Prop shaft

When i bought this 2001 td4 the guy i bought it off fitted me a new viscos unit cos it was showing signs of ware...the recon unit he fitted was well out of balance and vibrated like......!! so he went and bought a landrover unit end of problem,1500 miles on i have a noise underneath, garage says viscus bearing so i thought i take the prop off to see if the noise stoped! but looking underneath i notice that there is quite alot off thick black grease coming out the gater on the very front of the propshaft... is there a bearing in there that could be going dry or or is this a differant prob altogether? ive not took the prop off yet those hex bolts looked a nightmare gona have to put her on me mates ramp. input "please" this is driving me mad.....Thanks.

Hi ive tryed to upload a picture of the offending part of the propshaft but im not sure what it means be the URL of the picture ...can anyone explain.sorry

front joint is a cv probably worn unfortuneatly you will havr to get new one or remove prop altogether

Thanks for that, when i replace the front prop can i just remove the front one and refit ? or dos it all have to come down?

You can remove just the prop, with it all in place, but it's much easier to remove the whole lot. Weight is 25kg in total. Easier to work on when it's all off. You'll have to notify your insurance of the change, but most won't charge.

Ere Hippo - werent there some bloke on here recently that found removing the whole prop caused noises from the IRD and stuff, because it wasnt loaded? Dint he find that just removing the rear prop was better?

The Mad Hat Man said:

Ere Hippo - werent there some bloke on here recently that found removing the whole prop caused noises from the IRD and stuff, because it wasnt loaded? Dint he find that just removing the rear prop was better?

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Yes there was. He had noise as his ird was faulty in some way if I remember correctly. Play in the pinion gear - forwards and backwards a bit if I remember correctly. Also a bit of rotation. If the pinion gear is ok, within the pinion mount itself, then there shouldn't be any movement. forwards and backwards. thats the impression from having mine out, and the spare I have.

If the IRD is ok, then taking the front prop off should be ok. Many have done it as a temp fix, or to go mondo. Mine was ok when I removed my front prop. The squeel I have dissapeared. The props seem to pick up noises off the ird and amplify them. But you'll always get the odd car which goes against the norm. You could be right about it being betterer to remove the rear prop. Certainly easier than the front. Wouldn't fancy having to split the prop off the vcu with it upsidedown on the car myself. Others have done it ok though.

Dropped mine off the other day to measure the vcu torque for you. Update on that to follow soon. Thought it would be good to judge it in the one wheel up test, and also on it's own as an example.

Ok..iv been having truble with this B.... freelander since i bought it! so heres the story ill try and keep it short.. 50k one lady owner mint tidy 2001 TD4 es when i bought it i felt that the viscos unit was worn,so the guy fitteed a recon,free of charge,but it was out of balance so he then removed it and fitted a landrover viscos,job done drove realy nice for 1500 miles and now the last 200 mile im getting a rumbleing noise underneath,so i get under and have a look and see the front prop gatter is split grease every where..so i thought it was that that was making the noise... so one new prop £265.00 fitted saturday,went on easy cos its been apart resently...drove up the road and noise still there..... if i take it upto say 40 mph and nock it out of gear you can here the noise right until it stops. Has anyone any idea what it could be? and if it is the ird or diff bearings do the engine have to come out to fix it. This is driving me insane... please help. Thanks

Could be a number of things. How much noise is there? Any vibration felt? Noise proportional to the speed of the engine or car? First thing is to check the vcu bearings. They may have been put on badly, and been damaged. Removing the whole prop/vcu as one piece and seeing if the noise has gone. Check the prop connections are tight - rear diff to rear prop - front prop to ird - and the universal joints on the props - then the ird pinion gear, does it turn too much and is there play in it - same for the rear diff flange.

Well thats given me something to get on with.. ill give you some feed back when iv took the prop off. Thanks

Ok i jacked it up and took the front and rear props off,then i spun the viscos unit with my hand...... the missis was about 30 feet away and even she could here the dry bearings!!! these came with the other viscos unit that was out of balance,when the guy i bought it off of fitted the second unit, "landrover one this time" the unit came with no bearing! so he fitted the bearing that came with the recon one...bad move!!! they were crap like the recon viscos unit they came with... so where do i go for some good bearings and do they have to be pressed on by a machine? also there is a little bit of oil comeing out of a seal on the end of the ird unt that the front prop fits to, is this what they call diff nose end oil seal and can i remove the flange and replace the seal with out take anything els off.?? Thanks

Yes undo the nuts, pull out the ird pinion, and replace the oil seal, then put it back.

Best to put the vcu bearings on with a press. I did mine with the use of a large socket and hammer. Worked ok for me. You have to make sure they go on to the splines evenly, with pressure only on the inner circle of bearing metal. If not, then the bearings won't last. Make sure you undo the ird filler, before removing the drain plug.

Not sure where the best place is to get vcu bearings. I got LR dealer ones. There are cheaper ones which many others have used ok. Have a search on the main Freelander forum and you'll find them.

they should always be pressed on.

Thaks ever so. Must get me workshop manual! seem to spend more time under it than driving it....