perfect waste of rebuilt transfer case

[peiserg]

I've had my newly rebuilt TC in for about 2000 miles. Did some minor wheeling... if you can call pulling a 2000lb jetski trailer up an incline "wheeling"... and the TC dumped a 10" diameter pool of oil in my driveway when i got home.

Looks like leaking out of the seal forward of the parking brake from part #16 here:

Specter Off-Road Land Cruiser Parts - Page 068 Land Cruiser Transfercase, Gaskets & Seals

It looked like it was just from the bottom bolt that holds that in place.. so i go to tighten, and its basically slightly more than fingertip tight, and totally stripped.

So i figure, i'd just tighten its neighboring bolt to help the situation... yep... totally stripped as well.

Yes, i realize the innards of the rebuild are fine. working great, in fact. As i expect from someone of Mudrak's reputation.

But sending me a TC with TWO stripped out bolts from a part that needs to hold a seal in place? Gee thanks.

Now my only tow vehicle for my business is going into the shop for a couple days to retap and thread that sucker, at a probably cost of $300ish in labor, since it involves dropping the shaft, plus removing the parking brake mechanism to he can fit a tap in there.

 

[Josie'sLandCruiser]

Hi All:

Sorry to hear about the oil leak. It has been known to happen on these rig! But certainly frustrating!!

First off, have you contacted Gary directly about this problem?

Did you elect to have his dual oil seal modification on that rear output housing??

Who installed the this leaky rear output housing?

Regards,

Alan

 

[Southeast Overland]

X2 on have you contacted Mudrak directly? I have his dual seal and it works great. I'm a 1 banana mechanic and I could tap those threads and I hate tapping threads. It really isn't a hard job.

 

[peiserg]

No, haven't contacted Gary. The work was fine, but took 4 weeks and probably 10 calls to get it done, despite a "3-4 day" quote. Then a missing bearing which was supposed to be sent.. but never made it despite multiple phone calls. this was a bearing which was supposed to be in the transfer case when i got it, but didn't come in the original box when the shop received it.

I eventually, after another 10 day delay (on my main work truck.. yeah... tthat was fun..) just sourced the bearing for the TC from specter. I couldn't have my truck up on a rack for another two weeks hoping the part (which was supposed to be in the TC when it arrived) to show up.

As i said.. i'm happy with the insides.. the thing works great. it's the two stripped bolts which pisses me off.

and yes i do have the double seal. that ALSO works great. it's NOT that seal. it's actually the seal BETWEEN the main body of the TC and that part (#16) that is leaking. it's one of those paper gasket seals.


aside from all that...

I'm thinking of just tapping/threading it myself... only reason i hesitate at all is i ALWAYS seem to screw things up when i do it myself..

So, having said that.. any idea what pitch/thread i'd replace those bolts with? the bolt head is a 12mm.. do i use the same pitch/size, or is it presumed that the inside of the receiving hole is now too wide for the same bolt?

Only thing i worry about is somehow cracking the TC body.

tia.

 

[dgangle]

I can understand your frustration but you should really contact him to see if he can offer to make it right in some way. Yes, the bolts should not be stripped but ranting here about this and 3 unrelated problems would incline most to tell you that 'you are on your own', to put it a nice way.

Give him the chance and if not resolved to your satisfaction take your business elsewhere or learn to fix your own junk.

Put a Heli-Coil in it. Use same bolts. You aren't going to mess up the housing if you have any common sense and mechanical ability. This can be fixed in 1/10 the time to remove the case to ship it back.

 

[D'Animal]

Take one of you bolts and go buy a HeliCoil kit that size. Fix the stripped threads.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

I second or third the advice of talking to Gary about it. He will make things right-at least that has been my experience dealing with him.

 

[peiserg]

actually i would call him, but only situation i can think of where he could help would be to ship me another TC and have me ship him this one back.. and the shipping cost on that back and forth
would be probably $150.. plus the labor i'd have to eat to have it R n R'd... I don't think there's a way for him to help without incurring a lot of cost just in labor and shipping on both our ends. I think the easiest and most cost effective sol'n is to just have it tapped while still in the truck.

that, plus the time situation last time really cost me. If something will take a month, just say so. If something as critical as a bearing is accidentally left out of the TC when it is shipped, don't spend 10 days saying it's been sent, , before i give up and have to order one myself. I need my truck working tomorrow, unfortunately (and i realize that probably wont happen at this point). But theres simplyl no way i can afford to gamble on another fix that may take a lot longer than that to effect.

PS thanks for the suggestion of the helicoil.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/388995-how-long-should-bolt-pic-inside-transfer-case.html

that's some pics of the bolt i took out. do i need a longer one or is that appropriate? seems pretty short, but i don't know what the normal length is supposed to be!

 

[Brian in Oregon]

He still needs to know about a quality control issue.

 

[peiserg]

ok as an addendum here...

all the bolts hold the speedometer housing to the TC were too short. 3 of them were 15mm, and I changed them all to 25mm, and the longer one was also only long enough to engage about 5 threads.

I used the helicoil on the first one, but was unsure if I could use a 2nd one directly on top of the first one. each helicoil is only about 10mm, and the bolt seemed to have about 20mm of biting depth. As i didn't want to risk a complete screwup, i left it at just one helicoil. It worked pretty well, but i could feel it slipping a little when i got it "8/10" tight. So i left it at that.

the 2nd stripped bolt, i was able to thread in my 10mm longer 8.00x1.25 bolt, and engage the remaining 15mm of unused thread. it was able to get "10/10" tightness.

