Disco vibration.

Between 60 and 70 mph - varying by road surface - concrete worse than tarmac.
I know there have been other threads and lots of suggested solutions to this problem but if you could indulge me here and offer some suggestions to cure this I would be eternally grateful.
So far 2 independent Land Rover repairers have had a go.
Wheels have been balanced more than once.
Steering damper renewed along with front shockers
Prop cv joints checked out and pronounced OK.
Car flew through its MOT no reported issues.
Reparier did a visual of all the 'usual' things or so he said and could not find anything obvious. Now wants to lock the diff and drive the car with one of the props. disconnected to determine if front or rear is the problem.
Only trouble is diff lock seized and WD40 not working!
HELP!

johna said:

Between 60 and 70 mph - varying by road surface - concrete worse than tarmac.
I know there have been other threads and lots of suggested solutions to this problem but if you could indulge me here and offer some suggestions to cure this I would be eternally grateful.
So far 2 independent Land Rover repairers have had a go.
Wheels have been balanced more than once.
Steering damper renewed along with front shockers
Prop cv joints checked out and pronounced OK.
Car flew through its MOT no reported issues.
Reparier did a visual of all the 'usual' things or so he said and could not find anything obvious. Now wants to lock the diff and drive the car with one of the props. disconnected to determine if front or rear is the problem.
Only trouble is diff lock seized and WD40 not working!
HELP!

Click to expand...

Can't help with the vibration (have just cured some internal vibration issues on mine; what a PITA!) but your difflock may be seized. It is fairly common when it is rarely used.
Take the center console out and you'll see a plate in the tunnel. Drill out the rivets and take the plate off you'll gain access to the top of the gearbox. The difflock lever slides in and out of the housing (you'll see it when its disassembled). The sliding plate siezes as the steel shaft corrodes to the aluminium housing. You'll need to remove the transfer lever and housing as one unit then free it off in a vice with a load of wd40 and a hammer.

Is it heavy vibration, can you feel it through the chassis/tyres, or is it just something that is an annoyance?

Thanks for the info - hopefully it doesn't come to that.
By the way it is a heavy vibration/steering shake on some surfaces.

johna,
Check the rear prop shaft nuts and bolts are tight and that there are no cracks in the rear axle rubber joint to the diff. Any cracks in the rubber will give you vibration, change it, but REMEMBER use "loc-tight" -the blue nut thread sealer or you'll be back to square one in a few thousand miles.

hope it helps

Birty1

hey johna,

i've had exactly the same issue recently, i was told many of the same things as you (by so called specialists ) basically all their remedys (suprisingly) were the most expensive. i took it away put it up on axle stands and then tested everything out, it turned out that both the front wheel bearings were just started to wear (if you try and shake the wheel and there is even a slight vibration then the bearings are worn, even the slightest wobble becomes a million times worse at 60mph). i replaced the bearings on the NS wheel (which takes the initial steer to completely remove shake to the steering wheel) and then in the OS front I just removed one of the smallest SHIMS (0.003 i think????) on the top swivel pin... this curred it.

you should check the torque on both wheels is correct after you've done this.

although if you just want to remove the shudder it will be much much quicker (but not as long lasting) just to remove a shim or two from both wheels (trial and error)

depending on how recently the swivels have been opened up this job could take 2 hours... or if you haven't had them off in a while it may take a lot longer (I spent over 6 hours taking off both the front swivels and 20 minutes doing the change).

hope this helps?

johna

If your problem persists have look at your front wheel alignment as well as your steering damper. If the alignment is out and the damper is worn you will experiance severe vibration, if not shaking, of the steering every time you hit some bumps or uneven parts on the road. This is caused by the two weels "steering" into or out of eachother. I had these same simptoms on several of my Landys, ie 109 and 95 disco

Hope this might help

I have got the same problem, i have had the steering damper replaced, the wheels aligned and balanced, bushes replaced on the panhard rod and radius arms, the next things to try are the balancing of the prop shafts and the pre-load on the steering. MOT due on wednesday, hopefully it will still pass with this problem.

Hey Buzzcox, the preload on the steering does make a difference (I'm guessing your bearings are good) the power steering unit on discos (well all landies of the age) is very soft naturally, so mixing that with bad bearings etc makes a hell of a shake.

Have not checked the bearings, will add that to the list. lol.