I think my 50p bets pretty safe, that's what I think!
Front off side CV joint gone pop, by the sound of it....
Lets not worry about the main-box not shifting gears for the moment; suspect you weren't 'vigerouse' enough in the test.... (you may have to 'rev the nuts off it' to find each of the shift points......) becouse it did manage to turn the props so there was drive going through it, and all workd fine with the X-fer and hand brake test, so sounds 'OK'.
As does rear axle....
So we've eliminated variables and can be pretty confident that the problem lies in the front axle......... most likely the Front Off-side CV Joint.
Next question, what to do about it?
......
Right now, nothing.
BTW who am I talking to, 88RR or 88RR'Junior' owner of the car?
Cos the next bit of head scratching is a matter of eccomomics and logistics rather than plain mechanics.
At this point we KNOW that something in the front axle is broke..... we suspect it is the front off-side CV joint, but lets work with what we KNOW and at the moment all that is definite is that it's 'something' in the front axle, OK.
We could start pulling the axle to bits, and confirm what in there is broken; and the candidates are two CV Joints and a differential.
I cant remember what the price of a CV joint is off the top of my head, but I think its around £80ish. New diff is around £200ish, I think.
If you are going to do the job 'properly', the suggestion would be that if one CV joint has 'gone' you might as well change BOTH, as you'll only have the one you dont replace go soon after as it wont, in all liklihood, be in much better shape than the one thats just broke.
And if you are chucking work and money at the axle, and trying to do the jon 'properly' how far should / could you go?
Doing the CV's could be done by pilling the swivil assemblies off the end of the tubes, drawing the shafts and replacing the joints, and putting them back together again, but good chance you have debris in the tubes and swivil housings, and as mentioned, usual cause of the joint going is a knackered old swivil.....
So WHILE you have the thing off, do you overhaul THAT?
Think long and hard about this. Remember, usual reason that the CV goes is that its been running 'dry' due to a weaping swivil seal, and a bad dose of one-shot, combined with normal wear and tear and a lot of years of being out of sight and out of mind.
In all likihood, the swivil pins are probably just as worn, and doing the job 'properly' by way of swapping the swivils and seals and renewing the swivil pins and setting the shim pre-load on them (dont worry if this sounds technical at the mo, its not too onerouse) would be well worth while.
The steering would be a lot lighter and more precise, as would the rest of the steering geometry, while the swivil should be able to hold oil and keep the swivil pins and CV joint properly lubricated, so you shouldn't have to worry about any of it for another 20 odd years.
BUT, that's another £150+ worth of bits on top of the CV's, and to do it justice, you would probably want to at least have a look at the diff in the middle, and overhaul the hubs on the end, by way of the bearings and seals in there..... which TBH is not a particularly hard or expensive job.
Bearings, if needed are about £30, with a fivers worth of seals gaskets and lock washers, and often you find that the bearings are fine, and only need adjusting.
And of course, while you are in the vacinity, theres the brake discs and calipers that you might want to look at as well......
Which is taking the job a LOT further than you 'need', but as said, but worth thinking about IF you are going to tackle the axle and start stripping bits down.
'Doing' a front axle, in its entirity, with all new parts is probably £500 worth of bits, which is roughly what you could get an 'exchange' axle for, though in all liklihood, that wont have reconned hubs or brakes on the end, it will just be the tube, diff, CV's and swivils, and it will, at that money, have been reconned with 'serviceable' second hand parts, not new. Throwing up another alternative for you.
Right; that's the expensive solution, and suggestion is, a time consuming one, demanding a lot of spanner twiddling.
Doing it on the 'cheap', well, you could just crack the swivil off the end of the axle at the end we suspect the CV's gone, and swap it out, and to save penies, source a second hand CV joint, which ball-park, you should be able to get for about £30ish,
It may take a bit of scouring to find a second hand CV on its own, in which case a new one may be an expedience worth the extra money, especially as it gives you more confidence its not going to go 'clonk' any time too soon...... provided its not a Britpart item!
But doubled up, to do both ends, brings you into the price terratory of a second hand axle. Front axles from dead rangies or disco's 'typically' go for around £150ish. If your lucky, you could find one for under a ton, but to my mind, probably worth taking a little time and paying the extra to find a good one, preferably with nice shiny chrome swivils on the end.
And, it has to be worth a though, as swapping the whole axle, means you dont have to worry what is broke inside the axle, as you are swapping the lot. Only real worry is whether the replacement axle is in much better state than the one that's just broke.
It's not unheard of for people to completely recondition old rangie axles with new swivils and CV's and everything, only for the cars to end up rotting out above them and being broken within a few years; you might have to pay £200 for such an axle, but its worth more than that in bits if you find one.
But, and this is the way I'd look at it; if you got a 2ndHand axle and swapped it onto the car, the price is barely more than a pair of second hand CV's and diff, which are the bits that are likely to be broken, and it would get the car back into service pretty quickly.
Dropping the axle off, given a ball-joint splitter and a big can of WD40, is probably no more ardiouse than trying to crack the swivils off the end and work on them with the axle in situ, to be honest, and certainly less hassle than trying to drag a diff out the middle with the axle still under the car.
And in either instance, I'd be tempted to drag the axle out regardless, just for the ease of working on it at bench height with access all round it, in which case, a simple axle swap would be a labour saver.
So ecconomically and mechanically, its a pretty good 'expedience'.
And would leave you with your original axle to either dispose of or tinker with at leasure.
But, at this stage, that's the dilemah; what funds are available?
Whats the pressure to get the car back to service?
How 'thorough' do you want to be or need to be in making a repair?
And down to the nitty-gritty, which is going to be the more 'doable'; by way of tearing the old axle to bits, on or off the car, and fitting alternative, new or second hand parts, or finding and replacing the whole axle?
Now, as said, suggested prices are off the top of my head; DO NOT take them as gospel.
Check out the Paddocks & Craddocks web-sites; check out Ascrofts and the LR MainStealer for comparisons on new part prices; then spend some time trawling through all the small adds on the old-sod site and all the 'spares' adds on the LR forums, starting with this one, but going through LRO, LR4x4, Addicts, etc etc etc, to see how often old Rangies are broken, and when and iff axles or CV joints on thier own get offered and for what kind of money.
Then you should be able to make up your mind the better way to go forward; and if its even worth lifting a spaner to the axle you have.
If you're lucky; you may get some responses on this thread from people that have bits that may be useful to you knocking around.
