, it came from the threaded collar for the diff plug - perfect fit.

p.s. Still like my wombats, saves mowing the lawn. I like going out at night and seeing them grazing around the house. They are so used to me now they don't even run away, just stop munching and look at me until I go back inside.