Broken front wheel drive? troubleshooting help?

[ozeraser]

Gday all,

Long time reader first time poster. A month or so back i picked up a 1961 Series 2A landrover ute (Vin says series 2a). Running a Isuzu 4bd1 motor, Salisbury diff on rear, AVM freewheeling hubs. I drove her happily from NSW all the way to SA.

However last weekend I went to the river, stopped, engaged 4wd (in high). This was all good. However I forgot about it. And I was driving through a town, took a wrong turn and had to do a (3 point) Uturn, not at any speed, but on the black stuff.

From memory i thought i heard a clang when i put the brake on at full lock. Then when i was accelerating it sounded almost like the car was missfiring. I pulled over, realised 4wd was on, turned freewheeling hubs back to 2WD and move the red stick back and forward to dissengauge the 4WD. Car sounded fine again.

This weekend I thought i would take a look at the freewheeling hub, as it was easy also looked like it was leaking oil, I couldn't see anything seriously wrong, so I put it back together and locked both hubs, turned the driveshaft for the front and it locked, so that seemed ok. I unlocked the passenger side hub. And the driveshaft turned and felt like it grabbed, however if i turned it it would just spin freely.

I took the drivers side hub off and put some vice grips on the hub (near the pin). I would spin the driveshaft and in one direction it would spin, wouldnt spin in the other direction (although unsure how many times i should spin the drivedshaft), but when it spun (clockwise) i could hold the vicegrips (with one hand) and stop it spinning.

So I am at the extent of the troubleshooting, any ideas? Is what I'm seeing just the standard diff slip? Is there a part number on the diff or whatever that i can find to make it easier? Thanks in advance.

[JDNSW]

It does sound like you have broken something in the front axle assembly - that motor is really too much for the Series drive train, so this is hardly surprising. The most likely is either a free wheel hub or the diff, although a broken axle is a distinct possibility.

I would be inclined as a first step to drain the front diff and see if anything except oil comes out. Once the oil is out you may be able to see something with a good torch and looking through the drainhole and filler hole. With both front wheels jacked up, and a helper turning the wheels one at a time (hubs engaged) you should be able to see whether the axle (or hub) each side is broken by whether it is turning the diff internals. You will have to rotate the prop shaft until you can see the sun and planet gears.

Of course, if the oil comes out with an assortment of metal, the next step will be to disassemble the axle - to remove the front diff you need to at least partly remove the half axles, which at the front means disassembling the hubs or removing the entire swivels.

Hope this helps,

John

[ozeraser]

JDNSW, Thanks for your input i will spend some time tomorrow jacking it up and having a look. Will feed back.

[Homestar]

Free wheeling hubs aren't the strongest either - could have shattered one. I've done that with a 186. Holden, much less an Isuzu. 6 bolts on each side will soon let you know.