Dreaded clunk

[Fraz]

My 130 has the clunk in the rear somewhere. I wasnt too fussed about it, other than it annoyed me a little in traffic. I have since found out that it is usually one of two things. The Transfer case gear (or something like that) or the ball on the A-frame.

How can I narrow it down? I want it to be the ball on the a-frame because it sounds less expensive. What can I do to prove it or rule it out??

Thanks :)

[87County]

transmission line "clunks" can be relatively acceptable, and, if you've done nothing bad to the driveline and depending on ks since last replacement, it'll probably be the A-frame ball joint

you could get under it and listen (safely of course) ....while someone rocks it up and down

not a job to do yourself, because of the tonnage likely to be required to get the old one out...

have it replaced first, see if it fixes your problem (there are greasable/adjustable replacements available)

what is your general location ?

[lambrover]

park in the drive way and put the hand brake on leave in neutral, go to the back wheel and lie down next to the tyre looking up at the A frame ball joint use your hands to rock the tyre back and forth this will show if you have any movemant in the ball joint and the rear control arms.

[Fraz]

Im in newcaslte. Roughly how many k's should one get out of the ball joint?
I dont know if its ever been replaced, and Im approaching 160k.

I will try the rolling tyre test tomorrow - good suggestion thanks.

I do notice that without handbrake and neutral selected, I am able to rotate the driveshaft. Id say it would be around 1/4 turn, probably less. Is this expected?

[lambrover]

Im in newcaslte. Roughly how many k's should one get out of the ball joint?
I dont know if its ever been replaced, and Im approaching 160k.

I will try the rolling tyre test tomorrow - good suggestion thanks.

I do notice that without handbrake and neutral selected, I am able to rotate the driveshaft. Id say it would be around 1/4 turn, probably less. Is this expected?

that back lash sounds about normal for a rover, I had a 130 with only 75000k on it and I had to put a new A frame ball joint in.

[fraser130]

My 130 has 80k on it, and it needs done, going to doo it before summer.
It's a simple job, but not easy, they are REALLY hard to remove.

Fraser

[lambrover]

remove from a frame then the best way is to use a press, but you can use a big hammer and a drift. but either way the best idea is to remove the two bolts then cut those flanges off so the housing can sit on a block and won't restrict the ball joint from moving out of the housing.

[jplambs]

Hi Fraz.

I bought a defender a few weeks ago and when I got it, it clunked really badly. There is a post on it (about 3 weeks ago) in the defender section, I'm not sure how to link to it. The comments were really helpful.

In my case the A frame ball joint was reasonably new and after checking it, it was ok. However the two bolts underneath it at the front were loose and the flat plate at the base of the joint was flexing every time I stopped or put it in to gear. The other problem was that there was 300ml of oil in the transfer case, they are supposed to hold 2 and a half litres. Probably not what is causing your problem but worth checking both of these.

Jonathan.

[abaddonxi]

I've got a clunk in my 110, the lower shock mounts are thrashed out of round and the shock flops about. Standard solution, so I'm told, is to weld a washer over the out of round mounts.

[Fraz]

I took a punt and had the rear ball joint replaced.
Other than the difference it made to my bank account, there was little change to the noise :(

Am I now looking at a new transfer case drive gear?? How much?
Should I just live with it and hope its not a major fault waiting for me to get right out into the middle of nowhere?

Cheers

[10 inches more]

I just fixed a similarly elusive clunk in my '84 120, it was all to do with the rear radius arm bushes being shot. They were at a point where it affected the handling, producing oversteer part way through a corner, and when putting some grunt into removing wheel nuts, the whole axle would move about 5mm fore & aft. One was worse than the other. Easy enough to fix, and not too expensive.

I'd earlier done the bushes on the front radius arms also, they sometimes made a hell of a BANG when taking off from a standing start, like something in the gearbox breaking. This was the rear end of the arm smacking against the mount on the chassis as the axle torqued as one bush was completely worn out.

[roverrescue]

Fraz,
take it to someone who can diagnose the "clunk" before just replacing all suspension components in random order...

Any reputable mechanic can surely assess between the remaining probable culprits

- worn control arm bushes
- sway bar bushes / joints
- drive flanges
- tcase input gear
-uni joint/s

it would be exe to just go down the list swapping parts!!!!

S

[woko]

Fraz

Take the caps off the rear axles and rock it backwards and forwards could be worn axles and drive members

[tomalophicon]

Yeah I replaced the rear axles and drive flanges in my Defender and most of the clunkiness went away.
It's cheap and easy to fix and do both at the same time.

[10 inches more]

Reputable mechanics can be as hard to locate as the sourse of the 'clunk'....

