"No rust on the Chassis" my a*se!

My friend decided to get a Range Rover as his first 4x4 so we could do a bit of green laning together. Got a nice looking example from ebay. Guy said there was no rust on chassis and no welding needed. We went to go pick it up and within 5 minutes had poked a hole in chassis big enough for my arm to go in! The guy seemed suitably shocked but who knows if he realised it was that bad. We didn't buy it needless to say!

I was just wondering, how would you repair the rear chassis section? There was nothing to weld on so would you cut the end off and replace it with a cut section from a decent chassis or would it need the whole thing replacing?

Break it and weight in the remains. Never worth the bother if it is that bad.

Your mate still bought it?The fella selling it has changed the springs n shocks so should know what i tlooks like underneath.Id run if ya int got it already.

rojbarker said:

My friend decided to get a Range Rover as his first 4x4 so we could do a bit of green laning together. Got a nice looking example from ebay. Guy said there was no rust on chassis and no welding needed. We went to go pick it up and within 5 minutes had poked a hole in chassis big enough for my arm to go in! The guy seemed suitably shocked but who knows if he realised it was that bad. We didn't buy it needless to say!

I was just wondering, how would you repair the rear chassis section? There was nothing to weld on so would you cut the end off and replace it with a cut section from a decent chassis or would it need the whole thing replacing?

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the seller must have known about that amount of rust etc,he was just trying it on,hoping no one would find it.

Luckily we didn't buy it no. It's been off the road for a year so it must have been pretty bad before it was laid up.

The engine was alright but needed "tuning" as the weber conversion popped back at high revs - as we left I remembered my brother's Ford Pop has a 3.5 rover v8 in it and had the same problem - turned out to be a screwed cam lobe so even the engine on that rangey might have been a pup.

Well I found plenty of rust on my classic when I bought it as a "ready to go car" but thankfully it was all on the body , and having spent so much time under it I am more sure of that now lol

The holes in those pics are amazing!

Hell, I think I bought it! Got a RR last week and it was advertised as solid underneath. Had a look in daylight and the rear bodymounts look like the pictures. The crossmember is iffy, with a small hole. Replaceable I hope. Got bigger problems at the moment though, the auto box packed up with no drive at all except in difflock and I don't want to damage that.

88RR said:

Got bigger problems at the moment though, the auto box packed up with no drive at all except in difflock and I don't want to damage that.

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Only getting drive with diff-lock engaged, tends to suggest that the box and x-fer are probably OK or you wouldn't get any drive at all.



What it points to is something broken in the props or axles; most likely a front CV joint or rear half shaft.

hi Teflon, thanks for the input. It's my sons car and I am on this forum as I find they are the best places for good advice. I must admit that I have no clue what has happened. Speaking to various gearbox specialists, I get very little response except 'could be anything'. which is not helpful. One did suggest that the transfer box motor may be not working, suggesting I had a look at the contacts.
Here is more detail;
He was driving along having just turned out of the local Tesco. Got about 100yds when he heard/felt a clunk and the car lost drive. Until then the box seemed to work fine, with only a noticeable change between 1st and 2nd, which I understand is normal.
Got it back to home on a flatbed and not really had a chance to look until today. The shifter moves, but when going into P it grinds. There is a grumbling noise when 'in gear'. Looking underneath, the short forward facing prop is rotating, making the noise. Turn the engine off and this prop is fixed, with a small amount of rotation by hand. I have not check anything else yet.
Does this give any clues to you or anyone else?

no not really.Try oil first.does it have any inn it?

Yep, just checked the oil. The dipstick had loads showing, started her up and went through the gears and it dropped to between the lines on the stick. Looks clean and reddy.
Tried the difflock again, bit of a git to engage, but it does engage. Select drive, the car jolts a bit and will drive, only moved it about a foot. High and low ratio both work.
Funny but now the difflock light will not go out when you come out of difflock.
How would I check if a propshaft or drive shaft were at fault?

it is unlikely to be either...... difflock sticking on is a common problem. - just reverse it a bit until it frees itself (difflock off obviously).

Problem is that with difflock off, the car will not move at all. Just been out and the light is now off though.
Stub axle was suggested because jacking the front up and spinning the wheels reveals that they spin freely, but when one is spinning the opposite side should rotate the other way should it not?

not Nelly-celery - one wheel can just turn twice as fast.

But if it is not rotating at all, is that right? Just been out again and when I rotate the wheels and hold the diff or the forward propshaft at the diff end, I can feel and hear slight movement in the diff. Not lots, but some. This is now making me think that the driveshafts are attached to the hubs and the diff, so is it the diff thats broke? Don't know much about all this as you can tell.

By the way, i put the lock on and turned the wheels. The nearside one spun freely, the offside one seemed to catch every now and again and bounce back a bit, when i turned it fast.

if when you drop it in drive the front prop turns but the car dont you definatly have either a busted diff or broken half shaft in the front axle, time to get busy stripping it down.whip the half shafts out and have a look, if there ok the diffs knackered.

Thanks arron, I am new to this auto box and 4x4 thing so can't understand why it won't just drive with the rear axle if the front is bust. Not that i would do that, but why doesn't it.

cos the unlocked difflock sends all the drive to the broken front axle. Thats why if you lock the centre difflock - it forces drive to the rear.

Ahhh, I see. Thanks. :doh:

On a slight tangent, driving in difflock is bad, yes? Only I am now getting so p***ed off that I was thinking of somehow taking the car back to the bloke I bought it from under misrepresentation. He said it was solid underneath, but it is rusted through under some waxoyl on the rear crossmember. I downloaded the MOT history and see that it failed on excessive rust 2 days before he took it to another station where it miraculously passed.