Thread: viscous tranfer - should i steer clear or?

The general consensus seems to be to ditch the viscous if doing any real 4WDing.

Ron (with viscous)

dont get one with a viscous as my Jeep has one and it cost $1600 for a second hand unit.
And they are crap and unreliable.

Isnt it just the P38 up that has the viscous?

I thought ( though I am usually wrong..) that the viscous came in from 89' onwards?? Anyone got the correct timeline - I'd be interested.

Originally Posted by aclo

I thought ( though I am usually wrong..) that the viscous came in from 89' onwards?? Anyone got the correct timeline - I'd be interested.

That's about right.

Ron

Originally Posted by RRV80

throught the midst of RR i have been looking at lately, i have come across that a few dont have the viscous transfers, most do, and have heard some people say dont go near them and so, on, is there anything i should look out for transfer wise when looking at one, the car will be predominatly and off roader as my current one is and i tend to give it hell so will the viscous type stand up to it. i am looking at 88-94 classics with coil spings or converted to coils, all zf autos. some 3.5's some 3.9's

Just to give you an idea of the hard time i give them, last night i broke and engine mount, crushed the y-pipe and tore the downpipe out of the botttom of the headers and there is now a crack in the header on the rh side.

How hard you drive?? or how little maintenance you do

There's use and there's abuse! I had a 1990 RRC for 7 years with no problems. Got better traction crawling up rocky hills then my D2a does now with CDL and TC.

Glen.

I have an 89 Rangie with the viscous transfer case. The vehicle has done close to 500.000 kms and the transfer case works perfectly. It is quiet and does all it should both on road and in the bush. Plenty will say get rid of it but my experience has been very positive.

Ian

if its in there and its working leave well enough alone but when it lets go depending on your views of how well it worked replace it with a locking center diff unit if you didnt like it or another new one if you did.

IMHO tho they're kind of like automatic transmissions............ nuff said.