Possible drivetrain problem

[Bat21]

During this years Morocco trip in a moment of lapsed concentration, I managed to nose dive the 80 into a fairly big ditch

In the photo it doesn't look like to much of a problem but, trust me, that's almost a 3 foot drop there and she was wedged on the front bumper, so I decided to reverse out.

All was going well until the front wheels got stuck on a rocky ridge. So I gunned the throttle in the hope that she would lift herself out. This just caused both rear wheels to dig in. But then I heard what I can only describe as a deep toned football rattle type noise coming from the drivers side (I think).

I thought I had fubbered some part of the transmission but, when we finally got her out the noise disappeared and was fine for days

A few days later I got her stuck again in some very sticky mud near the lake in the Ceder Forrest once again while wheel spinning this ratchety sounding noise returned

It has been raining since we got home so I haven't had chance to do any investigating.... any ideas what it might be? As my 80 is an import she only has a center diff lock + LSD rear.

 

[Julian T]

CV perhaps? or what I call planetary gears in the diff, the ones that allow one wheel to rotate faster than the other when turning.
Does the noise come back when you use full lock?
Can you feel anything through the steering or the chassis?

Just barnstorming here, perhaps someone else might have a better idea.
Good luck finding the problem,

 

[Ecoman]

Possibly splines on the drive shaft or inside the birfield?

 

[Bat21]

CV perhaps? or what I call planetary gears in the diff, the ones that allow one wheel to rotate faster than the other when turning.
Does the noise come back when you use full lock?
Can you feel anything through the steering or the chassis?

The guy with me on the trip though it might be the planetary gears in the diff, has anyone known these to cause a problem?

Not sure if it comes back on full lock, I didn't notice any feed back through the steering.

Possibly splines on the drive shaft or inside the birfield?

That's what I thought, but during the 'lake incident' the wheel that I suspect the noise appears to be coming from was spinning....

I guess I'm going to have to get it on a large wet field somewhere and do a few tests.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Pretty good chance it's borderline drive flange spline failure Paul. Have yours been upgraded to the thick ones or are you still on the original thin ones that were prone to this?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Were you reversing and in low box both times? Did you change the engine mounts when you had the engine out?

 

[Bat21]

Pretty good chance it's borderline drive flange spline failure Paul. Have yours been upgraded to the thick ones or are you still on the original thin ones that were prone to this?

That was my thought Jon, but the wheel I suspect it is was spinning up in the lake.... I haven't changed the flanges so I guess that will be my first area to check out.

Were you reversing and in low box both times? Did you change the engine mounts when you had the engine out?

Reversing the first time, going forward the second both in low box.... having said that, the noise could have been when I was manovering round so I may have been reversing the second time too.

I didn't change the engine mounts following the rebuild.... should I have done?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Sounds like this are notoriously hard to pinpoint where they're coming from but of course we're just guessing anyway. For most other faults I would expect there to be signs of the problem at other times, but that doesn't rule them out, just makes them seem less likely. Stripped splines is a reasonably common fault with the thinner drive flanges though. Usually when people change the CV's they end up getting the longer ones and also replace the drive flanges with the thicker ones to match them and then it's no longer a weakness. You can't use thick flanges with short CV's or long CV's with thin flanges.

I asked about the engine mounts because another 'problem' is the passenger side engine mount separating which most of the time is not obvious except for high torque situations in reverse especially in low box when the engine lifts off the mount and the sump rattles against the engine mount. This usually leaves tell tale marks on the lip and side of the sump. Bit of a long shot but worth mentioning

 

[nivapilot]

Might, just might be the centre casing of your LSD? If they are the same as the the 70 series, then I have known of two that have broken the casings..

Mine manifested itself as a loud clacking noise when under load.

 

[Graham]

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Where you able to drive it all the way back to England? or did you need recovery?

Gra.

 

[Bat21]

Thanks for the pointers chaps, I will have a look and see if there are any obvious signs of what is causing the noise once the weather clears up.

She drove perfectly Graham, the only 'repair' I had to do on the whole trip was to place a double sided sticky pad on one of the air vents that kept pointing down to low very time we drove on the rocky bits

 

[Graham]

Hi Paul,

Sorry to here you bad news on the transmission.

If I were you, I would mark "Morocco" as am unlucky place.

1/ Last time there you cracked the block
2/ This time you may have fubbered the transmission.

May be time to think of some where different

I am sure you will suss out just what the problem is, and I hope it's not going to hurt.

Gra.

 

[Andrew Prince]

If I were you, I would mark "Morocco" as an unlucky place.

IIRC, Paul also had a nasty accident returning from Morocco in his pre-cruiser days.

Didn't you have a bad experience in Morocco too, Graham? We never did hear all the details...

[/OT - sorry]

 

[Bat21]

Yes I do seem to have bad luck there.

Strangely enough this years mishap happened on the 26th April..... three years to the day after this

 

[Gav Peter]

I still find it amazing that you guys got out of that one Paul - getting shivers up & down seeing that again...

 

[Chas]

Yes I do seem to have bad luck there.

Strangely enough this years mishap happened on the 26th April..... three years to the day after this

I hadn't seen that before, my God you were lucky.

 

[frank rabbets]

Hi Paul

Just looked at the pics; put my hands together and looked up the sky. I thought serious off roading was voluntary not impossed by someone else. Glad everyone was OKish.

I assume that led you to the Landcruiser? When my Shogun was stollen that led me to the Landcruiser. Funny how some bad things turn ones lives in a more positive direction.

Frank

 

[joinerman]

F**k me paul, you were certainly lucky, any chance of picking my lottery numbers this week ?

 

[Bat21]

Well, 4 years on I have some rather embarrassing news..... this expensively sounding noise is something very simple.

I have changed the rear diff for an ARB locker but the noise was still there. I replaced both CV's and replaced the flanges for newer updated ones, but the noise was still there.

The culprit...... is the exhaust box that sits just below the drivers seat. In reverse when the motor is under load the torque is enough to 'twist' the motor on its mounts just enough for the exhaust box to vibrate giving this 'deep toned football rattle type noise'.

I suspect the bashing the exhaust got in the photo at the top didn't help with alignment either.

I will now go and find the biggest hole I can find and hide my head in embarrassment.

 

[Lorin]

For 6 years I chased a rattle in my old 80 that drove me nuts. Changed every bush, spent hours and hours shaking the truck, looking underneath, driving with my head out the window, inspecting and re-inspecting anything it might be, re-torquing bolts, getting others to drive the truck whilst I hang out the door and look underneath, paying for lots of labour to try and diagnose/fix the problem, and I never found it. Then I got another 80 and the same noise was there. Luckily I stumbled across a thread in the 60 series section on mud that described my noise and the fix - it was the steering column hitting the bulkhead where it goes through - due to having a bodylift. A simple rubber bush and it was fixed. I still can't get over how simple it was and how much I spent trying to fix it on the old truck!