rear propeller shaft vanishes!

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A

abercorn

New Member
Posts
67
Arrgh,
A720 this morning, horrible noise from under the car followed by a bang and a clang and the rear propeller shaft is seen bouncing down the road behind the car.
RAC picked us up - it has sheared at both UJ joints and judging by the damage something has siezed somewhere - transfer box or rear diff - the rear diff was rebuilt 2 years ago and recently got topped up with oil and moly.
anyway, car now only running on front wheels and until I diagnose the problem then not being used in case there is any debris in the diff.

any common faults/suspects I should look out for?
 
Can't see a seizure being the problem. If she runs in 4wd high ok then the back wheels are spinning the diff and transfer box is being driven by the gearbox.

Possible the handbrake was binding but this wouldn't snap U/J's unless they were in very poor condition.

Were you in 4wd on tarmac? That'll put some serious stress on shafts.
 
Quite possibly although I did not immediately notice. The vehicle had been in the care of one of my employees until this morning when I collected it. He's no experience of driving one of these and I wonder if he's been fooling around with the levers. would make sense.
the pillock
 
abercorn said:
Quite possibly although I did not immediately notice. The vehicle had been in the care of one of my employees until this morning when I collected it. He's no experience of driving one of these and I wonder if he's been fooling around with the levers. would make sense.
the pillock
Click to expand...

He could be made financially aware of his missive... :cool:
 
Sounds like a propshaft UJ has failed in spectacular fashion. If he has been fooling around with the levers, he may have been driving in 4wd on a hard surface and damaged something else. But, as above, if all's well in 2wd, you may be lucky.
It's easy to miss a failing UJ amongst all the usual landy noises and vibrations. They do often squeal a bit once the rollers have fallen out - but if it was wet, the water could lube it enough to mask that. Fingers crossed!
 
abercorn said:
Quite possibly although I did not immediately notice. The vehicle had been in the care of one of my employees until this morning when I collected it. He's no experience of driving one of these and I wonder if he's been fooling around with the levers. would make sense.
the pillock
Click to expand...

lack of servicing /checking ujs must have been dry to go ,driving around in 4wd would be very noticeable and wouldnt damage good ujs that quickly
 
indeed, the bypass...and yes there were cars. They didn't get hit though. I walked the 1/2 mile back up the hard shoulder and the shaft was in the middle of the dividing lines of the dual carriageway. I called the police and reported it as it was on a blind 80mph corner and there was no way I could run out, pick it up and run back in time. whilst I was on the phone to them a Merc hit it whilst changing lane and it flew into the fast lane where 3 separate drivers hit it in the space of 30 seconds and it eventually got pinged into the central reservation. Whilst we waited for the RAC to arrive, the incident guys turned up with our shaft and gave it back to us.

I do a lot of motorway driving and have done tens of thousands of miles over the last few years, it never ceases to amaze me how many drivers switch off on dual carriageways and neglect to scan the road surface in front of them. It was a bright day and you could see the lump of steel from some distance away yet they still hit it - I reckon the merc would have cracked his low profile wheel

The UJs were not bad, I'd greased the shaft in the last month and checked the bushes etc, I suspect that young darren has been commuting to Perth and back in 4WD without noticing...I did notice when I fixed the overdrive leaver he'd fecked that the truck wasn't really behaving itself and ironically I was driving to the farm to give it a good going over and to prepare it to tow a large load 200 miles down the M6.
 
abercorn said:
indeed, the bypass...and yes there were cars. They didn't get hit though. I walked the 1/2 mile back up the hard shoulder and the shaft was in the middle of the dividing lines of the dual carriageway. I called the police and reported it as it was on a blind 80mph corner and there was no way I could run out, pick it up and run back in time. whilst I was on the phone to them a Merc hit it whilst changing lane and it flew into the fast lane where 3 separate drivers hit it in the space of 30 seconds and it eventually got pinged into the central reservation. Whilst we waited for the RAC to arrive, the incident guys turned up with our shaft and gave it back to us.

I do a lot of motorway driving and have done tens of thousands of miles over the last few years, it never ceases to amaze me how many drivers switch off on dual carriageways and neglect to scan the road surface in front of them. It was a bright day and you could see the lump of steel from some distance away yet they still hit it - I reckon the merc would have cracked his low profile wheel

The UJs were not bad, I'd greased the shaft in the last month and checked the bushes etc, I suspect that young darren has been commuting to Perth and back in 4WD without noticing...I did notice when I fixed the overdrive leaver he'd fecked that the truck wasn't really behaving itself and ironically I was driving to the farm to give it a good going over and to prepare it to tow a large load 200 miles down the M6.
Click to expand...

eep! young darren is going to getting some grief :D
 
I'm fixing the brick to the cricket bat as we speak..

TECHNICAL QUESTION

should I tie it on with barbed wire or drill holes in brick and fasten it with nails, the cricket bat is willow but even so I think big nails will probably split it so perhaps coach bolts?

:mil5:
 
abercorn said:
indeed, the bypass...and yes there were cars. They didn't get hit though. I walked the 1/2 mile back up the hard shoulder and the shaft was in the middle of the dividing lines of the dual carriageway. I called the police and reported it as it was on a blind 80mph corner and there was no way I could run out, pick it up and run back in time. whilst I was on the phone to them a Merc hit it whilst changing lane and it flew into the fast lane where 3 separate drivers hit it in the space of 30 seconds and it eventually got pinged into the central reservation. Whilst we waited for the RAC to arrive, the incident guys turned up with our shaft and gave it back to us.

I do a lot of motorway driving and have done tens of thousands of miles over the last few years, it never ceases to amaze me how many drivers switch off on dual carriageways and neglect to scan the road surface in front of them. It was a bright day and you could see the lump of steel from some distance away yet they still hit it - I reckon the merc would have cracked his low profile wheel

The UJs were not bad, I'd greased the shaft in the last month and checked the bushes etc, I suspect that young darren has been commuting to Perth and back in 4WD without noticing...I did notice when I fixed the overdrive leaver he'd fecked that the truck wasn't really behaving itself and ironically I was driving to the farm to give it a good going over and to prepare it to tow a large load 200 miles down the M6.
Click to expand...
Jeezus - lucky someone wasn't hurt. The thought of a HGV flicking it upwards towords a windscreen....
 
well, Mark's Garage in Wallyford, east Lothian is fantastic, Mark and Jude were very helpful indeed and Mark took a prop shaft off one of his series 3s
So I spent Saturday morning under the truck and removed the left over parts of the old prop shaft, I noticed that the studs in the transmission brake end had taken a pretty decent whack and the threads are damaged so I have taken the transmission brake to bits to remove the flange, the only challenge being that the oil flinger is well and truly stuck in place. I got cold and bored and had no gas for the blow torch but tomorrow work will resume. I might get away with using a very fine file to tidy up the threads as I am not sure I have any suitable 9/16th bolts kicking around.

Whilst under the truck I took the opportunity to have a good old poke at the chassis (we've only had this landy for 8 weeks) The Chassis will need some work soon, it's ok but if we can catch it now then it will solve major surgery in the near future.
So in February I think we will take her off the road and do a body off job as the bulkhead could really do with some serious fettling and I'm half tempted to replace it, I've been offered a NOS one for £400.

Meanwhile the 109 is doing sterling work!
 
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