Only concern i have at this point, is my rear output shaft seal. I didn't have an extra one on me, and need the truck working asap, so i just put it all back together and am hoping for the best. if it leaks, obviously that seal was ruined by my taking it apart. If it holds... so much the better. after a 1mile test run up to 60mph, no leaking so far.

thanks for the help and suggestions. i was going to leave it to the mechanic and relax on my day off, but ah well..

Rereading the thread, regarding me not contacting him for "unrelated" issues.. well, that's the entire reason i didn't bother contacting him. It was all relating to my experience getting this TC from him.. 4 weeks to arrive, instead of 3 days. I even offered to just BUY an entire other TC from him so i could get back on the road, rather than continuing to wait. Then a bearing(!!!) missing, that NEVER showed. I had to go on my own to SOR to buy it before i could get my truck running. And just so theres no misunderstanding... this was a bearing that was supposed to be in the TC when it arrived, not some unrelated bearing to some OTHER part of the truck.

I was so irritated by the situation, that i didn't want to deal with him again. at least not at this point. Yes, yes.. the TC works great. his reputation on that is very well deserved! But the logistics.. it was not something i wanted to revisit.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

ok as an addendum here...

all the bolts hold the speedometer housing to the TC were too short. 3 of them were 15mm, and I changed them all to 25mm, and the longer one was also only long enough to engage about 5 threads.

I used the helicoil on the first one, but was unsure if I could use a 2nd one directly on top of the first one. each helicoil is only about 10mm, and the bolt seemed to have about 20mm of biting depth. As i didn't want to risk a complete screwup, i left it at just one helicoil. It worked pretty well, but i could feel it slipping a little when i got it "8/10" tight. So i left it at that.

the 2nd stripped bolt, i was able to thread in my 10mm longer 8.00x1.25 bolt, and engage the remaining 15mm of unused thread. it was able to get "10/10" tightness.

Only concern i have at this point, is my rear output shaft seal. I didn't have an extra one on me, and need the truck working asap, so i just put it all back together and am hoping for the best. if it leaks, obviously that seal was ruined by my taking it apart. If it holds... so much the better. after a 1mile test run up to 60mph, no leaking so far.

thanks for the help and suggestions. i was going to leave it to the mechanic and relax on my day off, but ah well..

Rereading the thread, regarding me not contacting him for "unrelated" issues.. well, that's the entire reason i didn't bother contacting him. It was all relating to my experience getting this TC from him.. 4 weeks to arrive, instead of 3 days. I even offered to just BUY an entire other TC from him so i could get back on the road, rather than continuing to wait. Then a bearing(!!!) missing, that NEVER showed. I had to go on my own to SOR to buy it before i could get my truck running. And just so theres no misunderstanding... this was a bearing that was supposed to be in the TC when it arrived, not some unrelated bearing to some OTHER part of the truck.

I was so irritated by the situation, that i didn't want to deal with him again. at least not at this point. Yes, yes.. the TC works great. his reputation on that is very well deserved! But the logistics.. it was not something i wanted to revisit.

Really sorry to hear this, but glad you're good to go. I'm lucky in that I'm local (more or less) and Mudrak has always been willing to help me out with a project or take on something I can't do myself. I've been 100% happy in my dealings with him. Last thing he did was put my H41/toybox together-I did the install. It turned out great. I've seen him rebuild a 3 speed transfer case in about 20 minutes. Really impressive to see in person.

I can see where if you are depending on the vehicle, any day it can't be used is a major hassle, and 30 days for a t-case rebuild is a long time.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

Take one of you bolts and go buy a HeliCoil kit that size. Fix the stripped threads.

Was going to be my suggestion as well. HeliCoils have proven strength and can withstand all original torque specs. Glad it turned out to be nothing major.

 

[lostmarbles]

From the point of view of someone far away.

This is "all good".

I like the thread ....and I like the posts in the thread.

There's absolutely nobody anywhere in the world that has jobs that all run perfectly to plan all-the-time.

And working on old gear is full of serious set-backs/pitfalls just waiting to happen.

I regularly see members angry with vendors who have treated me fabulously.

And I get angry with vendors who other people think can do no wrong.

Unfortunately I do ALL my work myself so I have no personal experience to draw on (good or bad) of "cruiser repairwork" specifically. But I do know that I'd certainly never want to repair other peoples old cruisers for a living!



(Yep ... Just me ranting again about not wanting any censorship on satisfactiion/quality issues.)

 

[Combat Chuck]

I'm really sorry to hear all this, Gary's an incredible guy, and I've only seen top-knotch workmanship from his business. I would certainly agree to Brian in Oregon's point, however, that he does need to know about these issues.
I work in a hotel, and we live off our guest feedback, if someone got the shortest end of any stick we could offer, and kept quiet, there's no way we'd know about the probelm to correct it in the future. Granted there is no practial solution in your situation; as you said, what could happen, he can't just ship you a new TC, but the feedback would help prevent similar repeats of this sad incident. That, in and of itself, contributes to the whole nature of the Land Cruiser community we all know and love.
Anyway, that's just my 2 cents worth, and I hope for the best in your situation.

 

[peiserg]

alright guys i sent gary a PM. it wasn't a "you owe me" message, it was an "fyi" message.