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First breakdown - no drive!

Jack P

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Jan 3, 2016
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great_britain
Hi All,

So today my trusty old land cruiser broke down :cry: Its an 05 plate 120 lc4 5 speed auto. On about 140K

Started her up, into drive all fine. Set off and after a couple of meters I heard a light clonk from underneath, then a couple more meters further on the drive went. The car was already warm having driven it a few miles 10 mins prior to this. Haven't noticed anything wrong, no strange noises, been driving fine. Put into natural and back to drive, the engine revs but no movement. Same for reverse. Tried changing from high to low range but exactly there same. Moving the shifter from park to reverse makes a grinding noise. Reverse to neutral to drive to d4 d3 etc is fine. Moving the high/low range gear is fine. Rolls ok in neutral. Couldn't see any oil leaks and nothing was hanging down underneath. Not sure its relevant but the middle exhaust section was replaced just before Christmas.

Got to wait till Monday when the garage opens to learn its fait.

Anybody else had this or know what it could be?

Any input welcome.

Thanks
Jack
 
Symptoms agree with broken front diff, cv or drive flange. If it moves ok with a locked center differential, it would confirm that theory. Could also be that the exhaust man forgot to tighten the prop.shaft bolts after removing it - heard about that before.
 
Second that. Lock centre diff and see if it moves. Most likely cv or drive flange. Limped home many times off the lanes in cdl.
 
Thanks both you guys. Thats one thing I didn't try, I'll give the diff lock a go tomorrow and see what happens.
 
Result!! She moves when the diff is locked. Thanks guys.

Next question is can I drive it to the garage like that? I know diff lock on tarmac is a big no no. Is it called wind up as the wheels can’t move freely when cornering, if that makes sense. Resulting in all manner of bad things. However as something is broken will that allow the wheels independent rotation?

also no nasty grinding with diff locked when moving from park to reverse.

thanks again folks
 
There's a lot of myth surrounding driving with the diff locked. There is quite a bit of free play in the system and as long as you aren't doing Tee junctions the system will cope. It might complain a little and feel slightly tight, but remember there is a diff at each end too. So there won't be huge amounts of wind up. As an emergency measure you should be fine, but I'd maybe plan your route will to avoid as many mini roundabouts etc as possible. If you can do it when it's quiet, you could try to coast some bits with the diff unlocked. Only you know the route
 
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If there is a break in the drive system front or rear then engaging CDL will only result in it acting like any 2WD vehicle. Roundabouts junctions etc will present no issues to the remaining drivetrain. Since there is no rear axle diff lock on an LC4 then that can't be a factor either.
 
As Andy says.
It would be an issue if it is the front diff which is broken. You could have broken teeth or other pieces moving about, jamming or braking other parts. If it is a drive flange otoh, it would be OK for a short trip. At least have a look under to see that the CVs and props are in place, preferably while someone is rolling/driving the car a meter. Or rotate wheels while jacked up.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll have a good inspect of the drive shaft and cv etc, I'm no expert but I could probably tell if something is broken. If I jack up one wheel at a time and find one spinning freely when in gear that would indicate a broken cv I guess. I shall have a word with the garage before I move it.
 
Should be able to give the driveshafts on the front of a 120 a good wiggle as they are exposed unlike a solid axle. You should soon feel a problem if one has let go. As you stated Jack one corner up at a time you should soon find the culprit.
 
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Have you still got centre diff locked? If not one will spin freely. Lock it and see if the rear prop moves when turning the rear wheel. If not you found your problem. Either rear shaft or diff. I would be surprised to be fair if it's either of those. My money would be on front cv .
 
My bad told you wrong. Lock rear diff also . Can you hear anything untoward whilst rotating wheel. If you can't lock rear Jack both rears off the floor with centre locked and rotate wheels. Both should turn opposite ways and check rear prop is moving
 
No rear diff lock on lc4. That’s a good point though, I believe the centre diff was locked although the ignition was off so no sure if that makes a difference to the lock working or now. In drive, I jacked up each corner individually both front had ever so slight movement but definitely connected somewhere, same for near side rear. Off side rear rotated all the way round with ease.

Gave all front cvs a good jiggle and seemed to hold firm.

Anyhow I decided to play it save a loaded it onto a trailer to get it moved. Garage is super busy so can’t look till next Monday. No sure what parts availability is like what with everything going on. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.
 
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It does very much sound as though you've lost drive in the rear axle somehow. If it drives with the centre diff locked then it effectively driving in front wheel drive.
You could have lost the splines on the end of the half shaft at the diff. You could also have lost teeth on the crown and / or pinion but that's fairly catastrophic. First thing really is drop the diff oil and look for metal. It's possible that the splines on the diff have stripped too. If that is the cause, likely as not you're going to have to inspect both components. Not as straight forward as an 80 series which has a fully floating axle. I suppose it's possible that a half shaft has snapped. On the wheel end of a 120 shaft, the drive flange is part of the shaft if I recall. The same as a Colorado.
 
Well then folks the old land cruiser is all fixed! No mechanicing points for me though as It turned out to be one of the front drive shafts. Good as it was a quick and relatively cheap fix. Still a bit confused by the back wheel spinning when I jack it up!?!?
 
Well done, probably the cheapest fix out of the possible suspects....
 
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