Freelander 1.8 loss of front wheel drive

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Is my gearbox faulty?

  • Gearbox not at fault

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Tibimatt

Member
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13
Location
Switzerland
Dear all

I recently aquired a 1999 freelander 1.8 (non driving) as project, the seller seemed to think that the clutch had failed.

After getting it home and a little trouble shooting at the weekend we discovered the following.

1. The car drives but only at the rear wheels, this was confirmed by disconnecting the rear drive shaft, no drive at the front.
2. The gearbox and clutch seem to work fine, the gears all select without issue and no nasty noises, very quiet and smooth actually.
3. We then drain the IRD and gearbox to see what came out and the condition of the oil, actually nothing metallic came out and the oil was brown but not contaminated at all.
4. We then removed the fron LH drive shaft and this is when it got interesting, we could see the output shaft from the IDR was turning in the gearbox however and female spline to drive the LH drive shaft not. We also dicovered the spline moved freely and seemed not to be independent from the IRD spline.

Based on this my conclusion is, that the IDR is recieiving the drive from the gearbox and in turn outputing this drive correctly however the gearbox is failing to transmit the drive from the IRD to reach the left drive shaft.

Now, as I am no expert at this and before tearing out the gearbox can anyone help me with this fault, am I on the right track or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Can anyone add any light here, is the gearbox faulty?
 
I think one of the splines has worn down. This will cause loss of drive to the front wheels as the differential inside the IRD will waste the power towards the wheel with the spline connection damage.
 
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Some tests to check connectivity of yer transmission:

Hippo said:
With the engine oft, chock the rear wheels and put the handbrake on, disconnect the front prop from the IRD and:

With the auto in park (in gear for manuals) lift 1 front wheel and it won't turn. The IRD pinion won't turn when you turn the lifted front wheel. If you put the auto into neutral (neutral on manuals too) the lifted front wheel will now turn and so will the pinion if you turn the lifted front wheel.

If you put the lifted front wheel on the ground and lift the other front wheel the same will happen as above.

If you lift both front wheels and turn 1 the other will turn regardless of the auto being in neutral or park (neutral or in gear for manuals) in the opposite direction. The only difference is the pinion gear will turn if the gearbox is in neutral (doesn't matter if auto or manual). If you sharply turn or quickly slow down the wheel yer turning the pinion will turn more than the wheel yer turning. I assume it's due to the path of least resistance as the power escapes.

If lifting both front and rear wheels on the same side of the Freelander, with the prop/vcu connected, and the engine oft and the auto in park (in gear for manuals) the front wheel won't turn when you turn the rear wheel (assuming the vcu and rear diff work correctly as they should). The rear lifted wheel will only turn slightly which is down to the internal opposition of the vcu. If you do the same test with the auto in neutral (neutral for manuals too) the front wheel will turn in the same direction as the rear wheel.

Note: when I say won't turn, it will turn but only approx 1 inch circumference or a few degrees, as opposed to turning round fully. This is the movement between the gear teeth only.
 
Hippo, your internal IRD page was very informative thanks. What I am missing is how the gearbox bridges the gap between the IRD output shaft and the left drive shaft. Do you have something to explain that?

As for your statement about the worn drive shaft splines (i am assuming you mean the IRD LH output), thats a definate maybe, I will need to look again into the LH drive shaft gear box connection however from what i observed this afternoon it did`nt look damaged at. I have yet to remove the RH side.

Check out this video link, this is what we saw this afternoon.

 
If the prop shaft into the ird is stationary and yer lift both front wheels... Turn one wheel and the other will turn int opposite direction.
 
Hippo, your internal IRD page was very informative thanks. What I am missing is how the gearbox bridges the gap between the IRD output shaft and the left drive shaft. Do you have something to explain that?
...
Not sure of the question. The gearbox drives the outer shaft by the left wheel. This then supplies drive into the ird. The drive out of the ird to the front left wheel is down a separate smaller shaft int side the shaft I just mentioned.
 
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Yes this is clear, to explain the situation when we made this video the front of the car was jacked up, both front wheels removed, the LH drive shaft was removed. I was rotating the brake disc of the RH wheel and my son was observing and filming the LH side with the drive shaft missing. From the video you can see the drive output of the IRD rotating in the gearbox, my son was able to stop the rotation of the spline but not the output of the IRD.
Based on this info i am thinking that the LH spline shaft of the IRD is most probably worn and slipping however one thing that doesnt support that is the lack of debris in the oil of the drive, it looks clean.

My question is, how does the LH output of the IRD drive through the gearbox, is there solid spline tube linking the IRD output shaft to the drive shaft or is it more complicated than that
 
Yes a solid tube down the middle. The metal bar in the top right of the pic below. It's the output from the diff, within the ird, to drive the lhs front wheel

yRqKIPP.jpg

DSCN4855 yRqKIPP

wG0LA8s.jpg

DSCN4868 wG0LA8s
 
Update, IRD is out and I can confirm that the gearbox spline is stripped and the IRD is fine. I will replace the gear box and change the bearings/seals in the IRD.

Many thanks for your help
 
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