Lumpy drive

Hi all, 1998 defender 90 60K mileage. Started riding lumpy and it feels like front near side tyre out of shape. Worse when driving slowly. Feels a bit like the waltzer at the fairground. I’ve changed the wheel and the tyre is unused. MOT being done Friday when no doubt it will come to light. In the meantime any clues out there ? my learned Landy folk.

Any noises ?
Could bee a wheel bearing or a bearing in the swivel ?
CV joint too.

All of these should be obvious if you get that wheel off the ground and give it a good shuggle.

Another thing to check are the hardy-spicers on the prop shafts.
Again these can be tested by unwieghting the axle and giving them a good shake about.

swmeader said:

Hi all, 1998 defender 90 60K mileage. Started riding lumpy and it feels like front near side tyre out of shape. Worse when driving slowly. Feels a bit like the waltzer at the fairground. I’ve changed the wheel and the tyre is unused. MOT being done Friday when no doubt it will come to light. In the meantime any clues out there ? my learned Landy folk.

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Balance weights come off? Wheel rim distorted? Wheel not sat down fully on the drum before nuts done up?

What kind of wheels and tyres do you have? Some big knobbly tyres are pretty difficult to balance at all.

miktdish said:

Any noises ?
Could bee a wheel bearing or a bearing in the swivel ?
CV joint too.

All of these should be obvious if you get that wheel off the ground and give it a good shuggle.

Another thing to check are the hardy-spicers on the prop shafts.
Again these can be tested by unwieghting the axle and giving them a good shake about.

Click to expand...

Thanks for swift reply, I’ll Re Jack and see if anything wobbles

Accidentally in difflock - so worse when turning?

Or. Any trouble getting drive? (I had a bearing fail in the transfer box which felt exactly like that for a hundred miles, then it started jumping into transfer box neutral).

Turboman said:

Balance weights come off? Wheel rim distorted? Wheel not sat down fully on the drum before nuts done up?

What kind of wheels and tyres do you have? Some big knobbly tyres are pretty difficult to balance at all.

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Thanks for reply, I’ve changed the wheel and tyre and problem persists. Hopefully MOT will fail and it will come to light.

Thanks for the comments guys, it turned out to be a massive hole in a back tyre, probably caused by pot holes ! Other then that it passed the MOT

swmeader said:

Thanks for the comments guys, it turned out to be a massive hole in a back tyre, probably caused by pot holes ! Other then that it passed the MOT

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Pictures please. How can you have a large hole in the tyre with the tyre still being inflated?

dag019 said:

Pictures please. How can you have a large hole in the tyre with the tyre still being inflated?

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If there is a chunk of rubber missing, but it doesn't go through into the air chamber in the tyre, it will unbalance the tyre.

It is also quite possible for a tyre to go out of balance even if it has no visible damage or bulges. Just threw away a Hankook that looked perfect, and had lots of tread wear left. It was causing a thumping sound at low speed, and a judder in the steering at high speed, even though it was a rear tyre.

New Nexen instead, drives perfect.

dag019 said:

Pictures please. How can you have a large hole in the tyre with the tyre still being inflated?

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Hopefully you can see the details in the photo, can’t believe it stayed inflated with full pressure.

BF Goodrich ? Never wear out just rot away.

I can't believe you missed that when you looked at the wheels when you first noticed the lumpyness.

You should inspect your tyres frequently, imagine that on a hot day at 50mph halfway round a bend ...

miktdish said:

I can't believe you missed that when you looked at the wheels when you first noticed the lumpyness.

You should inspect your tyres frequently, imagine that on a hot day at 50mph halfway round a bend ...

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I was so convinced that it was the front near side area and it turned out to be the rear off side.