[shark]

So I picked up a gearbox that apparently went for a swim in the ocean. The owner said he drained it as soon as he got home but the engine gave up shortly after so he just wrecked it.
I picked it up for $80 and took the risk on it as mine had reasonably bad crunches with gear changes.
It actually changes gears really well but it's noisy and seems to be getting noisier.
I dropped the oil to see what it was like and this is what I was greeted by.
This oil is 3 days old and the box was left for 6 months with no oil in it.


Ignore the back oil, that's old diesel oil lol

[atari4x4]

[Fatzook]

Its most likely fucked. The bearings will be completely ruined after 6 months of only salt water residue. Should have been filled to the brim with oil before storage.

[want33s]

Looks like water contamination... Don't expect much from that box.

[shark]

He did run oil through it before he retired the zook but obviously he didn't get all that water out.
So is there any way to save it or is it all over.
Drive it till it blows??

[JrZook]

shark wrote:

Drive it till it blows??

Would be interesting to see what happens if a bearing collapses and the whole thing locks up whilst doing 100KPH down the highway....

[atari4x4]

JrZook wrote:

shark wrote:

Drive it till it blows??

Would be interesting to see what happens if a bearing collapses and the whole thing locks up whilst doing 100KPH down the highway....

your hightop would probably end up being a clone of this one
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14345&p=701762#p701762

[christover1]

JrZook wrote:

shark wrote:

Drive it till it blows??

Would be interesting to see what happens if a bearing collapses and the whole thing locks up whilst doing 100KPH down the highway....

I had a small bearing in my Sierra transfer case sieze up at 110 on the freeway.
Car, with camper trailer on, locked up the rear end and we spun out 180 into a crash barrier.
Very bloody scarey.
Took over 2 years before I could drive without fears on freeways

[jdk81]

Fooking hell guys....
I think i got off lightly, after having my xfer chew gears on the freeway and get me home safely.

I was oblivious to what was happening, until i got into town.

As per gearbox oil.
Mine looked like that, and i changed the oil straight away and sems ok.
Leaving it lile that for storage with salty water - paper weight

[droverdave]

It might be worth pulling the gbox appart and just checking the bearings, or even replacing them.

Having never done such a thing, the workshop manual procedure doesnt look so bad, just need a few pullers which might cost more than your $80 gbox...but it would be a fun project.

[shark]

Like I said he did run oil through it initially but by then the engine had given up..

[TZAR]

the hard facing on the gears will be damaged too. This what most of the noise will be. Just run it till your too scared. Thats what I would do.

[shark]

So do you think a rebuild kit will work on this box or it will be a bin job.

I got some red line oil given to me to try and get a few months out of it if I can.

[atari4x4]

would suitable for gearboxing only (ie cement it to the driveway of the person you got it from) personally i'd make a sculpture for the garage out of the destroyed bits when it lets go... everyone loves looking at mechanical carnage.

[sideways]

That's what the oil in my transfer always looks like.

shark wrote:

So do you think a rebuild kit will work on this box or it will be a bin job.

I got some red line oil given to me to try and get a few months out of it if I can.

New gearbox time. Just run it until it dies but don't rebuild it.

[DarkHorse]

I wouldn't even waste expensive oil on it.

[shark]

Oil is free. Shopping for a new box it seems.
Shame I gave my old box to a mate for free and all it did was crunch a bit in 2nd and 3rd when revving it hard.