Well, was on the highway driving my baby, 99 D1, and noticed some uncomfortable rumbling/vibrations. Nothing drastic but noticeable. Chalked it up to my rear sway bar end links that I recently discovered had their bushings disintegrated. But I pulled it over anyway. Just wanted to check to make sure the t case was properly engaged. It was but I noticed a vibration thru the selector grip when driving. Looked under truck and saw I had a leak. Obviously you can't tell the severity by plain appearance so given I was on the side of I95 with maybe 20 bucks in my pocket I decided to run her home.
The condition never changed or got any worse and I made it home. After two days I finally got around to going under and drained the fluid. There was BARELY 3/4 quart in there. Not cool. The drain plug had what I would consider an acceptable amount of minor shavings. Nothing remarkable. No chunks.

I personally believe my leak is from the inspection plate or one of the output shafts seals as it's totally dry on top. I've gotten 9 of 10 of the inspection bolts off. Just too late to keep going to get that tenth. Who ever resealed it before me used red loctite on the bolts and it was holy hell getting them off. No joke, a monster. I literally bent every bolt during removal. I thank God I didn't shear a head off one of them. Some tough sons o bitches for little bolts.

So that's the story and now the questions:
What kinda damage you guys thinking I'm looking at in there? And second, how hard and what's the procedure for the output shaft seals? Rave is utterly useless for procedure and I didn't find anything on here. I have new u joints to put in anyways so I gotta pull the shafts already.

And yes, I bought new end links for the rear sway too. Lucky me while I was under there I found the front sway links bushings gone too. Weird. I did get one bonus out of this, I discovered the rear shaft had already been converted to a standard u joint and no more rubber donut. I figured that was a potential cause of the vibes till I seen the previous owner already took care of it. So at least one win!

 

I have had somewhat of a similar experience recently. Just bought my first D1 a few weeks ago (not my first LR). With all of the used vehicles I buy, I immediately change all of the fluids. My transfer case had about a quart of fluid in it. It didn't make any noise though. The LT230s that I have had always leaked from every seal, but I fixed all of them with the following procedure:

1. Drain fluid
2. re-seal the inspection plate
3. add a stop leak (I use Blue Devil or AT-205)

Always works for me. The stop leak is only $10-$15, so just try it. These transfer cases are quite tough and respond very well to a good stop leak.

You might have some damage in there, but try a fluid change with the stop leak first. You might be okay with just that.

And I would use a heavier fluid than 80W-90 after running it low. 80W-140 might prolong the life of the transfer case if any damage did occur.

Good luck

 

sounds like a reasonable plan. Think I'll give it a go. Really nothing to lose. Thanks for the tip on the heavier gear oil too!

 

oh BTW, what did you use for a gasket on the inspection plate and for the screws?
I've read everything from gray rtv, ultra black rtv, some unfindable gear oil rtv, self made paper, actual LR gasket, etc....and then a whole slew of other things to sure up the screws.....

Lastly, which blue devil did you use. There's several. I'm thinking it's the generic "oil stop leak?"

 

I use black RTV. I think it was ultra black.

And this is the stop-leak to use:
BTW I meant to write 85W-140

 

check all your u-joints too - front one by the transfer case esp. - the exhaust cooks the grease out of it
my t-case leaks like everyone else - Im sure Ive run fluid quite low before but only had a vibration from a bad u-joint

 

Wow. What a trip to the dealer today.
Anyone else go to their LR dealer and leave completely and utterly un-'impressed?
First, I don't want to name the dealer but it's in a city that rhymes with Fort Nauderdale, FL Its apparently an auto nation dealership and therein likely lies the problem.

Upon walking in the parts counter is literally non existent. The girls who'll be happy to collect your money have to literally page someone from the back. Then it goes downhill from there. Needless to say, no plate bolts til maybe Tuesday. Oh and at over 3$ a piece. I shoulda just overnighted them online. Woulda worked out the same. Lesson learned.

 

I buy all my hardware from Ace Hardware, they have a big selection as long as you have an original bolt you will find what you're looking for there.

 

Forgot to say Aviation sealer works on everything and use the paper gaskets you can buy from most LR shops and from guys here online.

 

I had a similar running with my T-Case, thing is that I've neglected checking its fluid for nearly 4 yrs, and I don't know when the previous owner did. Thing is that in my case (2002 Disco S2) was making a clunking noise when turning into parking spaces, and ultimately on highway, after things warmed up. This weekend I went under and removed filler and drain plug, drain took more muscle to loosen up. Plug came out with a fair amount of shavings and a bit less than 2 oz of really dark oil (you can see pics on my post). Filled it up with Lucas 75W-90, and planning to drain a refill again this coming weekend. The service plate you mentioned seem to have been removed at some point, you can clearly see that one bolt might had broken and a stud was bolted in to fix, and you can also see some hardened gray sealant squeezed out, so definitely some fix had been done. Now truck runs like it never had that clunking noise. Everything is pretty much dirty, but there is an oil leak from the rear main seal I suppose, so not sure if T-Case is actually leaking, but will be on the look out. Shall I take these inputs to apply in my case, even the heavier oil recommendation? Thanks.