hole in rear differential housing

Hi malpass, i'm no expert in this field but i do know that your diff housing should be fit with a breather which is about m6, if the breather has been blocked its possible that pressure has built up and blown out the fitting.

I had something the same happened to my disco front driverside wheel ,after spraying underbody with waxoil forget to unblock the air breater ,which lead to oil leaking out onto the alloy wheel .I cleared the air hole all seems well now .As for the damage might be better to get new /another part ,just incase it happens again when your in the middle of no where and when it's raining cats "n" dogs sorry not able to be more help let us know how you get on.



Wilson

I've come accross your sittuation before Beastie, but on gearboxes in an engeneering environment. When the temprature increases so does the pressure in the axle and therefore the oil will take the path of least resistance. In your case it was the oil seal on the end of the axle where the driveshaft comes out. In my opinion anyway.

Hy Malpass,
No, it's not pressure from the inside, it sounds like you knocked somthing off or punctured the case on some sharp object outside.
You do not say EXACTLY where this hole is. Is it a perfectly round hole that appears to have been drilled, or is it irregular ? There should be a breather on the case
somewhere, but it will be on the top of the axle or diff housing, (come on you series owners, possition please).
It may be some other addition by some previous owner such as a hole drilled to enable the fitting of an air line to activate an air locker or similar.
Can you give us a better or more detailed description of this hole and its position then it may be possible to give a more considered answer.
Don't take it a lot further without plugging the hole and replacing the lost E.P.90 will you.
Cruisermik.

thanks all for your views - I have tried unsuccessfully to attached a pic to show the hole which is punched through the metal diff housing from the inside at the rear bottom of the diff housing - a very neat hole in the centre of the housing. All the oil has drained out. If this has been caused by some of the gearing breaking off - I am surprised that I can still drive forward and reverse without any descernable noise/damage (clearly without any diff oil I have only driven it to get it home). Can I simply weld a patch over the hole! any views??

You say it has been caused by some of the gearing breaking off. Have you found the damaged part? If you have and it is repaired i cannot see any reason why it Shouldn't be welded up, but thats just my view. Cruisermik has more expirience than myself with diffs etc so maybe he can shed some more light.

If its a 0.5mm (half mil hole) you might get away with epoxy resin. I had a leaky diff housing - it had got very thin in places, on a 1960s IIA and drained it,cleaned it and then coated it with resin. Worked fine.
The breather valve, on the IIA and quite probably your LR too, was on top of the axle - easily screwed out and cleaned but when it gets bunged up it increases the pressure at all points in the axle housing including I would think, the diff.
If you have a really serious hole, I would think about looking for a new diff. Its not too difficult replacing one.

Dave

Hy again Malpass.
Good one this, have you tried to upload a picky to the members gallery section of this forum ? It's quite easy if you give it a try. All you have to do is have the photo, pref.in jpeg format and know the folder, file and number of the photo as produced by the camera or archive system you use. Go to members gallery and press the up-load photographs button. follow the prompts and you've cracked it, (must be easy, even I can do it). When you have the photo on the gallery, post another message on here to let us know.
It realy would be handy, as I would like to get to the bottom of this one.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Cruisermik.

thanks for the advice - I have posted two pics to the gallery - one of the diff (and hole) and one of the bits that fell out of the diff housing when I unfastened the drain plug and poked around inside. Two sheared nuts (9/16) with a bit of thread as well as what looks like a sort of locking tab fell out. I guess it was the sheared nuts that punched a hole through the diff casing.

The wierd thing is it drives great (short distances only so far) - no noises, whines, grating of metal! despite no oil and no bolts! Any ideas what they might have secured (I have tried to match them up on a haynes manual exploded view - but tricky) any views on simply epoxying up the hole, filling with oil and hoping for the best! cheers

Hy Malpass,
I have never been inside a Land Rover diff in my life, but I have been inside several Land Cruiser diffs. From the size of the bolts in the picture, I would say that the sheered bolts are either Crown wheel retention bolts, of which there are eight, ten or twelve, or the bolts which secure the bearing caps in which the whole carrier assy. spins.
It's all a bit of a moot point realy as whatever they are, this damage must be investigated and put right.
Removal of a diff assy. from a Landy is no great shakes, and with a set of spanners, a b.f.h. and a Haynes manual, which you have, it's no more than a short evenings work.
I don't know how much mechanical expertise you have, but remember, there's nothing special about a Landy diff, and if you have any mechanicaly inclined mates, It should be a streightforward job.
Whatever it is, I would be a bit unhappy about just filling up the hole, re-filling the oil, and driving away. You may get away with it for a while, but in my experience, it will let go when you least want it to. It's summer now, the weather is pretty good, I'd get it over with now.
Whatever you decide, all the best with it, and let us know how you get on.
Cruisermik.

Hy again,
I had no sooner finished replying to your diff. question than I came accross a good illustration of what I was trying to explain.
I've posted the photograph on members gallerys for your perusal.
It's not a Land Rover, It's a Land Cruiser, taken by a friend during the instalation of an electric diff lock, but it shows very well what I was trying to tell you.
The crown wheel, which is the large gear you can see edge on, running verticaly, is held in possition, in this case, by the studs and nuts just to the left of it. I don't know, but in a Land Rover, these could well be bolts.
The four large bolt heads looking straight at you are the bearing cap bolts.
As you can imagine, if I am correct, failure of these components is serious, and cannot be left to heal themselves.
Hope this helps.
Cruisermik.

cheers cruiser mik good advice I will get stuck in and post pics of what I find - good site this!

Hey Malpass, did you get into that diff. yet ? Be interested to see what you found.
Cruisermik.

Yep, got stuck in today - your advice and picture were extremely helpful, thanks. Found that 3 of the 10 bolts holding the crown wheel to the diff assembly had loosened and then got beheaded! Interesting and luckily no damage to the diff assembly. All the bolts were loose so I consider I have had a lucky escape. Off to Paddocks to get extra bolts/locking washers and gaskets (big one for housing to axle and both half shaft flanges) - also looking for a mobile welder in the Banbury area to patch up the hole on the axle / diff housing - then I hope simply a matter of the reverse of what I did today - but a bit heavy!

thanks for the support Philip

Hey Philip,
Glad to be of service. Bet you're glad you didn't leave it alone now. I should think you probably saved yourself a small fortune in the long run.
You could also try a bit of 'Locktite' thredlocker on the bolts when you re-place them. It's cheap insurance.
Best of luck mate. Hope to hear more from you on landyzone.
Cruisermik.