Thread: Does fixing driveline slack, fix jerky throttle?

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

I did ponder this in thought before posting as I didnt want to provoke any angry responses.... oh hang on that only happens over in the D3/D4/RRS part of the forum :P all good over here in Defender land though!

Hrmm you dont like the look? is it the anodised colour or the hex square end you dont like?? haha if its the colour, once fitted spray some etch primer and paint them black. I assume your 130? has the steel wheels? if alloy wheels then the plastic caps cover the front fine, the rear will just fit, but I machine a mm or 2 off the inside of the cap so the plastic cover clips on cleanly.

Regards
Daz

Yeah heavy duty steels Daz.
Its both the zinc plating and the shape of the hd flanges that im not a fan of.

I can't really explain it, but I've just always been fond of the landy axle hubs, its one of the things that makes the vehicle look good to me.

I wonder if changing to hd axles and keeping the standard flanges would tighten things up.

Good point about etch priming and painting, they should sell them like that

Biggest culprit I've found is the intermediate shaft between the main gearbox and the transfer box. On my latest one I had the boxes split, and the splines of the intermediate shaft greased with moly grease when the car was delivered.

I also checked the drive flanges on delivery, only one front and one rear were greased, the other 2 where bone dry and already starting to fret, (with less than 200k's on the clock!) The car has just clicked over 20k, has a BAS tune, and still drives great. (Yes it is noticeably worse with the factory tune).

Cheers,

a bit of missinformation or red herrings posted so far.

forget about hand brake dragging, while not good it is not going to make a drive line sloppy.

1 drive flanges. they a by nature ( good) going to wear so your axels do not. these upgraded heavy duty nut jobs do not have this advantage. Drive flanges never fail IE they do not brake. they wear out and should be replaced and checked and thay are cheep. these HD units i believe will encourage wear of the axle spline not good. how ever if you have ripped the seals out of your front dif and are running oil all the way though i think then they are ok because they will be constantly wet and less likely to leek.

hand brake on hard, jack up one back wheel and rotate. i think 17Deg max. since one wheel is on the ground and one in the air and the pinion is locked by the Hand brake. this is a measure of drive flange spiders and crown-wheel backlash.

BBS, of to get out the bible before i put some one wrong

na 17 deg, some one else can check that out. if more than that then there is some thing a miss.

drop that wheel and pick up a front wheel do the same. but with CD lock in and a bar though a uni or vice grips on the front prop shaft so it will not move, usually a two man. easy enough for a kid or swmbo job.

next frount wheel still in the air cd lock open. hand brake on. turn the front prop shaft. i think 2-3 deg max. more than that next you would check the TFcase end float.

after that put gearbox in to gear, lock TF case, and jack up as back wheel as well. hand brake off ( chock wheels before lifting) now rotate ether drive shaft, again no more than say 5deg movement.

this was good for spotting D1 output splines for fretting, guess that same for the puma, same problem.

that is my no means the only possible issues
a frame ball joint is a common culprit. lower arms bushes same for trailing arms and A arm bushes. again very common. a dif wobbling around between on off throttle give very Simla symptoms.

having every man and hos dog chucking in there suggestions based on what there mechanic told them is not going to work for you.
the only solution is just work though every thing as i wrote above.

then take a bar to your bushes and check them out

Duplictated Post - please delete

Originally Posted by Beery

Getting on the throttle after coasting is painful, no matter how gentle I am. Its just impossible to get a smooth transition from coasting to motoring.

It feels as though the driveline is constantly overrunning and underrunning the engine. And when you reapply throttle it takes up the slack, resulting in the annoying shunt.

What was interesting for me - early on with my drive back from Dubbo I had this feeling - and even wrote it up that changing gears under load was an issue.

After getting home I pulled out onto a busy road and it popped out of high range to neutral - I moved over to the shoulder and after my initial panick of losing all drive I engaged the clutch and pulled the lever back to high range and it really felt like it seated further than what it was i.e. I don't think it was fully engaged!

It is now back to how I test drove it - very little if any drive line slack - loving the way it drives.

I have also noticed that at low rev's (under 2k) it is not happy i.e. choose a lower gear.

1500km clocked tonight and I would say that maybe it is getting a bit better in the just under 2k RPM range for pulling away after backing off.

So - it is fine for me now as it starts to bed down - at 1500km it is still weak in the lower rpm but I do my best to get the right gear for the right speed. I am keeping it 2k - 3.5k RPM and it is doing just fine.

Cheers,
Col.

Originally Posted by Col 110

[...]
So - it is fine for me now as it starts to bed down - at 1500km it is still weak in the lower rpm but I do my best to get the right gear for the right speed. I am keeping it 2k - 3.5k RPM and it is doing just fine.

Yeah specially in the early stages (to 16,000km) don't make it struggle hard below 2000rpm. But don't be afraid to get it firmly on boost, with revs over 2000.

Even when it's fully bedded in and running well - be careful of lengthy periods at low revs (1000-1500) with high load and full throttle. (Eg a long hill climb, 5th gear, 1400rpm and foot to the floor just to hold current speed). It's here where exhaust gas temps get dangerously high.

The TDCi engines should try to protect themselves and trigger a reduced engine output event. But surely better to avoid that by a downshift and work it hard with a few more revs in hand.

I have more than 42,000km now on the clock. I reckon it's only in the last 5000km I have noticed the engine has loosened up nicely.

I do enjoy occasional "lazy drives" where I upshift at 2000rpm. But throttle never more than a light caress and rapid progress isn't expected. No complaints, shakes, groans or shudders from the engine.

Remember it's not a big diesel. It will never deliver mega-NM or cruise the highway at 800rpm.