LT85 Bearing Life

Hi All,
Cracking on with the jobs to do a bit of a refresh on the wagon and since quite a few things are apart, have decided to also refresh the gearbox.
Not really up for converting to R380 or Auto, so have stumped up for an ashcroft box using their 6308 sleaved bearings (instead of FRC2301) which I believe are decent.

1. Does anyone have any experience of the box longevity using the 6308 bearings?
2. What's a reasonable life for a transfer box - mine has 130K on it and it all works just fine. I expect should be fine (subject to oil inspection) for a long time to come?

Thank you

MattYorke said:

Hi All,
Cracking on with the jobs to do a bit of a refresh on the wagon and since quite a few things are apart, have decided to also refresh the gearbox.
Not really up for converting to R380 or Auto, so have stumped up for an ashcroft box using their 6308 sleaved bearings (instead of FRC2301) which I believe are decent.

1. Does anyone have any experience of the box longevity using the 6308 bearings?
2. What's a reasonable life for a transfer box - mine has 130K on it and it all works just fine. I expect should be fine (subject to oil inspection) for a long time to come?

Thank you

Click to expand...

I have had several refurbished gearboxes and transfer boxes from ashcroft now. Although the original factor boxes did about 180k the subsequent replacements have done between 60-80k before needing another refurb. For me that is 2-3 years so I do it fairly regularly, but I also spend a lot of time cruising at motorway speeds. When I asked previously on here if that was unreasonable I got the answer from @jamesmartin that when original, due to the age and design of the gearboxs, 60k would not have been an unreasonable mileage to potentially require a rebuild. When they were designed people did not do anywhere near the mileage modern vehicle do.

Thank you. That's fine, I'll take 60K with it being "quietish". That'll give me more than a decade of use before it needs doing again.
Would have been disappointed it we were only talking 6K though.