Propshaft problems
WHEN did you last grease your propshafts? Pretty much every ‘traditional’ Land Rover has two of them, taking drive from the transfer ’box to the front and rear axles. The exceptions are the two-wheel drive Series vehicles built for the Royal Air Force which only have one propshaft, and the three-axle 6x6 vehicles which have three. The vast majority of these propshafts are of the conventional type, with a spider-style universal joint at each end and a sliding section towards either the front or the rear of the vehicle. There is a grease nipple on each joint and one for the sliding spline: these should be given three or four pumps from a grease gun at each service, and more often for vehicles regularly driven off-road.
There are a few less common variants on the basic propshaft design. Some vehicles have a double joint at one end of the front propshaft – basically two spider joints in tandem, with a self-centering device between them. These first appeared on the Series III 109 V8 and were used on various Land Rovers, notably the Discovery 2. Some of the more comfort-oriented vehicles (later Discovery 1 and Range Rover Classic, Discovery 2, Range Rover P38A) have a rubber ‘doughnut’ coupling at one end of the rear propshaft to cushion drivetrain shocks and give smoother gearchanges. For heavy off-road use, uprated propshafts are available with wide-angle yokes and a longer sliding section to allow greater axle articulation.
Given the odd squirt of grease in the right places, most propshafts will happily keep on turning for many years with no bother, but there are a few ways in which they can cause problems. I had a call the other day from the owner of a very smart ex-military One Ten. The vehicle had developed what he described as a squeaking sound when the clutch was released, which he thought might be the clutch release bearing starting to fail. This sits inside the gearbox bellhousing and is either engine or gearbox out to change. They don’t usually give much trouble unless the owner is in the habit of sitting at traffic lights for long periods with the clutch pedal depressed: too much of this kind of abuse causes the bearing itself to run hot and melt its plastic housing.
I wasn’t convinced from the symptoms he described that we were looking at a clutch fault, so I asked him to pop into the workshop so I could have a listen. I already had a strong suspicion as to the real cause. When the vehicle arrived I jacked up the front end, gave the front propshaft joints a waggle and found that the rear joint was starting to break up. The joint consists of a cross-shaped centre (the ‘spider’) with cups over the ends, running on needle roller bearings. Usually it is lack of lubrication which grinds the bearings to dust: typically the first sign of trouble is a high-pitched squeaking from somewhere underneath the vehicle under load. If this is ignored for long enough the spider joint will disintegrate completely, allowing the unsecured end of the propshaft to flail around and cause all kinds of carnage.
This particular vehicle had been in for a service only a few months previously, so I was a little surprised that it should have suffered a joint failure. To be fair, one of the problems with these spider joints is that the grease tends to harden inside them and block the lubrication passages to one or more of the cups, so unless they have been regularly greased from new, they can still run dry even with regular servicing. However, when I removed the propshaft I found the cause of the failure. The sliding section was seized absolutely solid. A short test drive confirmed the diagnosis: no front propshaft, no squeak.
Older Land Rovers have ‘live’ axles (sometimes known as beam axles), in which the axle casing, differential and wheel hubs form a single unit which moves up and down with the suspension. As a result, the distance between the output flange on the transfer ’box and the input on the differential is constantly changing, hence the sliding section. If the sliding sleeve seizes on its splines, the propshaft finds itself fighting against the movement of the front axle and eventually something has to give. Usually one of the joints fails before the end loading chews up the bearings in the transfer ’box and differential.
A seized sliding section can be very hard to detect without unbolting the propshaft at one end. Sometimes you can hear a strange twanging noise on bumpy roads but I have seen quite a few vehicles where seized splines remained undetected until one of the joints failed. On Series vehicles and earlier coil-sprung models the splines were plain steel and more likely to wear than seize. Worn splines can be detected by grasping the propshaft close to the sliding joint and giving it a good shake. Later vehicles (from the mid 1980s) have plastic coated splines to reduce friction: water can creep under the
■ Richard Hall bought his first Land Rover, a Series III, just after his 18th birthday and has since owned, maintained and restored these vehicles for over 30 years now. He runs a small Land Rover repair and restoration business in Norfolk and every month he lets off steam in LRM.
plastic coating and start to corrode the splines underneath, which distorts the plastic and locks the whole thing solid.
I did not have a replacement propshaft on the shelf, and my customer needed to get home. No problem running a Defender with the front propshaft missing: it will drive quite happily in rear-wheel drive with the differential lock engaged. You have to be gentle with gearchanges as the dog teeth on the differential lock have a fair bit of slack in them which will give you an almighty clang when you feed in the power unless you are careful. The vehicle is also noticeably less stable on twisty roads in two-wheel drive.
If the rear propshaft needs removing the vehicle can be driven in front-wheel drive. Note that if you are going to do this on any vehicle with an LT230 transfer ’box, the nuts which attach the rear propshaft to the transfer ’box must be refitted, with spacing washers to compensate for the missing propshaft flange. The handbrake drum is sandwiched between the propshaft and the output flange – the one or two small screws which hold the drum to the flange are only intended as an assembly aid and cannot be trusted to hold the drum in place on their own. On Series vehicles the handbrake drum is held on with six self-locking nuts which are plenty strong enough, but bear in mind that if you are driving through the front wheels you will have a lot of kickback through the steering wheel in tight bends.
So, you have a faulty propshaft... Do you repair or replace it? If the sliding section is seized or badly worn, a new propshaft is usually the only sensible option. A propshaft specialist can replace the sliding joint for you, but it is unlikely to be cheaper than a new propshaft unless you have something unusual and hard to find, such as the 109 V8 propshaft I mentioned earlier which will set you back £1100 or so for a new one from Land Rover. If it is just a spider joint which needs changing, repair will usually be cost-effective even if you have to pay someone else to do it. Two worn joints on the same propshaft will normally only be worth doing if you are changing them yourself and value your labour at zero.
