Can a bad front diff cause the transmission to work harder?? Might be a stupid question but,,, ???

 

I suppose, but certainly the transfer case would also be working hard. After all, it divides the power from the tranny and sends it 50/50 fore and aft. Here are some pages from the shop manual. What sort of trouble are you in now?

 

Front is leaking and a little noisy. I plan on replacing it next week..

 

Take a look thru these to see what the scope of work is. Maybe try new fluid before replacing? Lots of Discos leak, and are proud of it.

 

Hey, Thanks.. Do you have info on the amounts of fluids that are needed for the Diffs,transfer case and transmission..??? One question,, I went to a quick lube joint(Valvoline) and had them check the front diff,, he said that it had fluid at the fill hole,, But the instructions say not to use the hole for a fill level indicator. Could it be noisy because of being too full???

 

I asked my LR dealer the same and he said they fill to the hole....

 

Here you go. It appears they want you to put in a specific quantity, not go by dripping out. The real problem is being sure that lube shop used the exact fluid specified, not some generic. The Castrol numbers are provided.

 

this isn't the first thread to address the fill level question and won't be the last

 

If the front diff bearings have failed to the point of the ring and pinion gears binding,
yes.

If a wheel bearing has failed to the point of no return, yes

If you've pinpointed the noise to the front diff, it's not going to get better
when you change the oil in it.

If you fill the diff till to the lower level of the fill hole it will not cause the diff to make noise.

 

Re: #3

If you change the gear oil and go to a heavier weight, it's possible that the noise will be quieted. Seen it happen multiple times on different trucks. But the important thing to remember (what I think you were getting at) is that the underlying problem is still present, even if the oil change quiets things down. A change to heavier weight oil for the explicit purpose of noise reduction is just a mask/band aid.