Refitted the VCU and propshafts today :)

Right, I've had today off work, it wasn't supposed to be for landy firtling, but needs must

I've got the VCU bearings aligned and am now happy the front flange is nice and tight.

The rear diff mounts are deffo toast, I'll get theh wife to order some off eBay when she's back from her little jaunt.

I took the thing for a test drive and it's quite a lot better on vibes and noise, I'm leaning towards the tyres being a contributing factor as well, based on other folk's experience and comments on here, we'll know more about that by Tuesday as the wife has a set of pirelli STRM jobbies on order though Halfods (under £140 a corner )

The wife has promised me a crawl board for when I do the diff mounts, so if I can sort out some hipporamps (TM Hippo) it looks like I might be able to sort this without resort to our local LR dealer

If you have a trolley jack you could always jack it up onto a set of concrete blocks - be careful and it will be fine.

I really don't like using concrete, unless it's pukka stuff, I've seen breeze blocks collapse under the load of a car. The guy under it at the time got out, but only by moving rather quickly.

I put a couple of bits of 4 x 3 on top of the axles stands today, that gave me some decent wiggling room Add in the crawler board the wife has promised and it's going to be much easier to get in and out, just got to hope for dry weather now

I'm actually quite surprised at how easy these things are to work on, always plenty of space, not like other modern cars where you need fingers that are double jointed all the time

no need for any jigs or special alignment tools, the rubber on the vcu bearings take up misalignment, just get it looking straight by eye and the bearing rubbers not being pulled.

Where is the vcu from? what vibration damper is fitted to it, some of the cheap after market ones are so far out they are scrap and cause more vibration than if they werent on. What bearings are you using, some of the cheap ones rubber are too hard and cause horrible vibration. Some of the cheap chinese bearings are fubared when new and rumble from day one.

Also is the vcu warm at all after driving the car, if so it could be your tyres mismatched causing to heat up and become stiff. This is bad and will destroy the IRD and diff, so check it asap.

Also check front prop CV joint, if these are worn they cause a vibration at this speed.

ah just read another of your posts, we have spoke to you already

austen said:

ah just read another of your posts, we have spoke to you already

Click to expand...

You know where theh recon VCU is fromm then?

Cheers for the service sir.

The bearings appear to be OK, they were sold to me, along with the prop shafts, as havinng been replaced and they do feel nice and smooth. I know a bit about rubber (a speciality of my current employer) and the stuff on the VCU bearings is 'OKish', not overly hard anyway The bearings turn nice and smooth, I think they are GKN jobbies going on the part number.

The front prop shaft joint has been reconditioned as well, the guy I bought the bits from offered me the receipts, I'm now wishing I'd had them off him, didn't seem important at the time.

The tyres are a mismatch, but they'll be off and replaced with a full set of Pirelli Skorpions on Monday (the wife is taking your enclosed instructions as gospel ), after that I'll swap the diff mounts for new and then keep my fingers crossed that the only other jobs are routine services and fitting a tow bar

Hi TRX,

As far as I have found out GKN do not actually make the bearings themselves.

They assemble the prop-shaft mount and the rubber bit with a FAG bearing in the middle. My FAGs were made in their Slovakia factory.

I think also that too hard rubber would put stress on the bearing if ever so slightly mis-aligned.

I'm very happy after having replaced them last week - noise gone and now vibrationless too.

I intend visiting Austen in a month or so for a VCU check.

Singvogel.

Singvogel said:

Hi TRX,

As far as I have found out GKN do not actually make the bearings themselves.

They assemble the prop-shaft mount and the rubber bit with a FAG bearing in the middle. My FAGs were made in their Slovakia factory.

I think also that too hard rubber would put stress on the bearing if ever so slightly mis-aligned.

I'm very happy after having replaced them last week - noise gone and now vibrationless too.

I intend visiting Austen in a month or so for a VCU check.

Singvogel.

Click to expand...

When I got back under the car yesterdady the rear bearing was about 8mm out of square, the front about half that, loosened the bolts, tapped with a hammer and punch, now nicely in line according to the rule and set square That and tightening up two slightly loose fasteners on the prop flange seem to have helped quite a bit.

The actual bearings being FAG is a plus, over the years I've found those and the Japanese bearings to be very solid and reliable

I may be one of the few hoping for prolonged dry weather while I crawl around on the drive under the car

Well, the wife had the new tyres fitted today, no more judder, no more odd noise, brilliant

Just got to get used to the other, lesser, odd noises that we can now hear with the radio off