Hi all,

I've had some driveline vibration following a lift and additional lift and am wondering if anyone can point me in the general direction of a method to lower my transfer case to take some of the stress off of the driveshafts. I've seen videos and kits for jeeps but cannot find anything for discoveries. Any help?

I have a 2000 Disco II.

Thanks

Charlie V

 

I've never heard of that being done. The normal method to fix the harsh driveline angles is to adjust the angle of the third members' input shaft by rotating the axle, the location of which is set by the radius arms (front), and the trailing links and a-arm (rear). The most common method to change the angles is with cranked radius arms and trailing links. You can buy them from RTE or Terrafirma. Ideally, you also correct the driveline angle using an a-arm spacer.

If you rotate the front axle far enough, you also have to rotate the swivel ***** so the axis of the steering pivots are not tilted too far forward. You can do this with swivel ***** that are re-drilled so they're rotated on the axle housing. Most people find they can do a 3" lift using off-the-shelf Terrafirma or RTE links, and with these, castor-correcting swivel ***** aren't necessary. If you were trying to do something 5" or more and wanted to crank the pinion angle up even more, then it might take re-drilling the swivel ***** as well.


While RTE and Terrafirma offer "bolt-on" links, they're are plenty of people that have made their own, and for the average fabricator it is really quite a simple project and you may be able to do some things better if you're willing to cut and weld. There's quite a few good link kits out there that will provide pre-fabricated brackets, tube ends, and several kinds of joints. Add some quarter wall tubing of your choice diameter and you've got all the parts.

You can do a 3-link in front just as easily as custom radius arms, and in the rear, a triangulated 4-link kit is just about as simple as cranked links on the stock mounts and an a-arm spacer. So doing it on your own or with a local fabricator gives you several more options than off-the-shelf parts.


The only way I can think of to lower the transfer case would be to lower the transmission and the engine as well with some kind of spacers on the mounts. I can only see lowering the transfercase by itself being done on a divorced case that has cv joints or u-joints on the shaft from the transmission.

 

Strikingly informative response! Thank you!

Rotating the axle has been suggested to me and while I have driven 20000 miles with the lift (longer shocks and brake lines, of course) and otherwise stock setup with the only negative being basically no return to center for steering, I'm ready (time and money wise) to complete the project and start new ones. My total lift is 5 inches, 3 with springs and 2 with aluminum pucks on the spring perches. It will settle approximately one inch with a bumper I am installing this weekend and that may well resolve my problem. Lowering the transfer case was suggested to me by a person who had a transfer case approximately six inches below normal to straighten his drive shafts, but that was in the context of a discussion of a non electronic, non Land Rover, transmission and divorced transfer case, and he had a different vehicle. In the fog of information overload, I failed to recall that my transfer case is bolted up to the transmission.

I am going to read and re read your post tomorrow. Thanks for your thoughtful response.

Best,


Charlie V

 

With that much lift you will likely need to rotate your axle to correct your caster so that you correct your vague and wandering steering feeling, but that is the wrong direction to fix your driveline angles. If you can rework the front axle as suggested to correct the caster then you may be able to rotate the third member to fix the driveline, but a new custom driveshaft that has multiple double cardan joints might do the trick. Check out the Tom Woods site.

To confirm the problem is in your front driveshaft, you can pull it out and drive with the case locked. If the vibration is gone, you know which one to work on.

 

5".... 5degree castor correction and dc front and rear shafts.
linking is good but not a lot of room up front (exhaust is in the way and you have to get creative)

 

remove the exhaust, put stacks through the hood, good to go

 

that's a classy idea. you could also use them for mounting points for limb risers.

 

exactly dual purpose