Drove ~500 miles up to Washington and back. Clipped pig mats under the transfer case and added 1/2 to 3/4 quart of ATF, and changed out the soaked pig mat and wiped up stuff that sprayed off the front driveshaft.
Fill plug was ungodly hot.
Made it to our campground just outside Yakima, WA Thursday night. Made camp, spent the night...swapped out the soaked pig mat, etc etc in the morning.
We drove 50 hard miles that day...40 was pretty rough...4-5 level trail, tons of dust... almost all in 4 low first gear. Checked the pig mat twice during the day and again when we got back to camp around 8 pm.
Dry. Not a single leak. Pulled the fill plug and ATF came out... slightly overfull as I had left it. What the hell?
Drove all the way home today. Didn't check the level when filling up. Pig mat soaked. ATF dripping on the shop floor.
Took the IR gun to the case...most of it was 200, but the center and tail shaft were 220 to 230 degrees.
As an aside I checked the cat...200 before, 380 after...90 degrees on the aluminum skid underneath. When wheeling I left a 3L water bladder on the passenger floor and took a warm shower when we got back to camp...going to get a shower bag and do that more often.
So, no clue what's going on. Going to let things cool off and pull it again tomorrow and see if I can use this 92/93 front case half to replace the front. Also going to replace the front yoke...maybe it's out of round and distorting the seal.
Magic trail dust is the only possible explanation.
@Wildman was talking about PNW companies that make a D300 case and I believe he called it a bare/bear box. Suggestion was double 2.72 ratios for both paired with my AX-15 and 4.88s.
Anyone have links or names of the companies? Behemoth is an option but I want to explore PNW sourced parts first.
-Mac
