First post here, and in a bit of a bind... possibly.

So diagnosis on this at this point has been minimal, but I am about to do further checks to be sure we have an axle failure. We are currently on a road trip with the car, out in Oregon... We live in PA. First symptoms were a light vibration, and "clunky" feeling shifting. Also noticed that the car lost 4WD function (it will now only spin only 1 rear wheel in mud and does not seem to power the front wheels). Today, when the car was in park it rolled down a slight incline slowly while we were away from it.

To drive, it feels a bit like it's attached to a long chain (i.e. feels like it has a ton of drive line lash.


Tomorrow, we plan on jacking it up on each corner and checking to see if each wheel spins individually to verify we if we have lost an axle.

We have tools on hand, and should be able to swap an axle if we need to. If it's not an axle, and turns out to be a front differential, transfer case or similar, how bad would it be to drive it 2000 miles with the front drive shaft out of the car, would that even help? As it sits, it drives- but feels pretty funky. We have about 2000 miles to get it home...

 

If you don't have your RAVE, on-line access in my signature.

You can drive with front propshaft off if CDL engaged.

You would want to drain diff and look for metal.. If you find any, perhaps flush with lots of thin mineral spirits, etc, to get any chunks out that you can, while turning slowly and safely supported. Refill with 85W150 gear lube, and maybe even a tube of regular bearing grease (makes a pudding).

 

It's a 93 range rover, they don't have a center diff lock. I have 4H and 4L with a viscus coupling and 2 open diffs front & rear.

 

Sorry - my mistake.

 

Found this in the RAVE about the viscous clutch - it seems that it removes the need for a CDL, so with front shaft off it should make rear work, may be a slight delay as jelly has to change viscosity.


need for a manually controlled differential lock.

 

I'd be afraid it would burn up the viscous coupler if you drove around like that for too long... if it even will drive like that. There might need to be at least some friction on the opposite side for it to work... not sure.

Maybe the viscous unit is what's broken anyway? But the ashcroft site says when they fail the usually fail in a locked up state. But then that could cause the CV or diff to fail.

Ashcroft Transmissions - Range Rover Viscous Coupling

 

My bet is the front pass side half shaft.