tranny went bad on type44. Shall I be surpised?

[Roy Wendell]

On Monday, February 19, 2007, at 10:07 PM, kbogach wrote:

> Roy, I changed the seal, so I took the flange out.  The bolt was 
> tight, and nothing changed when I put everything back.  With the 
> flange off I pushed differential through the opening and it moved 
> definitely too much.  Like it was loose there.   I tried to figure out 
> how the differential is held in place from staring into Bentley but 
> could not get it.  Car was on neutral.  Again, friend mechanic said it 
> moves too much.  He knows much more than I do, of course, but he  
> admitted that he does not know much about transmission internals.
> Thank you.
> Konstantine
>
> Roy Wendell wrote:
>>
>>> Roy,  drive flanges move a lot - 1/4 inch at least.  But there was 
>>> no whining whatsoever.   The reason I went there is that I 
>>> significant oil leak in the area of right drive flange(I had to add 
>>> about 300-400 ml, I don't consider it was dangerously low level, 
>>> righ?).  I  changed the seal anyway.   What puzzles me that moved 
>>> the car out of garage to parking lot,  moved in on the lift next day 
>>> to change brake hose and the flange was all in oil.   Probably it 
>>> wobbles so much that even new seal can not hold the oil inside.  But 
>>> why the left side does not leak then, I wonder?   Moving flanges 
>>> with hand feels same on both sides. Unfortunately, I don't have 
>>> garage, it is damn cold and I have limited time in on lift in a 
>>> garage where my friend works as mechanic.   I need to find shortest 
>>> time-wise remedy.  I sounds like I have to find used tranny.
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>> Konstantine.
>>>
>>
>> Hmm, 1/4" does sound like a lot. That would mean that the 
>> differential side gears have been wearing down the diff carrier 
>> casting or vise versa. Odd, very very odd. It involves a lot of work 
>> but at the very least you might want to check and make sure that the 
>> bolt that holds the drive flange to the gear is tight. It's an allen 
>> head bolt in the very center of the flange that is revealed once you 
>> take the inner cv joint off.
>>
>> Tell you what, I'll slide under mine at some point tomorrow and see 
>> how much play mine has just as a comparison.
>>
>> Roy
>>

I gave the cv drive flanges on both a spare 016 locker and the 016 
torsen one in my daily driver 200 an experimental yank. Maximum 
observed play for the lot is something like 1/8" radially 
(perpendicular to axis of rotation) and none axial. The 016 locker had 
over 220k miles (some of them pretty hard) when I pulled it out of my 
former DD 5000tq. The 016 torsen in the 200tq currently has 188k miles 
on it.

I'd really like to know how yours got worn out. There must be a ton of 
steel shavings on the drain plug.

Roy