My new purchase!

[Simon5030]

So i bet you have all been wondering why its been so quiet from me! (or maybe just glad of the peace )
This Sunday, after 6 months of not a whisper i decided to see if my truck did what it said on the tin but in a very reserved day!
Headed off for Kirton Off Road Centre near Doncaster, What a day, the place is just amazing! (this is not any form of payed advert!) although i am sure most of you know of it!
£40 for a days aimless roaming around with more mud than you could use in a lifetime , what i was a bit naive of was the amount of cleaning required afterwards and its still not clean, the mud just bakes onto everything.

Got back last night washed everything off and went to work this morning, got home tonight and found, yes you guessed it, an oil leak , this had not occurred on track as there was no knocks around the lead and no oil on the drive when i was parked over night! i suppose i have just got to pay the price for a good days fun, maybe some grit got in and ground its way through on my trip to work?

The oil seems to be coming from the automatic transmission assembly to what they call the front propeller shaft (although i cannot find any propeller ) , there is a black seal disc on the shaft that seems to shroud the seal, have checked for cracks and other possible areas but it seems quite obvious unless anyone has other experience?
Down to the knity gritty, has anyone changed one of these seals and how big a job is it, although i expect i know the answer

Any pointers?

Another thought, is there a low oil level sensor on the transmission?

Thanks
Simon

 

[silvercruiser]

Thats the transfer box output seal. Its a fairly easy fix. im sure someone with a 120 series has put it into toyota for this and had change from £200. i did my the seal myself on the 95 series, the only awkward part was getting the flange nut undone after that its easy.

 

[Scott]

Seeing as this leak has started directly after you have taken the vehicle out of its usual operating zone and have made the suspension work through its full travel, it would be wise to check that the propshaft hasn't caused this leak. Propshafts have a sliding joint which allows the shaft to extend and compress with the movement of the axle, this sliding joint has a grease nipple to allow grease to be pumped in to keep the sliding joint lubricated. The problem is that it's easy to pump too much grease into the joint, which can limit its ability to compress, as the grease packs in behind the sliding section.

If this is the case and the propshafts compression range is limited, the force of the axle moving is not absorbed by the propshaft and is passed directly into the transfer gearbox output flanges. These forces can then damage the bearing and the seal, causing a leak.

The propshafts are easy to unbolt and remove. Mark the two halves of the propshafts sliding joint before seperating them and cleaning all the grease out. Then you can regrease with just the right amount of grease, and reassemble to the marks made earlier. Then during servicing only put in a small amount of grease, as not a lot of grease escapes from the sliding joint.

Unfortunately the transfer gearbox seal will most likely need to be replace and the bearing checked for play.

 

[StarCruiser]

Alternately I have seen it advised on here to run the shaft for a while with the grease nipple removed to allow the grease to escape. Obviously don't do this for more than a few miles and get the axle articulating with a bit of load in the truck. Avoid dust and water while you're doing it.

 

[Simon5030]

Guys
Thanks for all the great info, its amazing what can so easily missed like the grease compacting affecting the travel
Called Mr T today to get a quote only to find that its covered on my RAC protection policy so i am off to see them tonight, might as well have my service done as i need a shocker on the front as well (this is also covered on my policy). Just hope they dont mind all the mud still stuck to the bottom

After further inspection it also looks like i have damaged the runner brackets on one side, Mr T £190 for 3 think i will make some at work! (these are definatly not covered on my policy!)

Thanks
Simon

 

[GeekOKent]

All toyota dealers are meant to do a top and bottom wash and internal vac for all technical visits. So the mud.... should be gone when they get it back to you.

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

I did an output shaft seal while lying under, in the garage. Not a hard job at all.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[silvercruiser]

Hello Nuclear Chicken, its been a while. Have you still got the xc90?

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

Hi there. Yes a while indeed. I've been keeping an eye on here though! No sold the XC as I changed jobs and got a company Mondeo. That lasted a year and I changed again, this time to a 2002 Mercedes E Class Estate. The XC is close to the all round perfect family car and wish I hadn't sold it. However, wifey was due a change and wouldn't use it so I had to free up the cash. Rust aside, the Merc is fantastic too and also has 7 seats. When I manage to rustle up a few pennies I hope to be in another XC. I'd love a LC but with my annual mileage they're too hard on fuel. I'd kill for a LC5 150!

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[silvercruiser]

sounds like you have been busy then NC. you never know the numbers could come in and before you know it your be driving round in a brand new LC.

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

Wouldn't that be cool. In that case it would be a 200!

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[Simon5030]

So now i have taken it to Mr T to get the job authorised from my insurance company they are now telling me that the seal is not covered on my insurance
OEM seal £25 (including the seal that goes inside the stub shaft), after looking through the repair manual (more carefully) i have now found the seal replacement instructions and as pointed out its looks quite straight forward, i think i will probably just need to make a tool to push it in nice and square over the drive shaft

Simon

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

Tap it using the old seal if you can.

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[Simon5030]

Tap it using the old seal if you can.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

Exellent idea!
Thanks

 

[Simon5030]

Well i got home on Wed and and managed to get the seal done in 2hrs, if i had to do it again it would probably take 45mins!

