New rear halfshaft - now have awful grinding noise!

Shrubby69 · Feb 1, 2020

Hi fellow forum members. Hoping to pick your respective brains!
I’ve just changed the drive flanges all round on my 2000 TD5 90.
Front ones all good.
Rears are one-piece units with the half shaft. Off-side rear went on fine.
Near side rear - seemed to slot in ok. Tightened all bolts up (new) put the wheel back on. Gave it a spin - VERY tight.
Took it off the jack - rolled too and fro very gently - have an awful ‘tearing’ metallic noise.
Took it all apart again. Checked new vs old - identical. No apparent damage to splines on the halfshaft.
Refitted the new one again. Same noise.
Decided to put old one back in thinking maybe they were slightly different. But I still have the same noise.
Any idea what I might have done?

Hicap phill · Feb 1, 2020

Take the shaft out & spin the wheel.
If it still makes the noise it’s wheel bearings

Shrubby69 · Feb 1, 2020

Hicap phill said:
Take the shaft out & spin the wheel.
If it still makes the noise it’s wheel bearings

Could I have damaged the bearing somehow? Was fine before I started!

lynall · Feb 1, 2020

Shrubby69 said:
Could I have damaged the bearing somehow? Was fine before I started!

No but the semi floating halfshaft as you have can disguise wheel bearing play.

Shrubby69 · Feb 1, 2020

Right. Checked both rear wheels. Shafts out. Wheel bearings ok.
Then also swapped the off-side one for the original one. Both sides are now back on original ones now. The noise has gone.
Properly confused now. I double checked originals vs new. There is one minor difference - the splines on the new ones are slightly longer than the old ones. If they were shorter - I could see that possibly meaning they might not fully seat - but I can’t think of any obvious problem having longer splines? Anyway - part numbers match so I’m sure they are fine.
The only thing I did differently this time is that I had both rear wheels off the ground at the same time. The first time I fitted them I did a side at a time and only had one wheel off the ground on stands. Could that have somehow put tension in the diff (although you could do they every time you changed a wheel though so I can’t see that either?)

Anyway - it’s drivable now. I’ll have another go next weekend!

lynall · Feb 1, 2020

Shrubby69 said:
Right. Checked both rear wheels. Shafts out. Wheel bearings ok.
Then also swapped the off-side one for the original one. Both sides are now back on original ones now. The noise has gone.
Properly confused now. I double checked originals vs new. There is one minor difference - the splines on the new ones are slightly longer than the old ones. If they were shorter - I could see that possibly meaning they might not fully seat - but I can’t think of any obvious problem having longer splines? Anyway - part numbers match so I’m sure they are fine.
The only thing I did differently this time is that I had both rear wheels off the ground at the same time. The first time I fitted them I did a side at a time and only had one wheel off the ground on stands. Could that have somehow put tension in the diff (although you could do they every time you changed a wheel though so I can’t see that either?)

Anyway - it’s drivable now. I’ll have another go next weekend!

Doube check the lenth of the shaft inner face to the end of the splines, I wonder if to long by a knats cock and pushing something out in the diff?

Shrubby69 · Feb 1, 2020

Thanks Lynall. I’ll do that. I’ll have them both out again.
If that is a problem - just grind the required amount off the end?

lynall · Feb 1, 2020

Shrubby69 said:
Thanks Lynall. I’ll do that. I’ll have them both out again.
If that is a problem - just grind the required amount off the end?

That would be my fix, but then I am bit of a billy bodger, but it you think about it, the grinding it shorter cannot do any harm.
Did the halfshaft push fully home by hand, or did you havre to pull it in the last few millimetres?

Brown · Feb 1, 2020

Yes, that would be my guess. Maybe the end of the half shaft is fouling something in the diff. One way of testing it would be to bolt it in temporarily witha few washers between the flange and the hub to space it out a bit. If all is well like hat, maybe grind the half shaft down a bit.

Shrubby69 · Feb 1, 2020

lynall said:
That would be my fix, but then I am bit of a billy bodger, but it you think about it, the grinding it shorter cannot do any harm.
Did the halfshaft push fully home by hand, or did you havre to pull it in the last few millimetres?

It went in ok by hand. Seemed to slot in all the way without any force required. However I could definitely see it tighten down as the bolts were tightened.

lynall · Feb 1, 2020

Shrubby69 said:
It went in ok by hand. Seemed to slot in all the way without any force required. However I could definitely see it tighten down as the bolts were tightened.

Does sound like its to long by a few mm.

mick the builder · Feb 1, 2020

Flange gasket on? Were the flanges ome. Just wonder whether it's the flange or drive shaft.

lynall · Feb 2, 2020

mick the builder said:
Flange gasket on? Were the flanges ome. Just wonder whether it's the flange or drive shaft.

From his description, he has the one piece rear shafts?

Shrubby69 · Feb 3, 2020

mick the builder said:
Flange gasket on? Were the flanges ome. Just wonder whether it's the flange or drive shaft.

Yep. New flange gasket is fitted. Funnily there was no gasket fitted on the rears when I removed the old ones. Neither side had leaked at all though. One piece flange and half-shafts on the rear.

mick the builder · Feb 3, 2020

Shrubby69 said:
Yep. New flange gasket is fitted. Funnily there was no gasket fitted on the rears when I removed the old ones. Neither side had leaked at all though. One piece flange and half-shafts on the rear.

I wonder if fitting an extra one would a, fix the problem or b, cause another? Rather than grinding a bit off and maybe ruining it.

lightning · Feb 4, 2020

Maybe that’s why LR didn’t fit one piece drive shafts as standard.
The separate drive members allow for a small amount of movement.

Shrubby69 · Feb 4, 2020

lightning said:
Maybe that’s why LR didn’t fit one piece drive shafts as standard.
The separate drive members allow for a small amount of movement.

I'm prepared for some very minor surgery with my grinder at the weekend. And it should only be very minor - the new ones really do look the same as the old ones by eye - but I'll do some careful measurement this weekend and I'll let you all know what the outcome is. I'm a dab hand at doing them now anyway! Just need to get some more gaskets.
New ones are Bearmach - so should be decent quality.
Thanks for all the advice.

lynall · Feb 5, 2020

lightning said:
Maybe that’s why LR didn’t fit one piece drive shafts as standard.
The separate drive members allow for a small amount of movement.

i thought one piece rear 1/2 shafts were std, especially on the 90 models?

tottot · Feb 5, 2020

Mine is two part, I recon the one piece became more common with the 300tdi.

Shrubby69 · Feb 5, 2020

tottot said:
Mine is two part, I recon the one piece became more common with the 300tdi.

I think all the TD5's are one piece. 2 piece again from Puma I think.

New rear halfshaft - now have awful grinding noise!

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