The front half shaft busted regular thread - it's my turn!

[The stoker]

Following an in situ engine rebuild in late 2009, all oil changed, chassis welded up and electronic ignition, I’ve had 13 months of trouble free ‘roving. She even passed MOT last month first time round, with only an advisory for a cracked tyre.

My smugness toward Mrs Stoker’s modern car which needed £300 of work for an MOT also last month seems to have initiated some kind of fate based incident.

Whilst out and about ‘roving on a farm track, I took her out of low range and back into high, but as soon as we turned back onto the tarmac road, bang! Seriously horrible banging noise from front axle.

So, following a ride on an AA lorry, it looks like it’s probably one of the front half shafts.

Any advice on this job and if I need any special tools.

 

[oxides]

Resign yourself to taking the diff out. If you can work out which driveshaft is broke then strip down the swivel on that side. If the break is inside the swivel, pull out the shaft and replace, clean all the bits up and rebuild. Job done, diff stays in. The break is probably at the diff end of the shaft, though. Pull both shafts out (you can save yourself some effort by taking off the whole swivel at the axle joint on the good side, disconnect brake line and steering arm first) pop out the diff, remove the broken stub, clean out all the bits from the diff and case, reassemble.
The new shaft will have to be checked for clearance in the swivel - there's a description in the manual. http://www.landroverweb.com/landrover/pdf-land-rover-manuals/

 

[jamesmartin]

its worth checking that the shafts can move freely in output housing on t/box as shafts pivot on each other and may not of released 4wd ,usualy shortest half shaft is first to break as the longer the shaft the more springy it is