TD5 90 2006, loss of drive. No gears work.

Hi All,

Channel Islands based with a Defender TD5 90. I was taking a friend to Uni this weekend, departing the ferry in Poole heading to Birmingham.

The car has an empire Stage 2 and felt fine going 90mph. Testing to see if she would be ok doing the further 150 miles at 70mph, as she has been used and abused so had my doubts as to longevity. However she felt more than fine till there was a bang and a complete loss of drive. I try downshifting to see if there is anything in any other gears to find there isn't coupled with a forward/mid rotating crunching noise.

I pull over on the hard shoulder and proceed to get her rolling again in 1st before dying out in 2nd again and again nothing in any other gears or difflock hi/ any of the other combinations I tried while on the hard shoulder.

I then eventually got towed and taken to a Premier Inn. The day later I play around again and get her crawling but only in Diff-L Low 4th. Other than that there's no drive.

Any suggestions please? I would like to be able to do the work myself. From other research it seems to be a half shaft in the Transfer Box however I'm unsure.

Any suggestions welcome, many thanks.
Joe

So the engine still runs, I take it? It just won't go anywhere.

I had something similar a few years ago and it was a clutch problem. The clutch friction plate was made in several pieces with a splined boss in the middle which seemed to have been staked/peened into the plate. It had come loose, so to torque was getting through. Nowadays I try to favour clutch plates which are made in a single piece so that problem can't happen. LOF do a nice one.
Maybe yours is coming loose too - it may explain why it'll move in some of the lower gears (where the gearbox input shaft doesn't need so much torque to turn it) but not in the higher ones.

I'm sure you've done all the usual things like checked for an axle fault by using the centre difflock. Sometimes halfshafts break or the splines wear out where they go into the drive flanges. But if that were the case you'd be seeing more movement if the centre difflock is engaged.