The Definitive VCU test

Sorry it has taken me so long to get round to doing this!!!

This is a video of a newly reconditioned unit undergoing a simple test that can be emulated at home. The bar connected to the vcu is actually an old front prop shaft with the UJ cut and welded at 90 degrees, and the weight on the end is an old VCU damper with some lead added. If you don't have an old prop shaft then i'm sure you can knock something up from scraps. The important thing is that the length of the bar (from the centre of the VCU and centre of end weight) is 780mm and the overall weight is 7kg. As a VCU gets older, they get slower and slower at this test, its hard to say at what point you should change it, but for an example, the car i fitted one today was working OK but moved at about 2/3rd the speed of this, it had covered 64k miles and the IRD hadn't gone but the owner was reporting it feeling a bit tight on reversing on full lock. After i fitted the recon unit he emailed me saying that the car instantly felt lighter and more responsive to drive, and his MPG had increased dramatically. His Freelander could cover 400miles on a full tank, but after arriving at me with 330miles covered since refueling , he returned home 105 miles and the tank was still showing 1/4 of a tank, so he is assuming maybe 100miles more per tank. I sill have this old VCU in the garage so i'll try and get a video tomorrow.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jkvamLKorc"]YouTube- Freelander VCU test[/nomedia]



I hope will help some of you guys out and maybe give you decent bench mark to try and test your VCU's rather than all the old wives tales

I recon it's best to take the rear prop off and weigh it in for scrap.

Nice,

Think i'll get some popcorn and watch that a few more times

Good to see though, ta

Maybe we could do the same with the rear wheel of the ground method, much easier than taking ya prop and gubbins off?

jedi said:

Maybe we could do the same with the rear wheel of the ground method, much easier than taking ya prop and gubbins off?

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Trouble with that is the extra force required due to the diff ratio means you need a long bar and a heavy weight, for example me (80kg) standing on a breaker bar results in a very slow movement

austen said:

Trouble with that is the extra force required due to the diff ratio means you need a long bar and a heavy weight, for example me (80kg) standing on a breaker bar results in a very slow movement

Click to expand...

But if Hippos had a proppa 4x4 drive system, there'd be no need to **** about with VCU's

austen said:

Trouble with that is the extra force required due to the diff ratio means you need a long bar and a heavy weight, for example me (80kg) standing on a breaker bar results in a very slow movement

Click to expand...

I had a torque wrench on one of the wheel bolts with steady not too heavy pressure and it turned slowly too. Think it was 80ft/lbs, and Its tight when on full lock going forward or in reverse. But other than the tightness on full lock drives ok.

I`m presuming mines ok for a freelander, any other car I would think there was something wrong, as I 1st did before I found this forum.

Good video thou, fancy doing the same with the wheel of the ground method, just for reference????????

Soloby Rob said:

But if Hippos had a proppa 4x4 drive system, there'd be no need to **** about with VCU's

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whats up, noone posting on the other side?

so at what point do you paint on the tippex, for the tippex test (aka Willo method)

Dont any of yu guys read the FAQ section?