Thread: LT230 Issue

G'day all!

I thought I had this one nailed, but it appears not.

Vehicle is an '02 110 Defender, TD5/R380/LT230. Approximately 150,000 kms on the odometer.

A couple of weeks ago, after some very easy driving on Rainbow Beach/Double Island Point, we started to get what sounded like a bearing noise on the way back on the Freshwater track.

Nothing obvious, so nursed her home.

I had the diff lock engaged whenever we were on sand, and never had any wheelspin during the whole weekend. It should have been a stress-free weekend for the transfer case.

Last weekend I started trying to work out what the problem might be. I ended up taking of both prop shafts, in order to eliminate them and onwards as causes.

With the handbrake drum cover installed, the noise was still evident. When I removed the handbrake drum cover, the noise disappeared. I initally suspected interference from the handbrake assembly, so cleaned and adjusted everything in there. I was sure I had removed any possible interference, so then fitted the drum cover backwards, so there was no way there could be any interference. The noise was still there, which led me to believe it was caused by the weight of the drum cover pulling downwards. This caused me to think it was the output shaft bearing.

I got one (with oil seal) during the week, and fitted this morning.

Of course, the symptoms are still exactly the same.

However, I tried selecting the diff lock today. With the diff lock engaged, there is no noise. With the diff lock disengaged, the noise is evident.

So this is now leading me towards the diff assembly itself, or perhaps the diff rear bearing.

The odd thing is, when you're directly under the box when it's making the noise, it quite clearly is coming from the very back of the transfer case, seemingly to be directly from the just-replaced rear output shaft bearing.

Might it be, that if it was the rear diff bearing, the noise is transferring through the rear output shaft?

And advice welcome. I suspect the case will have to come out and be opened up, however.

I've done a couple of quick videos, with both the diff lock engaged and disengaged - you can hear the difference.

Locked (quiet):
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-VkU74WC-I"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-VkU74WC-I[/ame]

Unlocked (noisy):
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfm--IWUtCQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfm--IWUtCQ[/ame]

Yesterday had the transfer case off and mostly pulled apart, thanks heaps to RickP (who doesn't read this forum and won't know that I've thanked him here) for his help.

Our transfer case doesn't seem to have any dished thrust bearings underneath any of the planetary gears in the diff. I suspect somebody has been in there while we weren't looking, taken them up, broken them up into very small pieces, and distributed them throughout the transfer case. Must up the security in the driveway...

It looks like we got it just as the teeth of the gears were starting to interfere with the diff housing itself. If you look at the tips of some of the gears, you can see nicely polished edges where they have started to rub.

So obviously the cause of the noise, and the reason why there was no noise when the diff was locked.

Time for the rebuild kit. After a fairly good look at all the gears, there didn't look to be any damage that would warrant replacing anything. The ATB diff does look very nice, but I don't think I can justify the cost, even if they did have any in stock.

What is odd is that I didn't discover any metal in the oil coming out of the box. But there were fragments everywhere, including just inside the lip of the input seal on the top of the box. That oil certainly does get thrown around in there.

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I'll update after I get the parts and start the rebuild.

Cheers!
Michael.