Ulysses

Before last Sunday's laning trip to North Wales I had a new viscous coupling to fit on. This came about as I'd been having issues with it running hot and putting the electric fan on all the time. I was even needing to run the interior heater to keep it cool enough.



I remembered Lambert was trying out different viscosity oils to see if it improved his situation a while ago (turned out to be head gasket I think). It put me in mind to test if my fan was working properly and sure enough it wasn't. When cold there was the usual resistance to pushing the fan, but once warmed up it seemed to go slack. Not right so ordered a new coupling for just under £50 and fitted it Saturday before heading to Wales. Big success! its not overheating or getting close now. Amazing the difference a simple thing can make.
I also had a look at the sensor scaling in the new ECU software and found it was reading higher than it should. Managed to change it to a better scale and confirmed against a thermometer that its reading right now

And Wales... Beautiful countryside and great company of Brett and Dave in Jalapeno. I didnt take many photos, but heres a few and some vids of a couple of favourites. More no doubt in Brett's blog soon...







GOPR3064 Moelfre down


GOPR3072 Henryd 2


GOPR3086 Glan Aled ford

Excellent day out matey!

Here's a nice one of your awesome pickup -



Dave

I too have one of those exact couplings in stores. I did however service the original one. I used 3000 grade silicone oil from rc car dampers. Filled the coupling about half full and reassembled. It does still idle but it now locks up sooner which is useful when creeping about it fields. What it also did was prolong the life of the motor before the head gasket was replaced as without it I'm certain that the bad gasket would have totaled the engine. It could be argued that if it hadn't masked the gasket I would have diagnosed it sooner but it also saved the motor so swings and roundabouts. Having done the head gasket it's now keeping everything peachy and cool. Well worth servicing.

Had a trip up to Drumclog pay-n-play site near Glasgow yesterday with the Geordie lads. Much fun had. Was very wet on friday and a bit in the morning so conditions were slippery to say the least. Them steep hills are much more of a challenge when you can hardly stand on them :laugh:

Some pics and vids from/of the guys I was with:











and some of my own videos:









and back home. After a 2hr drive back in the rain I expected less mud left than I found. Should have gone for the £5 car wash at the Drumclog site :laugh:





You know its been a good day when theres that much mud on the roof :ohmy: :dry:

It's like a mini Icelandic hill climber, love it

Thanks Dan Its the old camera doesnt do it justice thing. Very steep and slippery stuff. There was another hill I didnt film that I got about 2/3rd up and had to slide back down trying to keep it straight. Brown trouser stuff :laugh:

And now for the downside...

Early afternoon I helped out a defender that had grounded on its bash plate on a rut. The winched off the back of me and because it was heavy I needed a bit of drive (and because I wanted to shower them in mud spray off the tyres :laugh: ). I popped on the rear locker and went off fairly hard. they winched a bit and I pulled, result them out and me with the air compressor running constant whenever the rear locker was on
Fiddled about and swapped pipes around to get the front locker only working for the rest of the day in the end. Not ideal, but not an issue as it turned out thankfully. One odd thing was that the breather setup I have have for diffs, t-box and gearbox is combined and I found that the problem appeared as the gearbox breather leaking air (odd as its not fed from the compressor. Turned out the breather to the snorkel was blocked somehow and back feeding pressure to the gearbox (and blowing out diff oil). Note to self - separate all the breather system somehow
Also in the process of this the ARB seal leaking has pressurized my rear diff and buggered the pinion oil seal

Took the rear diff out today and also found the rear shaft on the driverside has warped a bit with all the stick its had in the last 2 weeks...



so reseated the ARB seal and cant see why it popped out. Pressure tested it past its 90PSI operating range to 120PSI and its staying put?



And took the input flange off the diff to see if the seal was damaged and leaking. It didnt look damaged, and refitted its still leaking






Hence - MARTIN! I need to rebuild this 3.9 diff. I need the pinion bearings (both), the crush collar thing, the input flange oil seal and anything else you recommend? if you can supply?

Are solid tubes available ie non crushable ?

Roger

Roger Fairclough wrote: Are solid tubes available ie non crushable ?

Roger

Perhaps, but the whole point of it being 'crushable' is that it is used to give the correct backlash to the pinion shaft in the form of preloading it correctly as its fitted. Doing it up too far means its goosed and changing anything wrong to do with the preloading will do for the bearings pretty quickly, so it need changed properly when doing pinion shaft work to ensure proper diff operation. Its also a pig to get at, meaning I want it done right first time :laugh:

I bought one for my Landcruiser. It came with a set of shims of various thickness. You use the shims to obtain the correct pre-load.Once this is done you tighten the nut, stake it and that's it.Because it's a solid tube and therefore wont flex the pre-load remains constant. Also if your seal leaks again, you remove the nut, flange and seal: fit a new seal, replace flange and nut, torque it up, stake the nut refit prop and jobs done.Now if you do it your way you have to scrap the crushable tube which means removing the outer pinion bearing which can be a pain, fit a new tube, put it all back together and pray as you torque the pinion nut that you will obtain the right pre-load. Problem is that pre-load should be obtained without any drag from the diff or brakes etc which means you need to strip out the diff. from the axle. Do it with a solid tube and the pinion shaft is more rigid and further seal failures are a doddle to fix.

Roger

The video's are great, it's good to see how impressed the Landy drivers are..... It goes up that hill like it's being pulled, sounds great Riccy.

Bummer about the damage, shafts ain't cheap.... There's a firm in Nottingham that makes shafts, I can't remember the name but happy to have a drive by if it will help. I picked up some truck shafts for a buddy once, they had just got back from hardening. Looked to be very serious gear...

Mine sounds quite similar to yours but is lacking in the guts department lol......

sniper

Riccy wrote: And now for the downside...
...
Took the rear diff out today and also found the rear shaft on the driverside has warped a bit with all the stick its had in the last 2 weeks...

That shaft is part of the floating rear axle kit which is not in stock in Russia at the moment unfortunately. Where from you'll get replacement? Do you know an alternative supplier?

Roger Fairclough wrote: I bought one for my Landcruiser. It came with a set of shims of various thickness. You use the shims to obtain the correct pre-load.Once this is done you tighten the nut, stake it and that's it.Because it's a solid tube and therefore wont flex the pre-load remains constant. Also if your seal leaks again, you remove the nut, flange and seal: fit a new seal, replace flange and nut, torque it up, stake the nut refit prop and jobs done.Now if you do it your way you have to scrap the crushable tube which means removing the outer pinion bearing which can be a pain, fit a new tube, put it all back together and pray as you torque the pinion nut that you will obtain the right pre-load. Problem is that pre-load should be obtained without any drag from the diff or brakes etc which means you need to strip out the diff. from the axle. Do it with a solid tube and the pinion shaft is more rigid and further seal failures are a doddle to fix.

Roger

Thanks Roger, I get what you mean about it now. Taking the diff out isnt a problem, it has to come out to do the work anyway as the planetary set needs removed in order to get at the crush (or solid) collar and bearings anyway. I will look into it a bit more