Any movement is unacceptable. Changing the U-joint will take an hour.

 

I decided to rebuild the rear shaft. Everything went fine—I even cleaned it up a bit. But when I went to put it back in, one of the nuts that attaches the shaft to the handbrake drum wouldn't tighten. It just kept spinning. I took a close look at the bolt, and the threads toward its base were all flattened out, as if someone had forced a nut on there crookedly. I remembered finding an unaccounted-for crush washer earlier, and I believe whoever had the shaft off last tried to fix it by throwing on a crush washer. That's probably an ok repair, but I'm now looking to get some new bolts.

Anyone have specs or a part number on these nuts and bolts? AB's site has some for the front shaft and the rubber coupling, but I'm not seeing anything for the handbrake bolts. Edit: according to Rovers North, the bolts and nuts are the same as for the front shaft: http://www.roversnorth.com/Land-Rover-Parts/965

Also, is it easy to replace these bolts? I'm looking at the RAVE, and it seems the handbrake drum is easy to get off by removing one retaining screw. Do you also have to remove the whole handbrake to get at these bolts?

As an aside, I used Simple Green to clean up the rear shaft when I took it out. This stuff works wonders. I've been using it for a while, and I highly recommend it for general cleaning of greasy stuff. Here's a pic with the before on the bottom and after on the top.




Top is cleaned with Simple Green, bottom is before.

 

Sorry, no experience. Keep us posted. Good luck!

 

I've managed to get the shaft back on to spec torque using the crush washer as a temporary fix while I sort out what to do with the flange that connects to the transfer box. The vibration didn't go away, and I can't say I'm surprised with that result.

I'm pretty stumped at this point and am unsure what to do next. I could put on new tires and see if that changes anything (I'm due for a set soon), but I don't want to spend money if this turns out to be something expensively wrong, like needing a new transfer box. Plus, the wheels have been balanced already.

I'm going to think about it for a couple days, but I may have to take it in to the shop—perhaps they'll have a better idea.

 

Did you check to see if you flywheel flexplate is cracked? It's the thin metal plate between you engine flywheel and the transmission torque converter. They crack sometimes and cause vibrations thru the drivetrain.

I have also seen the front driveshaft be the problem as well. Do you have center transfer case lock? If you do, you can remove one driveshaft at a time and test drive the vehicle. This basically makes your D2 two wheel drive temporary. Can help eliminate one axle from possible causes.

 

Thanks for the tip on the flywheel. I'll certainly check! I hadn't heard about that one.

I rebuilt and reinstalled the front shaft about three months ago, so it seems unlikely to be the culprit. I tried putting some weights on it, thinking that if it was out of balance, adding weights should produce some kind of change in the vibration, but it had no effect. I also took some video of it under operation, and it looked fine.

I'm still not 100% convinced it's not the front shaft, but I can't think of what else I could do to eliminate it. I don't have CDL despite that it's an '04 model (it's non-US spec).

 

Check the ring and pinion. I was having the same symptoms of vibration, but also had a whine at 60-70 mph. Just replaced the rear 3rd member and it's smooth as silk. Rear pinion had heavy wear on it. Looks like it was not setup correctly from the factory.

 

Thanks for the tip. I just replaced the rear diff (and there was no change in vibration), but there's a chance it's the front one. I'm noticing what could be a slow oil leak from the front diff (no evidence of dripping, but the area around the housing looks dark) and a little play in the shaft when it's in certain positions but not others. Is there any way to diagnose this short of opening up the diff?

I researched the flywheel flex plate, and the symptoms don't match what I have, but I'm also not ruling that out yet.

 

Does either diff have a vibration damper installed? There are common on P38 Range Rover's. I don't think D2's have a them but I'm sure they can help cover up the vibration. Not really a fix for the root cause.

I've also seen the front diff shaft inner joint develop resistance, even with good u-joints. I like to run the car on a lift with the wheels off the ground a watch to rotation of the shafts and tires. Maybe worth taking your D2 in a shop

 

A quick update on this one: I took it into the shop, and it turns out it's the tires. They balanced and rotated them earlier, but one was out of round, which no amount of balancing can correct. They're giving me a used tire to drive around on until I go get new tires tomorrow.

I also had them replace the bolts for the rear transfer box flange to the driveshaft, so it wasn't an entirely fruitless visit.

Note that I wanted to double-check the tires myself by swapping in the spare for each of the tires, but when I went to fill the spare to pressure, the filler neck completely broke off.

This has been a good learning experience. I thought by balancing and rotating I'd more or less eliminated the tires, but that's not a foolproof way to do so. I've also heard that balancing jobs are fairly easy to botch, which is another reason not to quickly dismiss the tires.