RR NO DRIVE TO FRONT WHEELS

[sean m]

Have a 93 RR and no drive to front wheels have raised rear wheels and run in first gear and front prop turns theres no undu noises, also jacked up one rear wheel off ground and turned front prop by hand and rear wheel turned any ideas anyone.

[waveydavey]

Have you tried jacking up the front and turning one wheel? The other side wheel should turn the other way, if not I would start wondering if somebody has disabled the front disk and locked hte centre diff.

[FITZ4X4]

If the front props turning and you have no drive to the front wheels you either have a broken front half shaft of a broken front diff.

The other remote possibility is someone removed part of the front stub axle shafts to make it 2 wd.

[Range Rover Blues]

Your 93 classic should have the borg warner viscous diff, if there is no diff lock on the high-low knob then it's as it should be.

This means you can drive the car even if one axle has fallen apart.

If the front prop turns with the back then the box is ok, as things stand.

If turning the prop makes no difference to the front axle ie it doesn't turn then it's a CV joint, diff or halfshaft.

Now, a favourite for these is for the viscous diff to overheat and lock up completely, though I've never seen one.  When this happens the CV joints normally fail, because it's when turning that the transmission winds up (the front needs to go faster than the back) and this is when the CVs are also working hard.

Listen for a light clicking in one of the hubs.

If this is the case you can swap the CV by removing the wheel, calliper, hub and then the stub axle (loads of oil) and pull the remains of the CV out or the half shaft as appropriate.

The tricky bit is knowing which side is duff.

Jack the car up, take off the wheels and force the brake pads back into the callipers so there is nothing stopping the wheels spinning.  turn the prop by hand and see if one wheel moves and the other doesn't. Big clue.  Try it straight ahead and with the wheels turned.  If nothing happens you will have to make a best guess and start there.

If both half shafts are fine (CV and all) then it's time to pull the diff (you need the halfshafts out anyway).

Once that's fixed you need to sort out the cause straight away.  If you can't make the viscous centre diff spin at all, even with a lever then do not drive the car until it's replaced.  

New viscous units are about £300 give or take, look for a S/H one if that hurts tto much.

Yes I have one

P.S. asa guide I can just about spin the front prop when trying to undo the nuts to remove it, this is how stiff it should be.

[sean m]

Thanks for advise will get hands dirty at week end

[sean m]

rr blues you said you had a v couple for borg warner is it ok and how much. I jacked up one back wheel let off hand brake and succured front prop and could not turn rear wheel even with wheel brace.

[Range Rover Blues]

Ok, you had the handbrake off, what about the gearbox in neutral (just checking)

How did you secure the front prop?

I sometimes find that a wheelbrace on the nuts is not enough to overcome the visouoc coupling because of the gearing in the final drive, try levering on the proshaft itself.

If you are sure it's goosed then I have a box I know works as it came out of my car.  Thing is even S/H they fetch a tidy sum so you need to be sure before swapping it out.