IRD missing a bit?

I've had an oil leak from my IRD for a while. It's not from the driveshaft seal, it's coming from the top of the IRD. While under there recently I discovered two things: 1) the breather pipe was disconnected, leaving the spigot to splurge oil out over the IRD, and 2) there's a stud poking out of the IRD with no nut on it (see pic).

I cleaned the IRD up once I'd replaced the vent pipe, and MOST of the oil leak seems to have gone, unsurprisingly. There's still a slight leak from high-up on the unit though; definitely IRD oil coming out and definitely not from the driveshaft. I was wondering if that stud needs a nut on it and if the oil's seeping out of the join in the casing because of it?

Anyone got any ideas on this one?

Bollocks. Can't seem to add a picture. Anyone want to give a few hints?

Insert image?

Just tryed that myself, not that obvious, sorry.

Try making the image smaller, as inn fewer megabytes, not sure about this one, but some forums limit the size of images that can be loaded.

Alternately, load it ont summat like photobucket and use the linky things that offers to insert it into the thread.

go for 800 by 600.

look at the dummies guide in the FAQ section

Yes, I'm being a right dummy here!

I shall do that. I've rescaled the image ready to go.

Got there!!

Here's the pic.

There should be a tin bracket that sits over the top of your ird unit. Its a flat piece of tin that has a kinked up bit to the nearside to allow the breather tube to route out of it. It then has a 90deg bend just above that stud with no nut. Then it goes vertically down about just enough to allow a nut onto that stud to secure it.

Its a tiny headshield, but yes that stud should have a nut on it.


It looks to me like your IRD end casing is leaking. If it is, its a simple repair of removing the driveshaft, removing the ring of bolts securing the end casing on and resealing it with something like STC50550.

Vissie said:

There should be a tin bracket that sits over the top of your ird unit. Its a flat piece of tin that has a kinked up bit to the nearside to allow the breather tube to route out of it. It then has a 90deg bend just above that stud with no nut. Then it goes vertically down about just enough to allow a nut onto that stud to secure it.

Its a tiny headshield, but yes that stud should have a nut on it.


It looks to me like your IRD end casing is leaking. If it is, its a simple repair of removing the driveshaft, removing the ring of bolts securing the end casing on and resealing it with something like STC50550.

Click to expand...

Brilliant - that's the answer I was looking for.

I've already got a new driveshaft seal, as I originally thought this oil leak was from there, so I'll pop that in while it's in bits.

Do I necessarily need the heat shield, or can I just put a nut on that stud after I've resealed the casing?

I think it is just there to protect your IRD breather pipe flexi-bit, from the heat of the engine. Although i dont have any evidence to support that.

Vissie said:

I think it is just there to protect your IRD breather pipe flexi-bit, from the heat of the engine. Although i dont have any evidence to support that.

Click to expand...

You're probably right. Where mine's gone, and why the vent pipe had come off is anyone's guess.

I ordered some of that sealant earlier. I'll attempt that job soon.

Possible the IRD has been removed before and someone was kinda half arsed in refitting it.

Just thought I'd wrap this one up for anyone else who has this leak. I stripped the RH driveshaft out on Sat after draining the IRD oil, removed all the brackets and other bits that needed to come off and then split the IRD casing. I could see no real evidence of RTV sealant on the mating surfaces. Must have been some though as the oil wasn't pouring out, just seeping

Anyway, I couldn't actually remove the outer half of the IRD casing completely as the poxy crossmember would have needed to be removed to drop it out. I tried turning it every which way, but it wasn't having it. In the end I just cleaned both halves of the casing edges up, squeezed new RTV sealant on there and bolted it back together. Including the missing nut

Once that was done I replaced the driveshaft oil seal (I knew that Disco hub nut box spanner left over form the old days would come in handy one day, as it was the spot-on right size as a drift for getting the new seal in place) I put it all back together, filled up with oil and have been monitoring since. So far, so good - no leaks. Hope it stays that way as it was a total mess under there!

The one good thing was that I could easily inspect the gears and bearings that were exposed when the IRD was opened. Thankfully, all looks well. No obvious wear or chipped teeth or anything. Not bad after 120K miles. Fingers crossed it stays that way too

This wasn't too tricky a job really, but it just takes a long time. 6 hours on and off I was out there. It was `kin hot that day too, mind. Just right for getting covered in stinky gear oil...