Real Time Advice - Broke 80 in Arlington (1 Viewer)

[Felix]

Drove the 80 for the first time in a while on the way to a doctors appointment. Almost there when I get a grinding noise from the rear end. Only when I press the accelerator (even a tap) but no noise when coasting, in gear or neutral.

I left it in a parking lot and walked the rest of the way to the appt. Now I'm sitting on an exam table, figuring I should have a plan for my departure.

My first thought is that my rear diff has lost all gear oil. I think this because of the above, plus I remembered there's a little puddle in the dirt where I sometimes park it, right at diff area. I figured I'd spilled something.

If that's the most likely thing and I just want to get it home and worry about it later, should my plan be to...

Lock rear diff, pull both rear axles, stay in low so I have the center locked, and limp home like that?

 

[Felix]

Alternatively, I could leave it and come back to toe it with the 4Runner.

 

[iptman]

Do you have the center diff lock button installed? If so you can lock that and pull the rear drive shaft.

 

[Felix]

Screw it. I'm driving it home.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Do you have the center diff lock button installed? If so you can lock that and pull the rear drive shaft.

FYI You dont need a center diff lock, just put the t-case in low to lock the center diff and pull the fuse and shift into high range.

 

[bkfj40]

didja make it home?

 

[bkfj40]

ok...I give up.

I'm calling dibs on @Felix 's lockers.

 

[shmukster]

Well Felix how did you make out? The suspense is killing us...............

 

[iptman]

Looks like we need to arrange a search mission.

 

[Stumpalama]

No kidding...

 

[35inchoverdrive]

I have this mental picture of Felix being stranded on the mean streets of Arlington, checking out his rear diff, when suddenly a tough looking group of Land Rover guys come walking up(clad completely in LL Bean, Orvis, Arcteryx etc) and mutter, "Sorry ole chap, but this section of fine real estate belongs to us..."

 

[Felix]

Sorry, everyone. I'm sick as a dog (hence the doctor's visit), and our 9-month-old isn't doing much better. So, I wasn't able to get back online last night.

Got home okay by limping along and taking advantage of the fact that my house is mostly downhill from where I was in Arlington. Didn't hear any nasty noises from the back end, so hopefully I got back without making things TOO much worse. At this point, I'm just going to wait until our move and I can dig into in in a garage.

Thanks for all the immediate assistance. I may have given it a go if I hadn't been told that I would most certainly be towed over night in the lot that I'd parked it in.

 

[Felix]

I have this mental picture of Felix being stranded on the mean streets of Arlington, checking out his rear diff, when suddenly a tough looking group of Land Rover guys come walking up(clad completely in LL Bean, Orvis, Arcteryx etc) and mutter, "Sorry ole chap, but this section of fine real estate belongs to us..."

Pretty spot on. the only part you left out was when they went on to beat me with something called a "spanner."

 

[Blue77FJ40]

My first thought was perhaps a u-joint had failed. I had that happen on my my commute home in my old mini one day. Can't remember if coasting made a sound or not. Might be worth checking out.

Your downhill ride home reminds me of my '66 Bug I had as a kid that always had the good sense to crap out on the long downhill road to my house.

 

[Stumpalama]

I like the ujoint assessment. I had one go an it made a horrendous noise and vibration at speed... quite when off the gas. Mine were rust dust when disassembled.

 

[Blue77FJ40]

I like the ujoint assessment. I had one go an it made a horrendous noise and vibration at speed... quite when off the gas. Mine were rust dust when disassembled.

That's exactly what I found: all bits of rusted roller bearings telling me I failed to keep my u-joints properly lubed.

I won't tell you how stupidly I used to go about lubing the zerk fittings on the rear driveshaft, D'oh! A bulb went off over my head one day, and since then, I chock the front tires, put the tranny in neutral, put the the rear axle up on jack stands so that both tires spin, and leisurely turn the rear driveshaft to get the zerks into just the right position. Easy peasy now.

 

[emorth]

An interesting U-joint story.

Problem: A car kept having very, very frequent U-joint failures on both ends of the drive shaft. Techs couldn't figure out what was wrong. They kept looking for a mechanical problem.

Observation: Out of desperation, after numerous U-joint replacements, the techs started looking at everything on the car to try to find a cause. They noticed that the ground strap between the engine and chassis had deteriorated and was broken. The battery negative cable was just attached to the chassis.

Diagnosis: With the failure of the ground strap between the chassis and engine, the primary ground path from the starter motor back to the battery was: starter motor, engine block, transmission housing, U-joint, drive shaft, U-joint, axle housing, springs, chassis, and battery negative cable back to the battery. So, every time the car was started the high starter motor current passing through the roller bearings inside the U-joints would weld them in place. Then, when the car moved the welds on the now damaged bearings would break creating debris inside the U-joint. This situation ultimately destroyed the roller bearings in a very short period of time.

Fix: They replaced the chassis to engine block ground strap. The U-joints never failed again.

Moral: Make sure your starter motor has a good ground. Your U-joints will thank you.

 

[Felix]

Thanks, I'll check the u-joints first.

Ed. That is horrifying.

 

[John Smith]

Another vote to check your ujoints first.

 

[iptman]

I have a spare drive shaft if you want to swap it in and check if it's the u joints. However I imagine if you pull the DS and that is indeed what caused the noise it'll be pretty clear with it in hand.