96 Discovery - having problems with what I thought was the transfer box. The truck would not move unless it was locked in low. It would not move in unlocked high, unlocked low, or locked high. I have it on jackstands under the front axle to make room to work underneath. Rear tires are on the ground with chocks. I've disconnected the rear propeller shaft at the box and was starting to unbolt the front. The rear propeller shaft will not rotate, which makes sense with the rear wheels on the ground. The front propeller shaft turns freely. That would seem to make sense also, with the front tires off of the ground. What doesn't make sense to me is the front wheels do not turn when I rotate the propeller shaft. It turns freely in both the transfer box and the front differential. There seems to be a rubbing or light grinding sound coming from the front differential when I turn the shaft, but I don't know if this is normal.

Is this how this supposed to behave? Should the front wheels turn over when I turn the front propeller shaft, no matter whether the transfer box is in gear or not?

Thanks for any advice.

 

PM me your tele number and I'll call you.

 

Mike,

I drained the oil from the front differential. It was a good color and had an ample amount of oil in it. No metal shavings in the pan.

The transfer box was a different story. When I removed the plug, about a cup of dark brown oil came out with some metal shavings. I put a magnet rod into the hole and pulled out some larger pieces. Evidently the low oil level in the box has led to it's early demise.

I've found some used transfer boxes on ebay at a reasonable price and close enough to pick them up. Looks like rebuilding the box is a lot more work and complexity than I want to get into. I'll get started tomorrow with pulling the transfer box and ordering some new seals.

Check your fluid levels everyone. Thanks for your help and advice, Mike.

 

Oh great readers, I need your collective wisdom to make my truck move on its own power for about 50 feet.

You all are going to hate me for saying this, but I want to trade in my '96 Disco as a "clunker" (if more $$ is allocated). I have owned it for two years - bought it for $2000, and have loved using it, but now it doesn't move. The manual transmission is on its way out - I currently have 3, sometimes 4 forward gears. It has other issues too. I think $4500 would be a nice.

I had been driving it for about two hours on the highway. When I pulled off and turned to the right, there was a bad clunking sound, then scrape, scrape, scrape. I straightened the wheels, then was not able to turn them again to the left. I rolled it forward, then was able to turn the steering wheel, but then there was a louder clunk and it stopped moving.

I towed it home and found that the front prop shaft moves fine. I opened the drain and filler plug in the front differential, and all was fine in there - lots of oil and no metal. I have not check the transfer case - and in fact am not sure where that is, but since it is not the transmission and not the differential, and the hubs both seem good, it must be that.

I have tried locking the differentials in high and low range, but get no movement there - I am thinking that might be yet another issue.

If I am not too much of a heretic, can you give me some input here? Serious - I can weld, glue, duct tape, whatever. It only needs to roll into the dealership. Thanks.

 

That's exactly what the symptoms you described pointed to.
Not moving in unlocked hi or low could be any component in the front or rear section of the drivetrain being broken.
Moving in both hi and low locked could be the transfer case, but more than likely something in front or rear axle.
Moving in low locked but not high locked could only be the transfer case.

 

Sounds like a broken CV joint, or axle.
This is one of the reasons I hate the cash for clunkers program. Driving up the cost of used Disco's using my tax dollars to do it.

 

So what are you going to do. It doesn't make sense to dump another grand into this when I can get another one for $1500 that works. Anyway. I jacked all four wheels off the ground this morning and note that ONLY THE FRONT PROP SHAFT TURNS. Nothing from the back, no matter where I stick the diff lock. There are no bad noises to speak of. I pulled checked out the drive flanges and they are fine. If I turn the steering wheel to right lock, I can get the left wheel to turn sometimes. The reason I am pretty sure the problem is in the front half of the car is that that is where all the noise came from originally, and when it initially happened, I could not turn the steering wheel to the left.

I think the front differential is fine, as there are no metal shards in it, so it has to be down stream of that, right? If it is not the drive flange, what else can it be?

Also, can I assume that the fact that the rear prop shaft doesn't move when I try to lock the differentials indicates there is a separate problem, might that not be an easier fix? If I can lock it, even into low, that would do for my purposes.

Oh - by the way. If anyone needs anything in particular off this truck, that the dealer is not going to notice, I would be happy to get it to you. If you can give me an answer that gets it moving, you can have it for only the price of shipping. (Anybody need a CD Changer?) Thanks.

 

Broken CV joint or axle (could be stripped splines on the drive flange, but unlikely based on the sounds)
High or low locked will always turn both output flanges on the transfer case if it's working properly. So you have a problem with the transfer case based on what you describe.

 

I think both the CV and the transfer case have issues. Funny - running front wheel drive only all this time and never got stuck in the snow. Its all in the mind. Thanks for your help. Matt

 

So, thanks to your ideas, I went out on Sunday and put a pipe wrench on the front driveshaft and wedged it against the catalytic converter to keep the shaft from turning. This sent the power to the rear wheels and I was able to move the truck. Of course the wrench fell off when I went in reverse, but never mind that. Since I only need to make it move a block or so, so the truck can be executed and shredded, I am thinking of just welding the pipe wrench to the driveshaft and something solid underneath.

Of course, with two well placed pipe wrenches, with a broken front anything, you might be able to get your truck out of the woods in a pinch...

Matt