Broken LT230

[cdansan]

It wasn't exactly the mall or even on pavement. But it did break and leave me stranded for a bit. It made some bad crunchy noises and then it was like driving with all the brakes dragging. All the gear teeth are in the bottom of the case and it seems like every gear and shaft has broken teeth. I am glad that this was in my parts truck and was only stuck in my backyard.
My wife was less than happy it was stuck in the backyard.
Dan

 

[fishEH]

Did something happen that led to this? Were there warning signs? My LT230 sounds like straight shite.

 

[cdansan]

It felt like the brakes were dragging and had no power. It made crunchy noises, but no bangs or booms.
Sometimes it felt like it could not go, and other times it felt pretty normal. Then it just stopped going and it would stall when you let out the clutch.

 

[jkempf]

It felt like the brakes were dragging and had no power. It made crunchy noises, but no bangs or booms.
Sometimes it felt like it could not go, and other times it felt pretty normal. Then it just stopped going and it would stall when you let out the clutch.

Another Vermonter! Cool. In the islands?

 

[MM3846]

thats some fantastic carnage. was this with the diff locked or unlocked?

 

[DiscoPhoto]

Another Vermonter! Cool. In the islands?

Nope... right around me in Shelburne( or close )

 

[ERover82]

Damn, the gears are supposed to be the strong part of these. What punishment did you put it through? Did you change the fluid more than once a decade?

 

[sedat]

Thats pretty epic failure right there.

the PO of my truck dicked with the layshaft and never punched the crush nut in... the nut backed off dropping all the preload on the gears.
I popped off the cover last week to replace the gaskets on it, and found out the shaft was just kinda hanging out. the gears would move a good 1/4" on the shaft.

Reset the preload and its the quietest that case has ever been.
I put 10,000 miles on it this way... and when I purchased the truck the case was empty, it drove 200 miles home that way.

 

[Mongo]

posted this over on Pirate, but it ate a bearing…had one do almost the same thing, only problem was it was getting hard to shift it into low...

 

[cdansan]

This was on a parts truck, so I know very little of its history. It was lifted with big blues and 35" tires.
I bought it in non running condition, stole some parts off it, and used it around the house and parts runs.
It was difficult to get into low range. The T-case was in high range unlocked when this happened in my back yard, on flat mowed grass.
This was no huge loss, the truck was pretty much rusted junk.
There is so much broken stuff in the case and all the bearings are trashed to figure exactly which part failed first.

 

[robertf]

I just had the same thing happen to my daily driver.

About a year ago the transmission temperature light went on while driving back to Texas from Arkansas. It was really low on fluid, near empty. Since then its had a slight whine, but I've driven it everyday. Last week it stepped up in volume. Took it apart and saw rollers from the layshaft everywhere. Swapped it out with a spare over the past few nights.

I saw the thread over on pirate and it looks like that one doofus is trying to make an epidemic out of these things failing. I'm sure that one was ran dry at some point in its life and the bearing finally gave out. I've got one with many more miles and a whole lot of abuse that is still going strong other than the gear change backlash.