Serious rattles and vibration. Help

I seem to have some really bad rattling and vibration on my Landy at speeds between 30 -45mph. Everything starts to vibrate and resonate like mad! I had a look at the weekend and realised that the bottom of the door pillar has come away (rusted) from the main chassis. I also noticed that there was some play in the suspension damper mounting points when you try to move them from side to side. However I think there is something else which must be causing such excessive vibration and rattling. Any ideas?

It also clunks sometimes when you pull away or change gear.

Dark_Rocco

Propshaft UJs'.

I have a similar problem at 25-30mph! I've been looking into the brakes binding as my ma's disco had a similar problem that a garage sorted by fixing the breaks. I was thinking it could be a shot bearing but i've not looked into it yet.

Does it only occur when your accelarating or all the time at those speeds?

doobie said:

Does it only occur when your accelarating or all the time at those speeds?

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It occurs all the time at those sort of speeds. Also it vibrates a reasonable amount just in normal use, but I thought that was a land rover thing!

Definately sounds like Uj's to me, does it vibrate more when you come off the gas?? like when you roll down a big hill?

GRUNT said:

Propshaft UJs'.

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Would the UJ's be enough to cause such extreme vibration then? Are they easy to check and change over? (I'm fairly new to series landy's)

Thanks

Sidz said:

Definately sounds like Uj's to me, does it vibrate more when you come off the gas?? like when you roll down a big hill?

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Yes, it does now I come to think of it. It seems pretty bad at those speeds but then when you let off the gas to slow down it does get worse!!

UJs are not difficult to rebuild, BUT it is a job that you should see someone doing, before you DIY!

It is tricky, and care needs to be taken, while using a fair bit of force in a big vice.

Stick a blob of Rocol MT-LM grease in each UJ cup as you fit them. The UJ will last twice as long if you do.

CharlesY

Easy to check just waggle the propshafts up and down, release the handbrake for the rear one, if there's play then it's probably the Ujs' They can be a bit .............erm..............Tricky, but not difficult if you see what I mean.......If your in any doubt then price up new propshafts they'll probably be cheaper than paying for someone to fit new Ujs'.

I will add to the UJ chorus. One way to tell if it is drive chain related. Stick the car in neutral on a gentle hill and let it roll. If the noise starts as a slow bump-bump-bump and gets louder and faster as you accelorate it is almost certainly down wind of the clutch and drive chain. UJ's have a characteristic bum feel, they are pretty solid and you almost feel them vibrate through yer backside.

When a UJ fails catastrophically it's one of the few truly devastating failures the series get. The drive shaft flails with one end free and demolishes anything in it's path... Undo the 4 bolts where it joins the diff, you will need to jack one wheel up. Then see if you can flex the shaft in all directions. If not, S' gubbed guv. If there is slap and tickle in the shaft, then yer gubbed too... If all ok, spin the wheels and check the diff for good measure. Failing that it's gonna get painful...

UJ replacement need not be expensive. I run a hydraulic workshop, but we also do a lot of ag, being in a farming region, and uqite regularly do UJ's on Series vehicles. A pair of crosses cost $32.80AUD and approx 1 hours labour to fit, - just over $100AUD or approx 38 quid I believe.

paddocks do replacement uj kit for about a fiver I think. A new prop was about £45, I have a noisy uj and will probably just change the prop and fit new prop bolts.

Thanks for all your replies so far.

I started work on it tonight and the first thing I discovered was that the prop shaft on one end was only held on by two bolts. One of those didn't have a nut as it must have sheared off!!

I checked each of the joints and there is play in a couple of them so the plan is to replace them with some new UJ's. Is it likely the yoke parts on the flanges which fix to each end are worn also?? I started taking the joints apart tonight so will go looking for new parts tomorrow.

Thanks

Dark_Rocco

Is it likely the yoke parts on the flanges which fix to each end are worn also??

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Not unless the joint has been left for ages if theres only a bit of play they should be OK.

are ur exhaust mounts up to scratch??? maybe the exhaust is banging against the axle or something!??

if you only had one bolt wiffa nut on it, ad check that the holes int elongated

Mind and use Nylocks on a propshaft! Don't want the beggars coming undone!

just had a look at my rear prop while my landy was in the shed in bits and found the rear uj is knackered! what a bummer, especially after all the fannyin about i've done wi my brakes!