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Extended Breathers Write Up
I know there are plenty of write ups for fitting extended breathers but everyone does it slightly differently so I thought I’d offer another choice. I purchased the following off ebay:
1. 30m 6mm OD Nylon hose
2. 2 x 1/8” BSP 6mm push fit straight unions (Diffs)
3. 1 x 1/4” BSP 6mm push fit tee union (Transfer Case)
4. 4 x 6mm push fit equal tee unions (Only used 3)
5. Loads of tie wraps (cable ties to some...)
All the above cost less than £20 which is nothing, especially if it saves you contaminating your oils and/or damaging seals etc. Not to mention that it’s pretty easy and doesn’t take too long.
REAR DIFF
This is the easiest one to do as you have the best access; I can just about sit up under the rear end of mine (2” Sus Lift & 1.5” Body Lift). As you look at the diff from the rear, the breather is on the top left and should have a little wobbly cap on it. Just undo this with a 14mm spanner, screw in one of the 1/8” BSP straight fittings and tighten. Push the hose in and route towards the fuel tank, making sure you leave enough slack to allow for axle articulation. I followed the route of the brake lines and then over the chassis cross member.
Routing over chassis member viewed from rear.
FUEL TANK
There are 3 hoses coming out of the top of the fuel tank; the front two running forwards are the feed and return lines while the breather is the rear one and routes to the right hand side of the tank via a not return valve. I pulled the non return valve and longer piece of hose off leaving the short bit attached to the tank, pushed a length of 6mm nylon hose down the middle of that and secured with original pipe clip. You can now attach this to the rear diff hose with an equal tee.
Original fuel tank breather viewed from left hand side.
Connected to equal tee. Rear diff breather coming in from the right.
TRANSFER CASE
This is the trickiest one of the lot. It’s awkward to get to (especially without a body lift!) and it’s a little more involved. First thing to do is remove the gear and transfer lever assembly which will give you access.
The breather looks like the ones on the diff and is seen here to the left of the lever (I have already prised the cap off). As said in other posts it is pressed in to the casing rather than screwed in so needs some thought to remove it.
I removed the transfer lever hence the cardboard blanking plate then used a tap (M6 I think) to thread the inside of the existing breather, making sure I put plenty of grease on the tap to catch the swarf and clean and reapply every couple of threads. I had to use a spanner as you can’t get the T-bar in there.
With the old breather now threaded I used a 17mm socket, M6 bolt and a few washers to create a puller. Just wound the bolt down until the breather pulled free.
I measured the hole in the casing to find out what size tap to use and got around 11.5mm which is good for 1/4” BSP.
Then followed the same process as before with 1/4” BSP tap, et voila
Screw your 1/4” BSP 6mm tee union in and tighten. Then route a bit of hose to another equal tee connecting the rear diff & fuel tank (from right of picture) to the engine bay (left of picture).
GEARBOX
This was also a pain to get at even with the body lift but it can be accessed through the gear lever opening within the car.
It’s forward of the transfer box breather and is a little plastic angle pressed into the bell housing. Here you can see my original breather which is broken so doing nothing! The pipe to the right should go up into the engine bay.
I simply pulled the old one out and pushed my new hose straight in which is an interference fit and should seal better than the original. The other end of the hose connects to the transfer case tee piece via an equal tee (this will become apparent soon).
As viewed looking forward (ish) through the gear lever hole.
FRONT DIFF
If you’ve got a bash plate fitted you’ll need to remove it for access. It’s a little more fiddly than the rear diff but pretty straight forward.
The breather is on the front right of the diff when viewed from the front. I used a straight union as I have a body lift but an elbow will work fine if you don’t. Then routed the hose along the gearbox oil cooler pipes (the hose is rated to 70 degrees so should be ok!) and up the right hand side of the gearbox to the equal tee between the gearbox and transfer breathers. Just make sure it’s close to the gearbox so it doesn’t interfere with gear shifting.
