Freelander 1 commercial diff mounts

Hi, this is my first post, I have what might be a difficult question. Just bought a Freelander commercial van, really like it. Replaced the VCU as a matter of rote as I didnt know its history. The rear diff bangs around a lot, centre mount is new rear mounts look OK except there is about 1" clearance between the rubber buffers and the cross-member. looking on You-tube and google images would appear that the rubber buffers should be in close contact. Dont know if its standard on all vans, but mine appears to be on stilts, seems to be about 2" higher than normal. Is it possible I need rear diff mounts with bigger buffers on them? Have wedged 1" thick high density foam packing in the gap and all seems well.

Can we have a pic?
welcome to the forum

Not sure of what you want a pic, the diff mount or car. Attached is the car, I can do a pic of the mount but all it will show is a gap of about 25-30mm between the rubber donut and the crossmember. Attached is a pic of the same area off a youtube video showing a gap of about 5-6mm

A pic of the gap. Struggling to visualise where the gap is.
The FL1 lift pushes the body work up, so the diff and it's mounts move up at the same time as it's running independent suspension. The diff mount will be the same as normal.

The top of the diff mount shown ( the rubber weight) isn't in contact with anything.

Not sure how the gap would vary between the diff mount and the body

Thanks for looking, I will annotate the pic, see if I can make it clearer

The gap don't look much different to my pic's over ere:

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/rear-diff-mount-replacement-how-to-guide.101774/

td4van said:

The top of the diff mount shown ( the rubber weight) isn't in contact with anything.

Not sure how the gap would vary between the diff mount and the body

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I had assumed the rubber cylinder is a bump stop, there is clear evidence of it contacting the crossmember. The bump stop is attached to the aluminium skeletal frame of the rear diff mount which is bolted to the diff. The centre of the mounting bush is bolted to the bodywork, hence if you get hold of the diff and forcefully move it about you can move the bump stop in relation to the crossmember, with a small gap I would assume that is quite easy to make it hit the crossmember, on mine the gap is 25-30mm and takes some force to shift that far, but means that there is (I believe) too much allowable float.

Thanks, good photos. Your gap looks closer to mine, maybe I am chasing a red herring. Is the point of the rubber cylinder to act as a bump stop? If so then surely it makes a noise when hitting the crossmember. On mine that thump is quite audiable esp when changing direction. I had hoped that I had no transmission mechanical faults (i get no whines or grinding noises) but I do get the loud bodywork thump. Is it possible I have a fault that causes the diff to torque rotate more than it should?

I can't remember seeing a mark where mine has bumped the top rail. Not sure if it ever has in normal road driving. It's normally the mount at the front that fails. Wiggle the front of the diff up/down to see.

OK I will have a closer look at that tomorrow, however the front mount is new (less than 1000miles) fitted by the previous owner. If it is at fault it failed pretty quickly. I appreciate your time to help.
By the way it was reading your posts regarding VCUs (before I bought the van) that made me decide to change it as soon as I bought it, for that I also thank you!

Stubill said:

OK I will have a closer look at that tomorrow, however the front mount is new (less than 1000miles) fitted by the previous owner. If it is at fault it failed pretty quickly. I appreciate your time to help.
By the way it was reading your posts regarding VCUs (before I bought the van) that made me decide to change it as soon as I bought it, for that I also thank you!

Click to expand...

The new bush needs checking for rubber failures. The lump on the top isn't a bump stop, although if the bush isn't holding the diff correctly, it can strike the body. The rubber lump is actually a mass damper. These are often fitted to various places on a vehicle to help cancel out harmonic vibrations. The freelander has several mass dampers You say it's had a new VCU. Where did you get it? Was it new or a refurbished unit?

Nodge68 said:

The new bush needs checking for rubber failures. The lump on the top isn't a bump stop, although if the bush isn't holding the diff correctly, it can strike the body. The rubber lump is actually a mass damper. These are often fitted to various places on a vehicle to help cancel out harmonic vibrations. The freelander has several mass dampers You say it's had a new VCU. Where did you get it? Was it new or a refurbished unit?

Click to expand...

Thanks very much for your input VCU was a new one (Brit part? or something similar) from a local LR specialist. Not looked at centre mount yet, will do when rain (and Wife) stop.

Fit a quality front mounting, the cheap ones do not last!!

Ok to finish this one off. After much ado problem solved, it was the cracked subframe issue causing the banging noises . Dropped the rear suspension assembly and took a can opener to the rear internal floor, repaired cracks then plated the whole area inside and out. Now perfect.