Ignoring the rather daunting double-yoke designs, most older Land Rovers have spider joints in one of two sizes. Series vehicles up to around 1961 used the smaller size, 75mm across the ends of the cups, part number RTC3458. Land Rover then changed to the slightly larger – 82mm across – joint RTC3346 which covered the remaining Series production and some early Ninety and One Ten vehicles, before reverting to the smaller joint. In many cases propshafts with different joint sizes are interchangeable across vehicles of widely varying ages, so I would suggest you measure the joint before ordering.
There are several different techniques for changing joints, depending on the tools to hand. Ideally you need a big bench vice or a hydraulic press, but people have managed with nothing more sophisticated than a G-clamp. I normally cut through the spider joint inboard of the cups with a disc cutter, then tap the cups inward to remove them from the yokes. This is easier than trying to extract rusty circlips with the cups still pressed hard against them. The main points to watch are:
• Mark the position of each flange relative to the propshaft before removal, and make sure it goes back the same way it came apart.
• Ensure the yokes are nice and clean, including the groove for the circlip.
• Smother everything in grease as you assemble it – cups, spider ends, yokes.
• Try to avoid hitting anything with a hammer. Any kind of shock can cause one or more of the needle rollers to drop out of position and get trapped between the cup and the end of the spider, which will make it impossible to fit the circlips.
• Ensure the circlips are fully engaged in their slots.
On most older Land Rovers the propshafts are attached to the flanges with 3/8” UNF bolts and Nyloc nuts. Vehicles up to 1961 originally used 3/8” BSF fasteners although there is a good chance they will have been replaced with UNF by now. The nuts should always be replaced with new ones, part number NZ606041L (UNF) or 50526 (BSF). Recycled nuts have a habit of working loose. Access to tighten the nuts is not great as the yokes get in the way: a 9/16” AF slimline extended socket is available from most Land Rover specialists in either 3/8” or ½” drive and will quickly become one of your favourite tools.
One other issue I have come across with propshafts which is worth noting, relates to vehicles which have been fitted with a lift kit to raise them on their suspension. On a lifted vehicle the propshaft joints will be working at a steeper angle than standard. With a moderate lift (two inches or less) this is not normally a problem for the standard propshafts, but on a Ninety (where the rear propshaft is fairly short) heavy braking will make the rear end lift a bit further and it is not unknown for the rear propshaft to start making a chattering noise under braking. The solution in this case will be to replace the rear propshaft with a wide-angle type.
becoming scarce.
Good quality shaft seals, for example, are proving very tricky to find. My preferred brand for engine seals (crankshaft and camshaft) has been unavailable in most sizes since late last year, with no date yet available for the next delivery. I have tried other brands but the quality is not as good and I have had a couple of front crankshaft seals fail after a short time. Decent quality 300Tdi timing belts were briefly unavailable, leaving me hunting around for retailers who still had a couple in stock, but that problem seems to have resolved itself for now.
The biggest headache for me at the moment is finding good quality rear crankshaft seals – ERR2532 for 200Tdi and earlier, ERR6818 for the 300Tdi. Over the last ten years, poor quality crank seals have probably cost me more money than anything else. Because I do quite a lot of engine work I tend to buy these seals five or ten at a time. Twice now I have been supplied with batches of badly-made seals, and not realised there is a problem until I have fitted half a dozen of them and the first one comes back dripping oil from the wading plug hole: engine out under warranty, closely followed by five more exactly the same. I can claim back the cost of the seals (about a fiver each, trade) but the labour cost comes out of my own pocket.
From experience I have found two makes of seal that I can trust – both have now been unavailable for several months. I have identified a satisfactory alternative for the 300Tdi, but for the older engines I have a choice of the early type rubber seal (which seldom leaks but tends to wear a groove in the crankshaft over time) or the Indian-made plastic and aluminium seal which suffers from variable quality control regardless of the brand name on the box. The seal lip needs to be cut absolutely smooth and square for these seals to work properly – I have seen some which look as though they were trimmed with a junior hacksaw.
I recently found myself with a quiet day in the workshop, so I decided to set up the engine test bed and see if I could turn a couple of old 2.5 turbodiesels into running, saleable engines. The old 19J isn’t the most powerful, durable or popular engine that Land Rover ever made, but they work quite well as a cheap upgrade for a Series vehicle and a good healthy one will usually provide faithful service as long as it isn’t neglected or overworked.
One of the engines had broken a cam follower which meant lifting the cylinder head: the bores and pistons looked good (these engines tend to crack pistons if overworked) so it went back together with new hotspots and valve stem oil seals, plus a timing belt and tensioner. The other had been taken out as a running engine in favour of a 300Tdi and had a major oil leak from the rear crankshaft seal. I had two new seals lurking at the back of my otherwise empty crankshaft seal drawer, an old-school rubber seal and an Indian-made seal described as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer, that is a company that supplies components direct to car makers).
Both engines ran up well on the test bed with healthy oil pressure and minimal smoke. Admittedly it was a warm day, but I was impressed at how easily they started without having to use the glowplugs, which is the sign of a good healthy 19J. I was entirely happy, right up to the point where I noticed a small pool of oil accumulating in the bottom of the flywheel housing on the engine with the OEM seal. I was intending to fit that seal to an engine I am building up for a customer, and I am now very glad I did not do so. I have found a couple of original Dowty seals (the very best quality, unavailable for several years now) for sale online which I snapped up without hesitation, but having to scour the Internet for routine replacement parts is a headache I could well do without.