The hose basically follows the route of the fuel lines up in to the engine bay but I have left enough length to get to the top of the snorkel which is coming soon...
1. 30m 6mm OD Nylon hose
2. 2 x 1/8” BSP 6mm push fit straight unions (Diffs)
3. 1 x 1/4” BSP 6mm push fit tee union (Transfer Case)
4. 4 x 6mm push fit equal tee unions (Only used 3)
5. Loads of tie wraps (cable ties to some...)
All the above cost less than £20 which is nothing, especially if it saves you contaminating your oils and/or damaging seals etc. Not to mention that it’s pretty easy and doesn’t take too long.
REAR DIFF
This is the easiest one to do as you have the best access; I can just about sit up under the rear end of mine (2” Sus Lift & 1.5” Body Lift). As you look at the diff from the rear, the breather is on the top left and should have a little wobbly cap on it. Just undo this with a 14mm spanner, screw in one of the 1/8” BSP straight fittings and tighten. Push the hose in and route towards the fuel tank, making sure you leave enough slack to allow for axle articulation. I followed the route of the brake lines and then over the chassis cross member.
Routing over chassis member viewed from rear.
FUEL TANK
There are 3 hoses coming out of the top of the fuel tank; the front two running forwards are the feed and return lines while the breather is the rear one and routes to the right hand side of the tank via a not return valve. I pulled the non return valve and longer piece of hose off leaving the short bit attached to the tank, pushed a length of 6mm nylon hose down the middle of that and secured with original pipe clip. You can now attach this to the rear diff hose with an equal tee.
Original fuel tank breather viewed from left hand side.
Connected to equal tee. Rear diff breather coming in from the right.
TRANSFER CASE
This is the trickiest one of the lot. It’s awkward to get to (especially without a body lift!) and it’s a little more involved. First thing to do is remove the gear and transfer lever assembly which will give you access.
The breather looks like the ones on the diff and is seen here to the left of the lever (I have already prised the cap off). As said in other posts it is pressed in to the casing rather than screwed in so needs some thought to remove it.
I removed the transfer lever hence the cardboard blanking plate then used a tap (M6 I think) to thread the inside of the existing breather, making sure I put plenty of grease on the tap to catch the swarf and clean and reapply every couple of threads. I had to use a spanner as you can’t get the T-bar in there.
With the old breather now threaded I used a 17mm socket, M6 bolt and a few washers to create a puller. Just wound the bolt down until the breather pulled free.
I measured the hole in the casing to find out what size tap to use and got around 11.5mm which is good for 1/4” BSP.
Then followed the same process as before with 1/4” BSP tap, et voila
Screw your 1/4” BSP 6mm tee union in and tighten. Then route a bit of hose to another equal tee connecting the rear diff & fuel tank (from right of picture) to the engine bay (left of picture).
GEARBOX
This was also a pain to get at even with the body lift but it can be accessed through the gear lever opening within the car.
It’s forward of the transfer box breather and is a little plastic angle pressed into the bell housing. Here you can see my original breather which is broken so doing nothing! The pipe to the right should go up into the engine bay.
I simply pulled the old one out and pushed my new hose straight in which is an interference fit and should seal better than the original. The other end of the hose connects to the transfer case tee piece via an equal tee (this will become apparent soon).
As viewed looking forward (ish) through the gear lever hole.
FRONT DIFF
If you’ve got a bash plate fitted you’ll need to remove it for access. It’s a little more fiddly than the rear diff but pretty straight forward.
The breather is on the front right of the diff when viewed from the front. I used a straight union as I have a body lift but an elbow will work fine if you don’t. Then routed the hose along the gearbox oil cooler pipes (the hose is rated to 70 degrees so should be ok!) and up the right hand side of the gearbox to the equal tee between the gearbox and transfer breathers. Just make sure it’s close to the gearbox so it doesn’t interfere with gear shifting.
The hose basically follows the route of the fuel lines up in to the engine bay but I have left enough length to get to the top of the snorkel which is coming soon...
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