Defender 300tdi died

so, my defender packed in, on the motorway!

Driving at 55, seemed to notice a clunk so let off an accelerated again... nothing.
Pulled intolerant the hard shoulder. Tried diff lock etc no movement. Clutch pedal seems fine, and gear stick seems to select a gear but as I release the clutch there is just grinding... she feels like she's trying to move but in vain.

Recovered back home. Don't know what to do next, just extending the house at the moment and her indoors is about to drop.

Any suggestions, much appreciated! OT.

OneTon said:

so, my defender packed in, on the motorway!

Driving at 55, seemed to notice a clunk so let off an accelerated again... nothing.
Pulled intolerant the hard shoulder. Tried diff lock etc no movement. Clutch pedal seems fine, and gear stick seems to select a gear but as I release the clutch there is just grinding... she feels like she's trying to move but in vain.

Recovered back home. Don't know what to do next, just extending the house at the moment and her indoors is about to drop.

Any suggestions, much appreciated! OT.

Click to expand...

could be clutch center to g /box total failure through to a cv or half shaft and inopperative diff lock

Hi James, thanks for your reply, any sugggestions as how I can diagnose it further?

OneTon said:

Hi James, thanks for your reply, any sugggestions as how I can diagnose it further?

Click to expand...

do any props spin whilst its running in gear , draining some oil out of g/box and then t/box looking for debris/contamination

Will drop the oil in the morning, this is all I get at the moment.

OneTon said:

Will drop the oil in the morning, this is all I get at the moment.

Click to expand...

sounds like it could well be the g/box, oil should tell

Will report back...

The investigation continues, dropped the oil this morning, no chunks, nothing of interest. The drain plug was minging but they all seem to be.

There's a lot of oil underneath, more than normal.

When I put the transfer box into neutral, there's no noise, only when I put it back into high range. Video here to explain more. With squeaky clutch.

And a close up video of the 'noise' from inside the cab.

its most likely the g/box in my opinion in t/box neutral g box can spin easily but in hi the t/box cant turn without moving the wheels meaning the gears then slip past each other hence noise, you could remove t/box sump plate and verify t/boxes condition

Sounds like thebox is not engaging at all, although somewhere near.
Have you tried going in and out of diff lock a few times, followed by in and out of high/low ranges a couple of times to see if that 'cures' it?
Years ago I had a similar thing happen to me, and was so embarrassed when the mechanic drove amost 50- miles to me, waggled the levers abouut a couple of times and said that that was all that was needed!
Another thing to look at is to lift and drop the diff-lock lever a few times, as if that's not engaging, you will never get a drive.
Guess who that's happened to?

OneTon said:

View attachment 123666 View attachment 123667 View attachment 123668 The investigation continues, dropped the oil this morning, no chunks, nothing of interest. The drain plug was minging but they all seem to be.

There's a lot of oil underneath, more than normal.

When I put the transfer box into neutral, there's no noise, only when I put it back into high range. Video here to explain more. With squeaky clutch.

And a close up video of the 'noise' from inside the cab.

Click to expand...

try it in 4th

check the easy things first - I had that noise last week - twas the drive flanges on the rear - props turned but no drive as the drive shaft spun in the flange.

rubber cap off, 5 bolts undone and check for free play. you'll leak a bit of oil but not masses.

while mine was immobile, I couldn't get diff lock to engage.

Steveo, thanks for your reply. Do you have any pics of where I should be looking? - I am a bit crap with all this.

Have a look at this thread here - my tale of woe sounds very similar to yours.
Rear axle pictured here, undo the 5 allen bolts (you might have standard bolts) and check for rotational play. If you want, you can just pull the entire driveshaft out

If you take the rubber cap off and release the circlip, the flange will then just pull off the shaft. check out the pics on the other thread for before and after shots so you can estimate the wear. I replaced both flanges and shafts for £150, although flanges are cheap if you just need to get moving again.

I've never even seen them before. The alloys hide all that. Will jack it up and whip a wheel off tomorrow.