Freelander 1 rear drive shaft circlips

Good morning all,

I re-fitted the diff and rear drive shafts to my freelander yesterday as they were removed by the previous owner. I'll be doing the rear propshaft this morning.

When I was thinking about how easy it actually went I did a check on the procedure I'd carried out... All seems to be in line, no issues as I can see expect one thing. When I slid the drive shaft spines into either side of the diff casing they went straight in. As in, no clunk or anything like that. Just strange in with little resistance. Now I I think about it, I don't recall seeing circlips in the ends of the splines. I know they're not there as I looked at the groove and thought "hmmmm, must be and oil groove perhaps" and carried on to finish the job.

My question(s) are thus...

What do the circlips do and, can I get away with not stripping it down and putting new ones in?

As a note, I do very, very few miles in my freelander. It takes me too and from a shoot which has some particularly steep, muddy and rocky tracks on it. To rough for my passats under tray to handle, as I've found our to my detriment.

Cheers,

Ian.

A good question - the circlips are to prevent the drive shaft from popping out in extreme situations. They are inexpensive but it is a fag having to dismantle the wheel hubs again. There is a way to get them out of the diff' as I had to do that when I replaced my diff side seals. Give the area a through clean first so as no dirt / grit... will get into the diff. Jack up rear end and support. disconnect leading and trailing arms and the strut. You can them pull the hub assembly and shaft out of the diff. Pop on a new circlip... Oh - you may want to replace the diff oil and side seals at the same time. I found that a short section of 65mm metal down pipe was a good size to use a drift to drive the seal into place.

Thanks for the reply her.... I thought that was the case. I assume "extreme circumstances" would mean having the suspension possibly fully extended with a wheel off the ground or some other such type of equally extreme manoeuvre?
From what I've read this morning, I think I'm going to leave it for a while and will tackle it the next time I need to do some work on the back end.
Now off to pop the rear prop shaft back into place and I "should" have a fully functioning little 4x4.

Cheers!

Ian.

I was under the impression that if there were no drive shafts in place - the wheels would fall off. Did it have 'stub' shafts in the hubs?

Are you saying that when you got the car, the complete back axle had been removed (ie diffs & drive shafts) plus the rear portion of the prop shaft - but the IRD was complete together with front prop shaft and VCU?

If that's the case, why was the rear axle removed?

I think it unlikely you will have a usable Freelander having put it back together.

The rear stub shafts had been left in place but the rear drive shafts, diff and rear prop shaft had been removed.
The IRD and VCU are in place. I may change out the VCU at some point when I get time.

I finished rebuilding it today and took it for a nice long test drive. The only issue I've picked up is what feels and sounds like a knackered diff mount.

I don't know much about freelanders but I can't fathom why not having the rear stub shafts in place would make the wheels fall off? It's a spline which feeds through the centre of the hub assembly held in place with a 32mm nut.

You should do the "1 wheel up test" to see what condition the VCU is in. If its past its sell by date, it will not only put undue stress on the diff mounts - but the diff and IRD. It WILL destroy them if its not in decent condition.



As its been running 2WD - there's also not been a need to maintain 4 exactly matching (make/model/pressure) tyres. So make sure they are because if they're not, that WILL also destroy the transmission. If changed in pairs, newer ones on the rear.

I was going to do the vcu test this week. Tyres are all identical as I swapped them not long after buying the car.

When I took it for a test drive I tried reversing in tight circles and couldn't feel it holding back.

Cheers,

Ian.

ianmg said:

IWhen I took it for a test drive I tried reversing in tight circles and couldn't feel it holding back.

Click to expand...

It was 2WD then.

Sorry - presumably you mean after you put the transmission bit back together.

Yes, after I'd put all the bits in and made it 4wd again.

ianmg said:

Yes, after I'd put all the bits in and made it 4wd again.

Click to expand...

Definitely do the OWUT asap. The rear diff was removed for a reason. Normally it's because it was broken. This is caused by the VCU going into lock (known as hump mode) early. This action will destroy the transmission very quickly.

The front and rear bearings are a push fit onto the hubs and hub carrier. The drive shaft outer spline and nut are there to ensure that the hubs can't pull out on there own. This system of retaining the hub common on most cars today

yip, will do it probably tomorrow night or maybe Thursday when I get time. It's not being driven so isn't urgent.

I've ordered some diff mounts too so will likely fit those over next weekend.

So I've done the one wheel up test and all looks fine to me.

I've ordered a full set of diff mounts so will get them swapped over at the weekend. That should be all sorted then.... I hope!

Also picked up an egr blanking kit so will do that at the same time as a the diff more mounts.

Cheers,

Ian.

ianmg said:

So I've done the one wheel up test and all looks fine to me.

I've ordered a full set of diff mounts so will get them swapped over at the weekend. That should be all sorted then.... I hope!

Also picked up an egr blanking kit so will do that at the same time as a the diff more mounts.

Cheers,

Ian.

Click to expand...

It's usually just the front mount that fails, I replaced all three on my wifes car but not sure it was necessary and was a lot of extra work. Did you time the one wheel up test?

Yes, as it says above... owut was fine.

I changed all three. The front one was knackered but it only took 30 mins ish to do all three and cheap as chips for the mounts so did them all while the car was up in the air

ianmg said:

Yes, as it says above... owut was fine.

I changed all three. The front one was knackered but it only took 30 mins ish to do all three and cheap as chips for the mounts so did them all while the car was up in the air

Click to expand...

You're a tease. Go on then I'll ask. What was the time?

Even better, bung a post up on here...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/vcu-torque-test-results.109486/

The thread gets hijacked regularly - but there are lots of results on there - and the more the merrier.