Disco 1 Sudden (and violent) rear diff failure

Howdy folks. Long time lurker, but finally my bus has broken itself so hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Started reversing up the drive this morning, massive bang/clank/grind noises, get out and the rear end of the prop shaft is on the floor. Appears the rear diff has died a very dramatic death and it won't move - even to roll down the drive again (so my neighbours can get out!).

I was going to detach the propshaft at the transfer box and remove it for the moment, but is there a relatively quick way I could move it about 10ft forward that anyone can think of? Once I've detached the propshaft, could I simply drive it forward even if the back end is locked up?

Can you not pull the half shafts out from the hubs?

If you disconnect either prop shaft you'll have to engage the Centre Diff Lock to get drive to the other prop. If the rear diff/axle has locked up then I'd say you're going to have some fun trying to get it to move at all, unless you can get the rear wheels to turn.

If you have a decent trolley jack you could lift the rear of the vehicle sufficiently to move it 10 ft , not on your own of course and only with a decent jack it can be done, I helped my brother turn around his XK8 in a confined space a couple of weeks ago. using my 3ton trolly jack, and it need three of us.

It's a '94 Disco 1 by the way - I should have said. I'm pretty mechanically experienced, just not particularly with Land Rovers so still finding my way.

Propshaft is now off. It would reverse ok, albeit with some clanking, but not go forward so I'm guessing something's broken off inside the diff. Anyway, at least I was able to drag the locked up back end forward a bit so I'm not annoying the neighbours any more.

It's flown through its MOT almost every year and there's no rot anywhere, so I plan to keep it. Just got to figure out the best way to fix it up now. Hopefully there's a way to safely make it 2-wheel drive and remove the gubbins from the diff so I can drive it to my [frankly top notch] Land Rover doctor.

As said, remove half shafts, engage diff lock and away you go.

Thanks, that's the plan for tomorrow now I've been through the manual to acquaint myself. I've done the rear brakes before, so should be a fairly comfortable job.

You only need to undo the six flange bolts both sides and pull them out, no need for anything else.
Drain any remaining diff oil out though.

Half shafts removed, diff lock engaged, we have lift off. Thanks for the tips. It was only the nearside which was locked up, offside was free.

There's a bit of rattling/clanking from somewhere mid/front when you release the clutch to apply power or roll off the throttle, but I'm guessing (hoping) this is just that there's no load on the transmission from the rear. There was always a little bit of slop in it, but then again it's 22 years old. Fingers crossed that no damage was done to the forward power train when the rear diff imploded as there must have been serious force going through it to shear the diff union.

NIce,

Diffs are cheap. A good 2nd hand one, some oil , a gasket and away you go.
Just be aware the diffs can be awkward to get on the studs and are heavy.

Jobs a good one.

Cheers