vibration under load (not UJ / not Prop)

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Kickn

Kickn

Member
Posts
61
Location
Edinburgh, UK
So after a trip up to the north coast and back I found the rumble under load getting a bit louder so thought it was time to finally investigate. From what I have been reading lately this is normally due to engine mounts (fine from what I can see), UJ (front's recently replaced - back ones look solid with no play) and propshaft (front fairly new - back looks solid and no play in the splines).

Like most of the posts this is a common when accelerating vibration - as soon as you take the foot off the gas, coast, etc - there's nothing...almost silence :)

While under the truck this morning, in neutral and with the hand break off, there's about an inch or more play in the front prop shaft and about 1/2 that amount in the back.

Firstly as this is my first defender (and for just over a year now) I'm wondering if this is normal or not? There's a 'clunk' when changing direction or direction of the loads (say down hill from load to coast) so I'm thinking its something in the transfer box. Does this all make sense and any suggestions / insights from those that have owned these brilliant beasts longer then I ?

Thanks!
 
check a bar mounts and ball joint to rear axle .they, when worn can cause all of the above
 
Firstly your props, just because you have good u/js doesnt mean the props are good.
Are the props phased correctly?
Is there any lift at all in the prop slider section?
Rotational play in all prop flanges is normal, but if one has twice the amount that would be a good place to start, not forgetting theres lots more bits to wear a little bit on the front axle and all them little bits add up.

Maybe put up a wanted advert to get another defender owner to drive it and give their opinion?
 
Kickn said:
So after a trip up to the north coast and back I found the rumble under load getting a bit louder so thought it was time to finally investigate. From what I have been reading lately this is normally due to engine mounts (fine from what I can see), UJ (front's recently replaced - back ones look solid with no play) and propshaft (front fairly new - back looks solid and no play in the splines).

Like most of the posts this is a common when accelerating vibration - as soon as you take the foot off the gas, coast, etc - there's nothing...almost silence :)

While under the truck this morning, in neutral and with the hand break off, there's about an inch or more play in the front prop shaft and about 1/2 that amount in the back.

Firstly as this is my first defender (and for just over a year now) I'm wondering if this is normal or not? There's a 'clunk' when changing direction or direction of the loads (say down hill from load to coast) so I'm thinking its something in the transfer box. Does this all make sense and any suggestions / insights from those that have owned these brilliant beasts longer then I ?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Take it you have thoroughly greased UJs and sliders while you were under there. Sliding joints shouldn't have any up and down, and they should, err.... slide! ;)

Wouldnt worry too much about play in the trans, if there wasn't any,the whole thing would seize up.

Clunk in trans could be rear aframe joint, radius bushes, or worn splines in Trans box, all fairly easy to fix.
 
Turboman said:
Take it you have thoroughly greased UJs and sliders while you were under there. Sliding joints shouldn't have any up and down, and they should, err.... slide! ;)

Wouldnt worry too much about play in the trans, if there wasn't any,the whole thing would seize up.

Clunk in trans could be rear aframe joint, radius bushes, or worn splines in Trans box, all fairly easy to fix.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I've had a look at the aframe joint and its hard for me to tell but looks okay - how would you check this?

Radius bushes are a bit old - and I would be comfortable replacing those - been thinking I should replace all the bushings so this would be the start.

My gut is telling me that the next thing to look at would be the splines in the transfer box. From reading this can be looked at by poping off the top transfer box cover from the cubby box entrance and having a look. Is that right? Do I need to drain the oil or can I do this to have a quick look first?
 
Kickn said:
Thanks for that. I've had a look at the aframe joint and its hard for me to tell but looks okay - how would you check this?

Radius bushes are a bit old - and I would be comfortable replacing those - been thinking I should replace all the bushings so this would be the start.

My gut is telling me that the next thing to look at would be the splines in the transfer box. From reading this can be looked at by poping off the top transfer box cover from the cubby box entrance and having a look. Is that right? Do I need to drain the oil or can I do this to have a quick look first?
Click to expand...

Take a small crowbar, lever the joint against the arm to check for play.

Similar to check bushes, lever against the arms, you will see!

Rear cover off trans box IIRC.
 
No need to remove any covers just try it in first and reverse with handbrake on with a little bit of stick if it clacks its well worn, proper classy bodge is a new gear this does work as Ive done it a few times, far from perfect, but cheap and easy to do.
 
lynall said:
No need to remove any covers just try it in first and reverse with handbrake on with a little bit of stick if it clacks its well worn, proper classy bodge is a new gear this does work as Ive done it a few times, far from perfect, but cheap and easy to do.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll try that when I get back home this weekend!
 
Okay - so I put the handbrake on - put it in first and started to rock it back and forth.

Firstly it rolls about a foot before stopping - which seems quite a bit.

If it's rocked hard there it does hit the sound of a metal stop or light 'clank'

If its in reverse it rolls about half this and then same thing.

The splines in the transfer box?
 
I've been trying to find some references to it 'rolling' so much with the handbrake on but I've not found anything so far. It doesn't feel right that it should roll so much - is that normal?
 
Check that your hand brake drum doesn't have any play.
I went out to one recently and the drum was flopping all over the place!
Tightened it up and everything was back as it should be!
HTH.
 
The handbrake drum uses the same studs as fix the propshaft on, so with the handbrake on you're not getting any movement in the transfer box at all. Or not if the handbrake is working properly. So all the slack must be 'downstream' of the handbrake. Propshaft joints, the sliding joint in the propshaft, gears and splines in the diff and splines at the outer end of the axles, between the half shaft and the drive flanges. You can get rid of a good deal of the slack with new drive flanges I've found, which reduces the transmission clunk. Yes, there is a certain amount of rotational slack in Land Rover transmissions. Until the splines actually start jumping, it is debatable how important it is to fix it, especially if this involves replacing key components. A lot of Discoverys had a kind of rubber ring arrangement rather than universal joints to try and hide this problem and make them sound and feel more like a saloon car.
 
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