At the start of the year I bogged the Freelander literally right up to the floorpan in a freshly ploughed field. To my surprise I managed to drive it out (eventually) but the entire underside was thoroughly clagged with sticky mud. Everythign else escaped injury but the VCU bearings didnt appreciate being run while submerged in what is effectively grinding paste.
Since then it has had a drone when in motion akin to a 737 at cruise. Pretty tedious. This has worsened lately to include a bit of clanking - Tome to take action.

I am a bit of a fatty these days so some extra clearance was required....


The VCU. My harmonic damper ring came adrift many miles ago. An angle grinder solved that problem, leaving the inner part in place.


At the rear you need a female torx bit and a 17mm spanner to unbolt the prop from the rear diff. At the front a smaller torx and a 13mm spanner. 4 bolts at the rear, 6 at the front. Now, it would be easier if two wheels on one side were up in the air free to turn as you could rotate the prop to get at all the bolts, but its easily possible this way if you use a long extension on the torx socket to reach above the prop. Give each end a clout with a hammer to unstick from their mating flange.
There are then 4 13mm bolts holding the VCU to the floor. Dont drop it on your head and dont wibble the front joint around too much - it can rest on the rearmost crossmember of the front subframe while lowering.

To separate, you will need a fairly slim 17mm spanner. A chunky cheapo Argos job might not fit into the joint.

Unscrew the bolt about an inch, let the U-shaped washer fall out and then hammer a cold chisel into the gap between head of the bolt and the end of the joint. This will push the shaft off the splines on the VCU. You might need to unscrew the bolt a bit, re-hammer, unscrew the bolt, re-hammer etc till it comes right off.

Yes, I bent the chisel. Cheap ****e.


Same at the other end....
Mine came apart quite easily as the last time I had in bits to change the VCU I slathered the splines in anti-sieze compund. Rusted splines will take a fair bit of hitting.


The rubber in the bearing mounts isnt great, but the main problem is the bearings themsleves which are rough and sound hellish when turned by hand.

Use a drift to knock the bearings off. Hit it. Now hit it harder. Dont be shy here.


Pop....


Now the same on the other end. I unbolted the remains of the damper and binned it. Its not really needed IMO. Some VCUs are sold without it at all.

For you serial-number pervs.... This is a recon supplied by Bell Engineering.
GKN V 407810 9565 Its been re-welded around the right hand side and had a bearing knocked into a hole on the face of it for filling.



part two uploading now......

The source of the clanking was this worn spider joint. It had about 5mm side to side movement in one direction You can see the clean bit where the end cap has been sliding back and forth.


Britpart and Allmakes - yeah yeah yeah, might as well throw my money straight in the bin etc etc, but unfortunately this is all I could hold of at short notice without spending €300+


Spider joints are easy in theory but can be a nightmare if things dont go well.
Take the 4 circlips off. two came easy and I had to get brutal with the others.



Hit one cup and it will slide the whole joint over, pushing the opposite cup out far enough to get a grip with pliers and remove it.




Hit the joint back the other way and pull the second cup out. This allows you to pull the joint apart. Repeat this process on the second half of the joint.


Dunting the whole thing on the vice can knock the cups out.


Clean away old grease and dirt, then carefully take the cups off the new joint. DO NOT shake them about or you will loose all the needle bearings.

Hold the central part of the joint in place and fit the two cups from the outside, using a vice the ease them in. Dont be forcing stuff here - they should slide quite easily.


Use a small socket to slide the cups fully home until you can get the circlip into its groove. Do the same for the other pair of cups, bringing the joint back together. Refit the circlips and give it a stroke from the grease gun - Note not all of them have grease nipples. Its a crap-shoot really as the joint doesnt open very far on the car so its not really possible to grease them in place as my grease gun nozzle is too large to fit into the joint.


Knock the new......I dunno what they are....into place. Allegedly to protect the bearing, IMO they do nothing.


Give is a squirt of anti-sieze paste or copper grease and knock the bearing into place on the shaft. Use a big socket or bit or pipe that hits the inner race and not the seal on the bearing else you will knacker it. If you dont have a suitable socket, then with care you can use a screwdriver or small drift on the inner race to knock them on. Repeat for the other side.

Fit a new bearing protector things to the propshaft and reassemble the prop. The splines shoule slide quite easily, refit the bolt and the U-shaped washer and tighten the bolt up.
The Haynes manual is full or dire warnings about marking the prop sections so they go back the same way - what is point? thats important on a balanced, solid prop, but the VCU allows the two ends to rotate in and out of synch as you drive so there is no need to worry about it.

Refit the lot to the car. If you are a weakling you can use a jack to lift the VCU or if you eat your greens and are a big strong boy like me, hold it up with one hand until you get a couple of the 13mm bolts in. DO NOT tighten the 4 bolts at this stage.
Refit the ends of the prop the the rear diff and the IRD. Note that you might have to turn the VCU slightly to get one end to line up. Bolt up the IRD end first, then shove a screwdriver through one of the joints and use that to turn the VCU until the holes line up for the rear diff. Note that they seem to be on a recangular pattern rather than square so there is only two ways it will go together.

Once the ends are done you need to align the bearing mounts. Make sure they are relaxed and not straining the rubbers and that the bolts are at even points in the slotted holes on either side of the mount, meaning the mount is aligned properly.


Clean up and go for a drive - nice and quiet!

So no vibration without the damper ?

No. My damper outer ring came loose about six months ago and I cut it off back then. I just removed the inner part today. It makes sod-all difference. Some VCUs are sold without a damper at all and the fluid inside it will dynamically balance the VCU if there were any imbalance issues anyway.

Nice 'How to' Dave. Well done.

+1

well done mate, i am very impressed, great job

Nice writeup, lets hope those Britpart pieces hold together for you. Surely they can make a UJ?

dave21478 said:

No. My damper outer ring came loose about six months ago and I cut it off back then. I just removed the inner part today. It makes sod-all difference. Some VCUs are sold without a damper at all and the fluid inside it will dynamically balance the VCU if there were any imbalance issues anyway.

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It's good to know

GrumpyGel said:

Nice writeup, lets hope those Britpart pieces hold together for you. Surely they can make a UJ?

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no they can't britpart are cr@p.

Nice write up and how to noted for reference thanks for sharing