Thread: Borg Warner Centre Diff

Hi Jake Here. My first post on this forum but has been very helpful already just from reading alot. I own a '91 Australian CSK Range Rover. I have recently had trouble with the Borg Warner transfer case. Chain and viscous coupler has been replaced by previous owner so all good there. Rear output shaft recently stripped so i replaced that and had the transfer case out of the car at the same time to change bearings and clean it. Put it all back together after waiting for a shaft from Ashcroft. Put everything back together, exhaust, driveshafts and all linkages and made another grinding noise. Took the transfer case out again and looks to be the high/low selector has broken a tooth off and has been grinding on the low range gear not engaging properly. While it was out i decided to strip the centre diff. Took it apart and ALOT of dissolved silicon in the casing and the oil feed holes were COMPLETELY blocked. Cross pin was stuck in the housing and spider gears must have welded themselves to the cross pin at one stage and then broke free so the cross pin is very worn down and the thrust washers have been very ovaled out. The output gears in the diff have also ground the housing down. Does anybody know where to get a second hand diff in reasonable condition or is it worth just getting a second hand transfer case??

Car has been on the hoist for 5 weeks now and just want to drive it so bad. Any advice is appreciated

best fix for them IMO although I know Philip doesn't agree!)

I have to "Eat Crow" on this one a bit, as I really like my D2 LT230 with CDL. And I have to say on my recent trip up Coloola Beach it seemed a lot easier to start in dry sand than my RRC which would struggle for the first 10 metres.

They are a lot more civilized than the earlier ones and mine hardly ever goes Ka chunk ka chunk ka chunk.
Although just like a BW if you spin those front wheels you will have trouble with the centre diff. I was surprised to not find any brass in the nose of my transfer when I added the CDL at about 160KK as the donor nose had a heap in it and the diff cups were completely gone , but it did have 300Kk on it.

To me it is interesting that the BW was an attempt to "dumb down" off roading by not having to lock a diff, followed by D2 traction control, presumable to reduce what drivers have to remember when going off road.
It was amusing to me recently when I took a mate with a new Toyota whatchamacallit (Hilux wagon) on the beach and later told him to disengage stability control, to which he said that he wondered why he slowed down in a little bit of soft sand when he wanted to retain speed.
So now D3,D4,D5 and RRS owners have to remember to disengage stability control, and select the correct offroad setting before going offroad. Sort of two forward one back.

I remember at driver training this bloke with an RRS who was a real expert having done rallies etc wasn't going anywhere on a firm sand track until I told him to disengage stability control.
Regards Philip A

The case had done enough work to have stripped the centre splines and left me stranded in the bush, one dose of that was enough for my taste.

BTW on both my BWS the output shaft was cactus but the centre diff splines were AOK so that diff should be good too.