Propshaft separation

just had a phone call from the garage my car is in to get the rear brakes,fuel cradle and vcu bearings replaced but they can’t split the propshaft.Is it more than likely they don’t know what they’re doing or can these be a pain to separate?

After a number of years the joints start to rust slightly which can make them difficult to seperate. A garage shouldn't have problems if they know what they're doing. Taking both prop's and vcu oft in one piece is the easier way to do it. Show them the link below.

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/freelander-1-vcu-bearing-replacement-how-to-guide.156068/

This is a great vid for separating the props from the VCU. What I went by and worked a treat, was easy as...

You may have to get a bit violent with the hammer to start it off.

I have heard that some are a right PITA though, whether this technique was tried on them, I'm not sure.

Cheers I have just told them to leave it off and I’ll have ago myself,apparently they have spent 2 hours trying to separate it which didn’t fill me with confidence that they know what they’re doing.I only asked them to do it because they were taking the prop off for the fuel cradle. Cheers for the links/help looks like I’m getting the mash hammer out and chisel.

Looks like they just beat as the 17mm nut was right out,but back in and used a chisel and it came straight out,only problem is my bloody ring spanner is to fat for the other side,looks like I’ll have to buy more tools tomorrow . Thanks lads

Danyou said:

Looks like they just beat as the 17mm nut was right out,but back in and used a chisel and it came straight out,only problem is my bloody ring spanner is to fat for the other side,looks like I’ll have to buy more tools tomorrow . Thanks lads

Click to expand...

To be honest I would struggle to take ma hippo back to a garage that couldn't separate a prop...

Hippo said:

To be honest I would struggle to take ma hippo back to a garage that couldn't separate a prop...

Click to expand...

Ah bet yer would like to watch them int workshop

Hippo said:

Ah bet yer would like to watch them int workshop

Click to expand...

Yeh. Could do with a laff.

Hippo said:

To be honest I would struggle to take ma hippo back to a garage that couldn't separate a prop...

Click to expand...

I’m new to the area and they came recommended and been around for years but judging by the stuff that was there it seems more commercial stuff then cars but £200 quid was a good price for the fuel cradle and rear brake overhaul.but saying that I know what you mean

Hippo said:

Yeh. Could do with a laff.

Click to expand...

I did say to my wife “I wonder if they’ll let me help out” to which I got told to get a life, i do struggle to trust any garage.

Danyou said:

I did say to my wife “I wonder if they’ll let me help out” to which I got told to get a life, i do struggle to trust any garage.

Click to expand...

Same here. Struggle to hand it over to anyone so I started to do the work meself. I've had the pi*s taken by professionals. If it gets too much it goes int garage or I threaten it.

I just didn’t fancy doing the fuel cradle on my back and the sub frame bolts looked a little suspect I would rather let someone else have one of them snap on them.Thats the first time I have used a garage in 8 years over than MOTs the last time I used one it was to rebuild the bottom end on my cupra r which came to 1.5k and then failed again 6 weeks later,luckily I had sold it already but the buyer was less then impressed but it did put me off them.

Doing a cradle swap is a job made much easier by having the car on a lift. It should be a straight forward job for any garage so using them for that probably a good choice. I guess if they never separated a propshaft before you could forgive them for not knowing the best method but you'd have thought they would have looked it up after struggling for the first hour.

I must admit that I make sure the VCU splines are free to slide while the whole assembly is still on the vehicle. I then know what I'm up against before wrestling with it on the floor.

It was a wrestling match alright but it’s back to 4 wheel drive now without the bearing noise.The splines were rusted,but a quick clean up sorted that out.

I hope they have torqued the bolts up on the back sub frame

teddywood1 said:

I hope they have torqued the bolts up on the back sub frame

Click to expand...

I do as well lol I check them today and there tight and I will check them again after it’s been for a run.Whats the torque spec on them?

they are 190 Nm or 140 lbs ft