Replacement of the front transmission output seal
1) Get car up on my DIY wooden ramps (just solid blocks but work a treat for just raising it 10")
2) I didn't drain the oil but would recommend it just for ease
3) Remove the protector shield (4 bolts)
4)Mark the position of the drive shaft to the flange then unbolt, one strange thing at this point as the drive shaft appeared to be spring loaded and i needed a tyre lever to push the drive shaft back over the flange bolts, but not difficult. Thought it may have been grease packed in but it was spring loaded, will look into this, comments?
5) Undo the 30AF nut holding the stub shaft on, remove the stub shaft, this may be tight and i used a puller just to free it but it would have probably just tapped off
6) At this point i just made sure i had the correct seal as there is nothing worse than destroying the old one and finding the new one is wrong!!
7) put a screwdriver under the rear of the seal and just popped it out!
Caution: When i first tried this i did not realise the seal recess does not have a stop flange at the base of it, its a straight though hole and when i tried to pop it out i had my screwdriver against the back of the casing and not the seal, this led me to think it was really tight! If it does not come out easily then think again! Toyota have a specialised puller for this job, make sure you do not scratch/damage the casing where the seal sits.
8) Clean the seating for the new seal, bit of oil on it and it popped straight in nice and firm (used the old seal to tap it in Thanks Nuclear Chicken)
9) Replaced the small seal in the stub shaft, cleaned and re assembled in reverse, torquing everything up as per Toyota specs
10) Refilled with new oil and checked for leaks
11) Put kettle on and admire your work

Apologies for not getting pics but it is a straight forward job

Thanks for your advice and comments
Simon

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

Good job. Sounds just like what I did. Handy enough really. You're making good progress.


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[silvercruiser]

Well i got home on Wed and and managed to get the seal done in 2hrs, if i had to do it again it would probably take 45mins!

Replacement of the front transmission output seal
1) Get car up on my DIY wooden ramps (just solid blocks but work a treat for just raising it 10")
2) I didn't drain the oil but would recommend it just for ease
3) Remove the protector shield (4 bolts)
4)Mark the position of the drive shaft to the flange then unbolt, one strange thing at this point as the drive shaft appeared to be spring loaded and i needed a tyre lever to push the drive shaft back over the flange bolts, but not difficult. Thought it may have been grease packed in but it was spring loaded, will look into this, comments?
5) Undo the 30AF nut holding the stub shaft on, remove the stub shaft, this may be tight and i used a puller just to free it but it would have probably just tapped off
6) At this point i just made sure i had the correct seal as there is nothing worse than destroying the old one and finding the new one is wrong!!
7) put a screwdriver under the rear of the seal and just popped it out!
Caution: When i first tried this i did not realise the seal recess does not have a stop flange at the base of it, its a straight though hole and when i tried to pop it out i had my screwdriver against the back of the casing and not the seal, this led me to think it was really tight! If it does not come out easily then think again! Toyota have a specialised puller for this job, make sure you do not scratch/damage the casing where the seal sits.
8) Clean the seating for the new seal, bit of oil on it and it popped straight in nice and firm (used the old seal to tap it in Thanks Nuclear Chicken)
9) Replaced the small seal in the stub shaft, cleaned and re assembled in reverse, torquing everything up as per Toyota specs
10) Refilled with new oil and checked for leaks
11) Put kettle on and admire your work

Apologies for not getting pics but it is a straight forward job

Thanks for your advice and comments
Simon

glad you sorted it. i normally take the grease nipple out of the shaft on the prop, that way, when you lever it back off the flange you can see if its over greased and if it is you get a nice worm of grease come out. so if it feels spring loaded this might be why your seal started leaking when off roading as the prop is put under more pressure on the twistys.

 

[Simon5030]

So my saga continues with a siezed rear brake caliper!
Managed to strip it all down and noticed the piston had started to corrode, seals looked ok but i guess that will not last.
Cleaned it all up and it was free as a bird, i guess the calipers tend to just fail on these things?

So i will replace both calipers in the near future, would it be suggested i use genuine or equivalant, anyone had any experience??

Simon

 

[Crispin]

Fun times you're having.. :S

As for the brakes having problems, there were issues on the early ones where the front piston seized. This caused binding which caused heating and the others to fail. Can't say I recall the rears having a problem.

For piece of mind, change the piston if you've got any suspicions and get a new seal kit from Simon. As for getting new calipers, no real need if you swap the pistons and seals and do it right. Having said that, Mr-T does / did offer a refurb swap. perhaps give Simon a call and discuss.

From memory, the seals where cheap and the pistons were not-so-bad.
Remember red grease (comes with seal kit) on the sliders - other stuff will stuff up the rubber boots.

 

[Simon5030]

Fun times you're having.. :S

As for the brakes having problems, there were issues on the early ones where the front piston seized. This caused binding which caused heating and the others to fail. Can't say I recall the rears having a problem.

For piece of mind, change the piston if you've got any suspicions and get a new seal kit from Simon. As for getting new calipers, no real need if you swap the pistons and seals and do it right. Having said that, Mr-T does / did offer a refurb swap. perhaps give Simon a call and discuss.

From memory, the seals where cheap and the pistons were not-so-bad.
Remember red grease (comes with seal kit) on the sliders - other stuff will stuff up the rubber boots.

Crispin

Can you buy just the pistons? never seen them for sale anywhere?
Will have a look round to see what to get!
Forgive my ignorance but who is Simon? (yes i know i am Simon too!)

Thanks