Please see video Play in front propshaft and clunk !

Good evening
I am now the proud owner of a 1995 3 door, manual, 300TDI discovery 1.

I have been experiencing quite a loud fud / clunk when accelerating away or any time when the car Boggs down when torque is applying e.g between gear changes.

I have never had a landrover before so I don't know what is normal.
I have took a couple of videos for you to look at, to see if the amount of play I'm experiencing in the front prop shaft is normal.
I'm not sure if the clunk is the prop taking up the slack ?
Please take a look and give me your thoughts I'm hoping it's nothing to serious I'm hooked on the car so far.

For the thud you ought be checking the suspension, A frame ball joints and bushings are notorious as are trailing arms, panhard rods and front radius arms all need checked over.

I would start with replacing those as the play in the front shaft you show is quite normal in terms of backlash.

Thanks for the reply
The noise seams to be coming from the centre of the car when driving

The play doesn’t seem too excessive. If you want to rule out prop shaft you might want to inspect the U joints either end - they need to be lubricated (you can see the nipples) and can deteriorate. Get in there with a light and give it a wiggle, looking for play within the joints themselves. Is there any vibration on acceleratiion/under torque? Have you checked the rear shaft? Check the rear with hand brake off (leaving it in gear).

Google Lt230 input gear spline wear, very common and luckily easy to fix with a new gear, done a few in my time in tdis.

Second video looks totally normal to me, they always have more play than a prick in a bucket even when good!

Vagabondrobb said:

The play doesn’t seem too excessive. If you want to rule out prop shaft you might want to inspect the U joints either end - they need to be lubricated (you can see the nipples) and can deteriorate. Get in there with a light and give it a wiggle, looking for play within the joints themselves. Is there any vibration on acceleratiion/under torque? Have you checked the rear shaft? Check the rear with hand brake off (leaving it in gear).

Click to expand...

I did as you said and it has the same amount of play in the rear

lynall said:

Google Lt230 input gear spline wear, very common and luckily easy to fix with a new gear, done a few in my time in tdis.

Second video looks totally normal to me, they always have more play than a prick in a bucket even when good!

Click to expand...

Does this involve removing the transfe
r case or gear box?
Thanks

DiscoLyle said:

Does this involve removing the transfe
r case or gear box?
Thanks

Click to expand...

No its all done in situ.
Like I said have a google as the cross drilled gear was installed on the later 300tdi as std and they are pretty good, its the older unlubricated ones that cause spline wear issues.

See here for info and prices, https://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/diy-rebuild-kits/lt230-rebuild-kits/input-gear.html

lynall said:

No its all done in situ.
Like I said have a google as the cross drilled gear was installed on the later 300tdi as std and they are pretty good, its the older unlubricated ones that cause spline wear issues.

See here for info and prices, https://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/diy-rebuild-kits/lt230-rebuild-kits/input-gear.html

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot

DiscoLyle said:

Thanks a lot

Click to expand...

I forgot to say you will need the means to remove the bearings off of the old gear, blunt chisel and hammer works well.
People will tell you the splines on the outsput shaft will be worn as well, which is true, thw wear is shared between the gear and the shaft, but as the new gear has longer splines it picks up on the unworn part of the shaft, its not an engineers dream, but it works and I have literally done 10s of thousands of miles in 3 different tdi models with this same bodge repair.