Suspension dramas can be particularly elusive. Despite pretty much all of my radius arm bushes being shot, the Landy handled, well actually it handled like a bar of soap really (but it got through rego like that!), but some where in the list of things to do was a wheel alignment. That is when things got interesting even though the alighnment was only0.5 degree out. Once that was adjusted I had the most amazing death wobble, not surprising really in hind sight given the state of the suspension, but really wierd in that prior to the alignment there was no hint of this.

New shocks, front and rear radius arm bushes, panhard bushes, tightened rear wheel bearings and she's pretty much fixed. There is still the hint of a wobble after hitting bumps, but as a work horse I can put up with that.

[Dinty]

G'day All, I had a clunk that I thought was coming from the rear end and knowing that the ball joint had been replaced with an adjustable type, anyway to cut a long story short, it was the bushes in the front raduis arms (nolathane p.o.s) I replaced them with genuine L/R parts and the rubber bushes at either ends 'No more CLUNK' so it pays to check everything 1st hope thats of some help cheers Dennis:angel:

[Brid]

I wouldn't discount axle flanges. I've found that if you stand on the rear wheel, and rock the wheel back and forth while holding onto the roof gutter, you can get enough momentum to replicate the knock. With assistance you may be able to locate it by sound that way.

Good luck
Brid

[Didge]

Hi guys, I'm a newbie here and bougnt a 95 Def about a month ago and have exactly the same problem. I'm hoping it's something cheap. Just had the A frame ball joint done but I know the shocks are all shot. When I've got the handbrake on, I can still stand on the rear wheels and rock back and forth (in fact can just do it with my hands on the wheels). Rear propshaft doesn't move (obviously) so it scares me to think it's the diff ;any thoughts? Front propshaft moves slightly with same loads applied.
cheers pirasea (Gerald)

[10 inches more]

I'm no expert here at all, I've just had a bit too much recent experience.... If you know your shocks are shot, chances are you should think about all other 'consumable' suspension bits eg bushes as per previous quotes in this thread.

I have noticed that with one wheel off the ground and the hand brake on, I still get something like 10-15 degrees wheel rotation via all the slack and back-lash in the diff. I assume this is about normal, Landys are famous for that, but after the recent bush/shock replacement I have no clunk from anywhere in the vehicle.

[Didge]

Thanks 10 inches more, which btw is an intriguing name. You guys collectively are giving me some heart and confidence about this and make for some really interesting reading. It's a great social network and I'm looking forward to meeting some of you on a trip or at some meeting in the future. Yeah, I did think I'd take the old girl to Pedders for their $14 or $28 supension check and then try to do it all myself. I'm sure if they have a look at it there'll be more than a few of those bushes, etc that need replacing. Overall its bound to be cheaper than a reco or new diff

[Bearman]

There is still the hint of a wobble after hitting bumps, but as a work horse I can put up with that.[/QUOTE]

I would say that your swivel housings are in need of a reco if this is happening. New bearings and railko bushes and pins........Brian

[dullbird]

keep an eye on up and coming events us lot around Sydney go out a fair bit:)

[fraser130]

My 130 has 80k on it, and it needs done, going to doo it before summer.
It's a simple job, but not easy, they are REALLY hard to remove.

Fraser

Fraz,
I had a proper look at mine yesterday, ended up the 4 bolts on the tailshaft at the handbrake end had become a little loose!
Tightened them up - it's back to normal now!

Fraser

[10 inches more]

[QUOTE=pirasea;1090580]Thanks 10 inches more, which btw is an intriguing name.

That is a reference to my Land Rover, not me.... :o

[Didge]

Nevertheless 10 inches, it sounds like a great conversation starter. 10:45pm just got in from reinstalling the clutch master cylinder. Put a kit in it $20 instead of paying a mechanic $200 for a new one. Hope it lasts a while. then notice the brakes master cylinder might be leaking - not everything breaks does it? Looks like I unintentionally bought a project car (95 300tdi def). Thanks for advice everyone, think I need to go front to back underneath and replace everything. btw, dullbird where do you guys notify each other of days out, etc? - here?
time for bed - work tomorrow
cheers Gerald

[Didge]

just testing to see if my pic works - havent' got to bed yet

[10 inches more]

I'm not sure about the defenders, I'd imagine they were a bit more hi tec than the early 110, but my clutch master cylinder is a trailer brake unit available anywhere from Repco for about $50.00. And the brake master cylinder of some later versions is genuine XE (?) Falcon. That sort of simplifies spare parts, but only after you know these things.

It also took me a while to work out the photo is called an Avtar....