Outer Limits 4x4 Board

How strong is the Lt95? Will it cop a thrashing and laugh in the face of disaster or is it a shopping tranny?

The strongest 4 speed rover produced. Most say stronger than the 5 speeds.

Will cope with high Hp 350s and so on.

Dave.

Oh...I have a friend witha comp 109 with a EFI 350 putting out 160 - 170 kW at the rear wheels who used to flog it all the time with no probs.

Thats a heap of power in a landy.

just the axles would be somthing to be ashamed of with a 350

DaveS3 wrote:The strongest 4 speed rover produced. Most say stronger than the 5 speeds.

Will cope with high Hp 350s and so on.

Dave.

What Dave said - and they are definitely stronger than all the rover 5-speeds. The weakest point is probably the integral T-case (especially the centre diff), but they are probably only marginally weaker than an LT230 and they are just about impossible to break.

All the 4x4 and 6x6 military perenties are fitted with an LT95. They have an uprated T-case (better bearings and centre diff mods) but that is all.

Good stuff fellas, thanks for this. Just making sure it'll all hold together rather than being a POS in the IIa that I'm building. To be honest I didn't realise they were as good as that, just assuming they were old early versions that the R380/LT230 improved upon. WRT axles, its sitting on Hilux axles so the strength should be ok.

I'd assume also that these would be strong enough to be used in the cut and thrust Haultech type buggies etc.

Slunnie wrote:
I'd assume also that these would be strong enough to be used in the cut and thrust Haultech type buggies etc.

I have known of a lot of LT95's used in hardcore landies with no problems. In an early incarnation, Sam's now "mogrover" was running a Rangie V8, and then a BWT18 gearbox (very low first gear) then an LT95 cut in half (single casting for case of box and t-case, so if you want to use T-case have to cut the casing in half to remove gearbox section). AFAIK Sam had no problems with the LT95 T-case on 36" tyres and Scout D44's.

Most of the haultech buggies run a rover V8, ZF auto and LT230 box, which would have similar strength to running an LT95.

As others have said, beefier and stronger than the 5 speeds.

Weaknesses are in the t/case.

Needle bearings in intermediate gear (like early LT230). Modified to taper roller bearings - Maxidrive may do this.

Centre diff has problems with lube - less of a problem when locked but will give problems if not locked off road. Also shafts for spider gears (check with Jack Macnamarra for 1 piece cross shaft.

My recollection is centre diff is bigger (so potentialy stronger) than LT230, but I haven't compared them side by side so I may be wrong.

I'm pretty sure the centre distance between the input and output shafts is same as LT230 (230mm).

As above, the main weakness is the cross shaft in the centre diff. A few people over here (Ashcrofts and KAM spring to mind) do them. They're suposed to be stronger than all the 5 speeds and the ZF 4-speed auto box. Its what a guy I know uses with his Eales 4.5l V8 (300+ bhp) and has no problems.

I thought Nige had gone 5-speed now?

Whatever, the 4-speeds are indestructable - all I've ever heard is they wear out (bearings) after 40k miles or so but never actually break.

My brothers "the 109" was spitting out thrust washers after supercharging,
he got the upgrade for the LT95 that the army do. Going stong

transfer intermediate gears thrust bearings weren't lasting after long drives under heavy load only.fitted a second hand conversion with new bearings from FWD's in Brisbane who do all the work on the army 110's.cost $600 all up and you get a different shaft,machined gears to fit the tapered roller bearings,the bolt going through the shaft to preload the bearings and the special nut which locates in the transfer housing,lock plate,shims to suit.very happy with the conversion,well engineered and i can't seem to hurt it.

Yes these 'boxes are strong and can handle a thrashing, although my transfer case in my LT95 decided to die yesterday (now jumps out of hi and works on low only ), but this gives me an excuse to fit the ZF auto now

Probably an easy fix though.

Trav

Aquarangie, this is what got me thinking a little more about the strength. I hope the conversion goes smoothly.

Bush65/The 109 is the conversion to taper bearings a common alteration and is it straightforward exercise or does it involve machining?

the conversion kit if you can find one is well worth the money and installation is quite simple,tools needed are:torque wrench,spring scale,spanners,outside micrometer.shims to suit are determined by rolling torque of bearings/gears.a full installation procedure is available in the army manual with parts layout,to start machining your own gears and making all the other parts would be very costly and you would need some blueprints or an actual conversion kit to copy/measure off.

Trav,
Mine was doing this when i bought it, rangiespares reshimmed something with the box in place. Cost a couple of hundred bucks about 5 years ago. Still going strong.
Kevin

SOLIHL wrote:Trav,
Mine was doing this when i bought it, rangiespares reshimmed something with the box in place. Cost a couple of hundred bucks about 5 years ago. Still going strong.
Kevin

I thought so, wasn't a big expenditure, but it was a good excuse to put my ZF auto in

Might have a crack at fixing it myself. Great 'box bar that.

Trav

My Box was jumping out of high, then the leaver lost all selection and was just slopping around. If i pushed the leaver to the passenger side it would select again, and that as it wears out the leaver moves toward the right and doesn't fully select high range and can cause the jumping out problem as well(in theory).
I rang a couple of places and they said it was a common problem with a bush that fails inside, and you could pull the box out and replace it or add spaces to the opposite side of the selector shaft, where the selector would attach in lefthand drive model hasn't happened since, I can get a pic to show you where i put them if you like.

Brad