When draining my center dif / Transer case on my 2003 Disco,....I had two things that were unexpected. First I didn't get very much lube out, and second,....when I pulled my drain pan out from under the truck,...I found a dozen or so chunks of copper material. These were roughly the size of a grain of rice that had been squashed (wider than a grain of rice in many cases). It's been nearly a year since I changed the lube and things still appear to be OK,....although, I did have lube leaking out for a while after I changed it. Now, no more leaks (I'm assuming that the lube level is low again).

I did remove the "observation plate" and re-sealed it with the proper gear lube resistant gasket maker/sealant before re-assembling,.....didn't see anything that looked like it was coming apart. Re-filled with synthetic lube.

Questions: 1) Any thoughts on where my chunks of copper came from?

I'm thnking of going to non synthetic lube, in hopes that it perhaps,.....might leak less or not at all,....any reason why this wouldn't be a good idea. Other than the form a gasket seal around the observation plate,......are there other known leak locations That I could address while I am under there?

Brian in Cedar Park

 

Ummm, I don't know about them chunks. Doesn't sound good. Only brass/copper-looking part that I can think of off hand is maybe part of the shift fork.

As for the leak, I had pretty good luck with the White Shepherd product. I know a least a few others have too. However, it sounds like you might want to just start shopping for a locking t-case.

 

The only parts I can think of that are brass/bronze would be the shift forks, or as an outsider, a bearing cage but these days they are mostly cheapo metal cages. I cannot in all honesty recollect whether there are any white metalled copper/brass thrust bearings inside the LT230 box. It's a long time since I stripped one down. (i've got to take mine out soon to renew all the input and output shaft seals and the autbox output but that's awhile away yet)

 

I rebuilt mine completely, and at the time I fitted a used front output housing from a 1999. There were copper "shavings" in the front output housing, that looked like this.



It looks a lot like shim stock. They are copper, I had them tested by a metallurgist at work, in a spectrometer.

There are no copper parts in the transfer case. The dog shifter fork is some kind of bronze. All the shims that were in it originally, as well as the new ones that came with my rebuilding kit are steel. The bearings are all steel inside out.

A friend of mine who has 40 years experience working in industrial gearboxes said not to worry. They are probably some kind of washer or tie that is used to hold parts when putting the transfer case together, and since copper is soft they get "masticated" by the gears until they drop to the bottom where they are harmless.

So I put the transfer case back together with the new bearings and shims, and it's been working flawlessly since then.


Cheers,
Georges

 

That is EXACTLY WHAT I HAD IN MY DRAIN PAN. So, guess I'll just go with it as well. Thanks for the feedback. Cant believe no one else has found this in their Transfer case if its something that is part of every build.

 

I know of at least two other people on this forum who had this, plus you. My guess is that it's a shim used to put the output/differential shaft together. In the LT 230 overhaul manual, you need to press the high speed and low speed gears with a very precise gap in between the gears and the dog spline. I think they used the copper shim to press the gear to the correct gap, and if the worker couldn't remove the shim once pressed in place, he just left it there knowing it wouldn't hurt. So maybe it did not happen all the time, or maybe I am just full of $h1+...

But I threw those away some time ago. Still, I'd be curious to know the thickness of those shims. In the LT-230 overhaul manual, the correct gap for the high speed and low speed gears on the output shaft is between 0,002 to 0,006. If you have the opportunity to measure the thickness it would be cool to see if my theory makes sense.

Cheers,
Georges

 

it's the optimal environment of heat and compression. those chunks are gold dividends gifted from the rover gods, for hard work and diligent maintenance

 

Heres a pic of the bits that came out of mine.

 

Love your sig line.

 

just keepin' it real