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goldfish
5th November 2008, 02:36 PM
hi all, due to a selctor problem in my 87 range rover i have had to remove the front tailshaft/drive shaft (is is still called a tailshaft even though its in the front? lol) anyway. i'm driving the car with the diff locks on untill i can get it fixed. now while driving it only when needed over the last few days i have noticed that its fuel usage is way down maybe 35-40% so my question is can it hurt the car if when its fixed if i left the front tailshaft out & drove all the time with the locks on & would this affect towing (3.5ton) & only put the shaft back when i went off road.
cheers
rick

F4Phantom
5th November 2008, 07:36 PM
this is amazing, a 30 to 40% saving is huge, if it turns out ok to drive in 2wd I would want to do some sort of conversion.

Bashir
5th November 2008, 09:39 PM
I also use my classic for towing the boat so this has me quite interested.:o

4wd4fun
5th November 2008, 09:46 PM
I have driven a 85 Rangerover from Orchard beach (fraser Island) to 100 km west of Brisbane with the centre diff locked as a CV joint had destroyed itself in the front end.
leaving no drive in front end.
So we disconected drive shaft locked diff and drove her home to repair, this was over 500km includeing beach work.
In locking the diff your just directing the drive to the rear diff as the front shaft is gone. If you unlock the diff the front output shaft will turn as there is no load and the vehicle will not move.

I have read of some one making mods that change the diff lock to the
2wd /4wd selector and fitting front hubs to a RRC.
Marks 4wd adaptor have a Part time 4wd conversion kit for the 80 and 100 series Cruisers. :)

PhilipA
5th November 2008, 10:00 PM
The reason that Land Rover made the Range Rover constant 4WD, as stated by a development engineer in an interview I read many years ago, was that to get a good ride with soft springs they needed a light axle in the back, and so did not use the Salisbury. Probably cost also came into it.

However with the V8, the rear axle was not durable enough for part time 4WD, so they made it full time to share the load.

I can see no reason that you could not drive it gently in high ratio for a while. But I do not think it would be wise to tow anything.

BTW, I am sorry I do not believe your 30-40% fuel saving.
I reckon maybe 5% and perhaps you have been driving more gently .
Regards Philip A

Waxenwane
5th November 2008, 10:05 PM
Can I hurt my rangie

Afraid so, Bear in mind that the Range rovers are constant 4wd and as such they don't have the same strength component wise as other part time 4wd's. IMO the power handling, ruggedness whatever you want to call it, is at best barely adequate in today's driving environment. Let alone asking it to do it all on rear wheel drive with the extra power gained from disconnecting the front driveshaft.
I would certainly hesitate before towing with the weight you're talking of, unless you like the sound of breaking diff:twisted:

goldfish
6th November 2008, 03:24 PM
thanks guys. it dose make sence that it would be putting extra load on the back diff if the front one isn't conected & since RR's have week diffs it probally is a good idea to have all the wheels & diffs working. it was fixed today & shafts reconected & all going good. as for the fuel saving i was only guessing at 30-40% hadn't mesured it or anything. but i did notice a huge difference in the fuel usage in the 250 or so klm's that i did with the shaft out. it was fixed today on the coast & i noticed the difference in the fuel burnt to come home in 4wd against going there in 2wd but again this is only on the fuel gauge.
once again thanks
cheers
rick