Thread: Disco1 clunks

mainshaft in the gearbox and/or the transfer gear is where those systems led me on the defender....


$2.5k of hurt.....

Originally Posted by incisor

mainshaft in the gearbox and/or the transfer gear is where those systems led me on the defender....


$2.5k of hurt.....

That is what I thought it was originally but I have checked that and it is in perfect nick.

you moved the gear or just looked at it?

mine looked fine till the gear was moved....

I pulled the gear out through the PTO hole and had a good look.

Pics in this thread.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php't=29129&page=6

I'm thinking that if it isn't normal (and I can't see how it could be) that there would be a front output shaft and it has worn splines. I've been looking through the RAVE CD for a bit and can't find the exploded view of the transfer case. I've seen it before but I just can't find it now.

Transfer serial number 28D311258E

Ok I spoke too soon. I found the diagram. I'll drain the oil and remove the front output housing cover and the bottom cover and see what I can see see see.

Would be good to hear from other people with more of an idea than myself. Which is just about anyone As I won't be able to play with it until later in the week at work.

It will then be a combination of a little of ALL of the following.

1) If the rear shaft is locked by the handbrake and does NOT move at all, but the car still rolls and rocks when on flat ground it's wear in the rear shaft splines and/or the spider gear pins in the diff. If there's wear in the pins, either live with it, or replace the diff centre with a lower mileage unit. Rebuilding the diff will still not totally overcome the problem of total system slack, because:

2) If the CDL has some influence on the amount of slack, you have slack in the CDL itself.

3) The front diff will also have some of number 1 involved.

There's really no way around the slack in the driveline without spending many thousands dollars to REDUCE not remove the slack. The clunking comes from the slack, and the easiest way to reduce this is technique.

I know it's impossible to prevent all clunking by the way you drive, but little things like doing ALL of your slowing/braking before an erosion bank and driving through it all the way rather than applying drive only to the top. Same thing with holes - rather than FALLING into them (where you go from drive, to coast, to drive rapidly) brake for them, then gently drive into and through them.

It's worse in low range because of the gearing, and that will always be so. Just as it's worst in first high than 5th high.

I went through the same process as you looking for the slack, thinking it was something wrong. Not saying it's RIGHT but it's normal. And frustrating...

I figured that the slack was a little bit in everything but the clunking seems to be front driveshaft related. So if I could rectify that for not too much then I would.

Over the course of last weekend I think I came close to perfecting the clunkless drive. However every now and again you'd do something wrong and you'd get a big rocking noise. Seems to be more when you are concentrating harder on other things like when you are doing tight manouvering on side slopes and steep slopes.

If nothing else comes of it I'll get to reseal both of the covers as they both appear to leak. Although I think every seal on the transfer case leaks.

I'm considering upgrading the rear axles and drive plates with maxidrive units when I get some bigger play tyres so that would get rid of some of the slack as a side benefit.

I locked the rear diff and it didn't appear to make any difference in the amount you could rock the car back and forth with the hand brake on and the rear driveshaft not moving.

I have found that I can ignore an extraordinary amount of noises just by reminding myself that Land Rovers do that

Thanks for your info.

Sorry I couldn't give you a magic bullet!

It's not hard to whip the half shafts out to check the splines. Also, if you have a trusty assistant, you can take the filler plugs out of the diff and shine a light in to see the goings on as trusty assistant rocks the car back and forth with the handbrake on. That way you'll get a better idea of the order of slack take up and the proportions of slack along the way.

You won't fix it but you'll understand it more gooder.