Propshaft proper shafted

Driving along happily yesterday afternoon in my 1989 90, god awful noise from underneath, pulled over to the side of the road, looked in wing mirror and saw a dark object in the road around 30 yards behind me - yep, it was my front propshaft.

The propshaft itself seems fairly unscathed bar a few scratches. The UJs have been obliterated though.

Q1: Is this fairly unheard of, or do propshafts 'occasionally drop off?! Q2: Is it unreasonable to simply reattach with new UJs, or is there some underlying fault which caused this to happen? Q3: Should I have been able to select 'Low Range' on the 4x4 gear stick and drive home - because I couldn't and thought I should have been able to (or does the vehicle have to move forward to engage this gear)?

TIA, Angus

Reply to
Fentoozler
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In answer as them falling off. I once hit a truck propshaft at 70mph on the M1 near JC31. It utterly destroyed my car on the nearside as i did try to get over as much as i could as it end on ended down the very busy road! The coppers dragged my car off lane 1 & shoved it onto the hard shoulder. The lorry it dropped off was 3 weeks old!!! It was a fecking huge long lorry, not a tractor unit, it ripped the centre crarrier right off!! Was a mess i can tell you & that was just my pants!

Nige

--

Subaru WRX Range Rover 4.6 HSE (The Tank!)

WANTED: Series, 90 or 110 Project but must be runner with MOT

'"I don't remember asking you a goddam thing"

Reply to
Nige

Fentoozler uttered summat worrerz funny about:

UJ do fail... when was the last time they were greased?

To gain traction you would need to switch on your diff lock, not just put it in to low box. I've not driven a 90 but guess it involves moving the Hi lo selector sideway rather than to the Lo position.

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

Not unheard of, but invariably due to poor maintenance, either loose bolts on the flanges or badly worn u-joints.

If the ears on the shaft are in good condition simply replacing it with new U-joints is acceptable - but it is unlikely this is the case.

You should have been able to engage the centre diff lock and continue driving. Low range is not necessary.

Note that before parting company the shaft is likely to have done considerable damage underneath, which could range from a few panel dents to substantial damage to body, chassis, engine, front axle and transfer case and gearbox. In particular, even if no damage is obvious, there is likely to be damage to the transfer case output bearings and seal and to the front axle pinion bearings and seal. JD

Reply to
JD

Bugger. The engine stills runs sweet as a nut, and I can't see any obvious damage - I guess it would make a large difference which end broke off first, so the propshaft would have either dragged along, or, worse, been pushed along.

BTW, the UJs were examined around 6 months ago and regreased with a compressor-grease-gun, everything seemed tickety-boo then.

They appear to be the longer-cup UJs - are these a standard UJ? My mate has some spare short ones, but these obviously won't fit.

Angus

Reply to
Fentoozler

It's my guess that the front must have let go first. If the back UJ had let go first then it would just have dragged along the road surely? That means that the shaft must have dug into the road and been torn off the rear end which must have done some damage to something. Or am I talking out of my tailpipe? TonyB

Reply to
TonyB

If the rear end let go first, the shaft would have been confined by the crossmember, chassis, engine and floor (to the detriment of all these!) - and the front probably would not have let go. So I think you are probably right. JD

Reply to
JD

Count yourself as lucky mate had the front end dug in parts of your diff and maybe back propshaft could have been lying in the road with it. I saw a big yank tank do similar and dislocate the back axle Derek

Reply to
Derek

Given that it would have been doing something round 2-3000 rpm at the time, and continued to be spun round until it broke off, the last thing it would be doing would be being dragged along, regardless of which end came off first. More like it would have been flailing about wildly, knocking 10 bells of slit out of anything in the vicinity.

Reply to
SimonJ

It's reasonably common amonst owners who ignore the symptoms! Not having a pop at you, but UJ's give plenty of warning when they are unhappy.

If the yokes are undamaged - you'd be lucky if that is the case.

It's not low range you need (that's Series vehicles)- it's diff-lock - push the high-low gearstick away (towards the left) from you.

Richard

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Reply to
beamendsltd

And when you get your propshaft fixed, unseize your range transfer lever as well, you should be able to access the seized bit through the middle seat access plate.... as others say, you should have pushed to the left, not forward to get diff lock. You aren't driving a series ;-)

Regards

William MacLeod

Reply to
willie

On or around Mon, 6 Mar 2006 08:40:37 +0000 (UTC), beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

I've a theory (not about to go out and try to prove it) that using low-1 to descend the slippery hill that I went off the edge of the other day was a mistake, would have done better with low-2 or low-3 even - low-1 makes a lot of engine braking which may have caused the front end to lose grip and caused no steering. 's possible that appliction of power would have got it back on line, but there's a limit to how much wheelspeed you can get in low-1 to catch up with the ground, so to speak.

Mind, the old rangemaster radials don't seem much good in snow - not enough sideways grooves, I reckon.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

You did have the diff-lock in (and working)? I ask as not disimilar things happened to me last winter when I'd forgotten to engage it - the front and rear wheels were trying to go in opposite directions!

I went back up the hill and did it again with the diff-lock in and walked it.

Driving in slippery conditions without the diff-lock off I find very alarming.

I've found them very good in snow an ice.

Richard

Reply to
beamendsltd

ISTR a thread in here within the last 12 months saying that engine braking with the diff-lock on can cause the wheels on one side of the vehicle to rotate in one direction while the wheels on the other side go in the other; I suppose you have to pick your poison ;-)

Try preventing yourself from refusing to avoid using the double negative..

Reply to
Ian Rawlings
I

I would recommend a trip to the Doctor and get your hearing checked.

You should hear a problem on a propshaft long before it drops off !!!

Reply to
Marc Draper

Around 6 months ago I was getting an intermittant rattle from near the front of the vehicle which was suggested to me as a possible UJ problem. We had the propshaft off, the UJs were inspected by a 'landy expert' who said they were sound and simply needed a re-grease - which was duly done. The rattle disappeared and I had no probs until Saturday.

Angus

Reply to
Fentoozler

On or around Mon, 6 Mar 2006 14:46:12 +0000 (UTC), beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

series III...

and yes, the front drive was working.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

On or around Mon, 6 Mar 2006 19:30:09 +0000, Marc Draper enlightened us thusly:

I dunno - I've had one get quite far advanced in the wear department on a

300 TDi disco and not be noisy. Vibration, yes; noise, not especially. eventually it got noisy. Mind, it didn't get any where near falling off, but it had got to the "destroyed the needle rollers" stage.
Reply to
Austin Shackles

I'll agree there Austin - I'd never tackle a slippery downhill in low-1 as the result is normally exactly what you experienced. Low-3 is what i use in my series with high ratio diffs and a Holden 6 cylinder that gives silly amounts of engine braking - I'd reckon that was about right for a standard 2.25 and 4.7 diffs too.

Reply to
EMB

In message , Fentoozler writes

Too much torque wrench on the bolts when it went back on?

Reply to
mark

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