LT95 Transfer Case Intermediate Shaft Wear

**clean32** · 13th January 2010, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by 400HPONGAS

The use of EP90 , was the reason 75% of the transfercases I overhauled , blew up !!
Usually the same scenario ,
Step 1 get it serviced
Step 2 Nice and cheap at the Local K-mart , ultra-tune etc
Step 3 Put GEARBOX oil in the Gearbox (as you would !!!)
Step 4 Exactly 1232K later , bang !!!! The bastard of a thing keeps flipping the Transfer case into neutral
Step 5 Tie in High range using rope
Step 6 200 k's down the road BANG again , oops chewed throught the selector arms .
Step 7 , call for the Tow Truck !!! ($1 per Kilometer )
Yep , sulphur based extreme prerssure additives absolutely love those Phosphor Bronze Thrusts
Again , the manual clearly states the use of a ENGINE oil not a gearbox type oil !!!
Wait till you see what Gearbox oil in the main gearbox can do , very messy !!!!

AS for the No 2 biggest problem of LT95's , that of transferring oil from the main to the Transfer box , just peg the Output gear spacer to the spline , so as the output gear and its spacer can not rotate at unequal speeds .

thank you very much, ill just have a shower to try and get that EP smell of my hands.

a pick of the pinning of the output gear spacer would be very much worth a beer or 2.

**400HPONGAS** · 13th January 2010, 05:28 PM

Im sure someone here has a picture of the Mod , I dont but if someone could just post a picture of the Output gear spacer ,Ill draw on what you need to do .
Basically, the output gear spacer has 2 oil return holes in about half way down . Just make a pin that goes in one of them and locks into the spline , then weld the pin in , carefully , with out excess heat into the seal runner area. Oh , and keep hold of that mainshaft as it has this little habbit of jumping the thrust ring of that in the main box .
Youll know when you got it wrong , you wont be able to get the gear on far enough to put the locking clip back in its groove. LOL !!

**yt110** · 13th January 2010, 06:54 PM

Is EP90 ok to use in a LT230T thats on a LT85 ?

**350RRC** · 13th January 2010, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by 400HPONGAS

Im sure someone here has a picture of the Mod , I dont but if someone could just post a picture of the Output gear spacer ,Ill draw on what you need to do .
Basically, the output gear spacer has 2 oil return holes in about half way down . Just make a pin that goes in one of them and locks into the spline , then weld the pin in , carefully , with out excess heat into the seal runner area. Oh , and keep hold of that mainshaft as it has this little habbit of jumping the thrust ring of that in the main box .
Youll know when you got it wrong , you wont be able to get the gear on far enough to put the locking clip back in its groove. LOL !!

If you don't want to pull the box down and are running the same (engine) oil in the gearbox and TC it is really easy to make a return line between the respective fill / level plugs using standard plumbing fittings and copper tube to solve the pumping oil prob. Many have done it in the past, and I've posted a link with someone's photos on here in the past.

cheers, DL

**400HPONGAS** · 13th January 2010, 07:36 PM

Jeez. 350RRC , thats a little ruff !!! Pity the correct oil levels are a little too different to work as a long term fix , but Ive seen it done alot !

**350RRC** · 13th January 2010, 07:46 PM

They're not that far off being the same level. My old LT 95 is sitting on the floor in the shed and I had a pretty good look at the levels when I heard about this 'mod', then posted a link to someone else's pics who had done it.

Sure it's crude, but so is an LT 95.

When I pulled apart the gearbox (C9) and TC I bought (Ritters conversion) the TC (LT 95) was full of a mix of auto fluid and oil.

This mod was not an option.

All still good now after 60,000 with new seals before it went behind the Chev.

cheers, DL

**djam1** · 13th January 2010, 09:56 PM

Originally Posted by 400HPONGAS

Youll know when you got it wrong , you wont be able to get the gear on far enough to put the locking clip back in its groove. LOL !!

400HPONGAS
Can you prevent this by putting it in third gear ?? or is the third gear synchro falling out another issue when the shaft moves forward

**400HPONGAS** · 13th January 2010, 10:13 PM

Actually it was fourth gear . only in 4th is the input shaft locked to the output shaft , all the rest are are layshaft gears . Even then , when lockedi n gear , its still possibleto drop the shim off due to overall end float . Its still pretty easy to get it back in place , Rotate and pull , violently , it will drop back in !!!

**stirlsilver** · 17th January 2010, 08:26 PM

Hmm, I have been running Castrol EPX80-90 for some time in both the gearbox and transfer case. And I've just found out it contains sulphur and phosphorous. Whoops.

Not sure about the transfer case shims, but the synchro cones in the gearbox looked fine with plenty of meat left in them.

After some research I think I will avoid using sulphur and phosphorous oils in the LT95. Thanks for that info... now I need to go off and correct some threads i've written in the past on another forum.

Thanks for the info guys.

**stirlsilver** · 18th January 2010, 01:28 PM

After some google searching:
Industrial tribology: the practical ... - Google Books

Starting from Pg 109

"Sulphur Corrosion
This is a general description which is applied to most forms of corrosion encountered on silver-rich or copper-rich bearing alloys. There is no doubt that sulphur compounds in lubricating oils can promote the corrosion of these particular alloys. On the other hand, both naturally occuring sulphur compounds in lubricants and sulphur-contining additives confer beneficial properties on lubricants. Etc etc...

...The corrosion problems of copper alloys are more complex because the alloys themselves are complex. On simple copper-lead alloys the copper phase may be attached by sulphur, but this is comparatively rare occurrence, the problem of sulphur corrosion being much more acute on phosphor-bronze alloys. This is because phosphor-bronze alloys which are very popular for little-end bushes in diesel engines, are expected to operate at considerably higher temperatures than copper-lead bearings in use today. etc etc..."

You can keep reading if you like

Basically it seems that sulphur will attack phosphor bronze which is used in the transfer case... (and gearbox) however it doesn't start until high temperatures

From the same source on Pg113

"If the alloy is porous, the lubricant is drawn into the pores, where it stagnates and, if the operating temperatures are high, can become very corrosive. The particular temperature at which corrosion becomes servere depends on the type of dithiophosphate used; very active varieties can start to corrode at about 130degC, where as other varieties may be comparatively stable up to 180degC. Natural sulphur compounds give little trouble below 170degC."

So I guess we would need to know what the operating temperature range of the gearbox and transfer case are.

Thread: LT95 Transfer Case Intermediate Shaft Wear

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