Diff gone??

Hello - i'm new here - ive got a 1980 88 - had about 4 weeks - all going well until this morning - pulled out onto road and lost drive in high range 2wd. Selected 4wd and she moves - had a quick look down below and in 2wd the prop shaft is spinning out the back of the gear box into the rear diff - any handy hints on where to start? Any quick checks to make or is it a diff out job? Thanks for any suggestions - Ben

Sounds like a half shaft to me.
If its a standard Rover Axle you dont need to remove the diff.
regards

Yes, broken half shaft I'd imagine. Probably got shards of metal from when it broke in your diff oil so you don't want to be driving it unnecessarily. Fairly common failure from what I read. Drive shaft often referred to the 'fuse' in the transmission.

Likely to be a rover diff, the halfshafts tend to break at the inner end - there's a deliberate weak point. Means you can withdraw the shaft then remove the diff with the stub left in it. Clean all the swarf out and replace - it's a good time to check the state of the input oil seal 'cos it's easy to replace with the diff out. If you can get the nut off!

Thanks everyone - i know where to start looking now

Don't bother with this magnetic half shaft stub removers.... I wasted 2 days waiting for one to arrive, the diff still had to come out.

when i broke a halfshaft i popped it into 4x4 and drove on for half a mile, pulled the remnant out and removed the unbroken one, i then removed the diff to find the stub and broken end had ground each other up into shards

this made the stub difficult to remove and required a drift and hammer, oil drained from pan and cleaned out of shards

refitted diff and fitted the unbroken shaft

i then went to fit the new shaft and it required the number one persuader as it had created a couple of burrs in the diff splines when it broke

generally it's a pretty easy job just messy, swapped three or four now between mine and mates motors

And if you're replacing a half shaft, do both. They are prone to fatigue and I had to replace both in a couple of months!