propshaft

Did you pick it up? I could do with a spare.

As it would have detached at one end first and flailed around, I would think the culprit would have noticed, as it tried to batter its way through the floor.

David

On or around Thu, 4 Sep 2003 00:26:20 +0100, "Nigel Richardson" enlightened us thusly:

more worrying, did they notice?

was it useable? you could've grabbed it as a spare...

It seems incredible that it could just fall off a vehicle without associated damage. For starters, the vehicle would lose all drive wouldn't it? Until such time as the owner engaged diff lock in any case. It seems pretty dire that a vehicle can be in such a bad state that it can lose BOTH ends of the propshaft in close sequence.

OTOH, casting my mind back to REME though we did have a Bedford call in as the driver was having trouble with gear selection heading north on the A1 past Catterick. A quick inspection showed that only 2 bolts were holding the gearbox in!

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

Surely, if one end goes, as soon as the prop goes beyond the critical angle of the UJ, the other end is going to go pretty quickly, as it ceases to be a prop and becomes a big lever.

Once had to go to a Defender in Gainsborough ? (from Sheffield) that the front propshaft had parted company from the diff It was towing a big trailer so stopped rather quick but not quick enough to stop the prop ripping all the wiring out and attempting to panel beat the engine, chassis and associated parts I removed the offending prop,engaged diff lock put a wire from stop solenoid through the window to battery and shorted out the starter (who needs oil lights, temp sensors and the like) bob's your uncle back in time for tea tough cookies them land rover thingies

Andy

Probably, but with four stout bolts holding it in (assuming they are tight) how much other stuff would let go first? The image of a propshaft sat on its own in the middle lane tends to suggest it fell off a lorry. If it was very mangled and surrounded by other bits of car, with a Discovery sat on the hard shoulder 100 yards onwards then it would make a bit more sense. They are big heavy sods and at the sort of speeds it would be spinning around it would surely make a huge mess of the underside of the car.

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

depends if they hit the road first, quite a few vehicles have been flipped because of that happening.. prop breaks loose usually at the driven end, falls down and clouts the road, then is wound round and round a few times, hopefully breaking the spider at the diff end, or ripping one of the yolkes off and alowing it to fall off, but if your traveling empty when during the road hitting stage it can lift the back end up, if it's a long enough prop shaft.. you end up on your rood.

I keep meaning to make up the safety hoops to catch the porpshaft if it ever lets go on my van.. it's got a big bugger on it.. over 4 meters and with 2 centre bearings and all the ascosiated sets of uj's that go with that many joints, just need a hoop of 2 inch flat bar hanging from the chassis rails to cradle the prop if it ever lets go, i'd need at least 3 hoops, but these hoops will be a problem on landrovers i'd imagine, when you go off road and get hung up on them.

apparanly almost all trucks in australia have the prop catcher hoops fitted, they're just there to stop the shaft contacting the road, it'll still flail about a fair bitand beat up the underside of the vehicle i'd imagine, but that's better than having it on it's roof.

road, the vehicle and caravan appeared to be ok... But from my experiance propshaft U.J's don't just go without warning..It's a worthy note that if you have got an unfamiler noise or vibration, get it checked out, it might not just be your accident but the drivers behind you aswell !! Another point is that at the end of the day some poor old traffic officer will have to run out into the motorway and recover this lump of metal, That could be someone's life gone for the sake ignoring the warning signs of a mechanical failure.

In message , Nigel Richardson writes

How did you know it was from a Disco?

I agree entirely, and will be checking the 101 tomorrow, particularly after finding so many loose wheelnuts this evening! Mental note to look for some of those yellow pointers they fit to trucks.

I also seem to have a slow puncture in one of the blooming tyres already! I'll see what the pressure is tomorrow but should probably get a spare inner tube ordered just in case.

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

I presume that once one end dropped off the other end would very quickly disentegrate the UJ yoke and the whole arrangement, minus one drive flange would drop off. As for losing drive, I suppose it's possible he had it with the diff-lock on for ages and not noticed? I drove my IIa 45 miles with the 4wd engaged, and it wasn't untill I started wondering why the steering feel wasn't quite right and looked at the yellow lever I realised.

Alex

I had the rear UJ on the front propshaft of my Rangy let go at about

50km/h... Scared the crappers outta me. Still attached to the diff, it flailed around wildly, putting a big dent in the trans tunnel, cracking the gearbox casing and smashing the difflock actuator to bits... I pulled over quicksmart, but it still caused a hell of a lot of damage. (And yes, it had been making noises that I couldn't find, so I was on my way [gently] to the local mechanic!)

Macca