strange but dangerous drivetrain problem HELP

hi there,a couple of you may remember the thread of my disco gettin g swamped at tong,its now alive 3wks ago it was given a new 200 tdi unit ,a new r380 box ad tbox,and last week a front diff,yday i was out and it made an almighty bang as if something locked up like the front prop sudenly been stoped imediatly clutch down ,slowley let the clutch back up back to normal as if nothing had happend,this hapend sevaral times yday,and i dont think its a w/b as there was no screach like u get when a wheel locks up,the only way to discribe it is imagine a riding a push bike and some 1 sticking a stick inbetwen your spokes ,any ideas would be aprecited

Do you get a bang each time or only the 1st time?

u get a bang a judder and it feels like the cars been held back when it appens bud

Iv just had a very similar thing happen, look at your front and rear diff pans for either a hole, split or a bit of a dent out the way, basically the centre pin which holds the "spider gears" in place is only held by 2 circlips, if these fail the pin slides out and hits/shears off against the outside of the case, its a ticking time bomb. I tried to drive mine home and the rear diff exploded completely tearing the diff pan apart. Ill upload a picture. But any outward dents is an early sign of it happening.

Cheers mark.

It could well be as simple as a wheel bearing jack up each wheel inturn and check your bearings. it could also be a CV on its way or a final 1 which was what happened to me was the center diff got damaged and became permantly locked and then every so often a very loud bang and the car trying to stop its self just as you discribe due to transmission windup so make sure ya center diff is working as it should

The first sign of it bei g the diff was a very small dent out the way at the bottom of the tear in this picture, it then punched a hole and driving home self destructed resulting in this.

You can see bits of the round dowel pin which holds the gears in place in this picture.

And this shows where the pin would sit


I'm not saying its definitely this but it sounds like identical symptoms. Like I say an outward dent is your first sign and easy to check for without having to jack up etc.

Cheers.

Now this is why I absolutely love this forum!!! The information is priceless! !! Thanks for uploading those pictures mark!!!

wow there was a bad w/b thats been changed this aft but ill defo have a look at the diff pans,that looks pretty bluddy brutal

Iv just built my own diff pan today, going to put up a quick write up. The first picture shows the initial puncture point where the pin hit, it started as a crack then punched a perfectly round hole out which you can see in the picture. Then driving home is when it got destroyed.

Also my dad had the same circlip failing on his but we swapped the diff before it damaged his casing so its well worth the time to investigate it properly otherwise you could be replacing axles.

Cheers mark