Land Rover Defender

[Cobbler]

A question for all you Landy fans on here.
I went with my son to look at a V8 defender today advertised with a knackered transfer box, the diagnosis was given by a 'Land Rover specialist' the owner decided to sell as he was told the bill would be 1500-2000 pounds. As you pull away it knocked & banged in an alarming manor until you got till about 10 mph then all ran smooth & ok. In traffic it jammed up enough to stop the Landy dead from about 4 mph. Pull away again, bang clonk, making an alarming noise & enough to shake the vehicle until 10mph, then all quiet again. We cannot work out what in the transfer box that would do this. I suspect the diagnosis was wrong unless anyone has come across this before.

We decided against buying it although changing a transfer box is not a problem, but the bulkhead was virtually non existent & the rest was as bad. Pity really as the owner had bills for the last year for engine rebuild etc & injection fitted of about 5 grand, if you disregarded the noise the performance was fantastic.

Before you say 'propshaft' these looked ok & almost new & I even if hanging off could not have done this, the noise was unbelievable.

This is just for my interest, as already said we turned it down.

 

[Cyberprog]

Could be a differential. Transfer boxes aren't expensive though. Neither are standard diffs.

 

[Cobbler]

I did think of a diff, I looked up transfer boxes & a recon one was about £500 with a guarantee, assuming we could not repair it. I cannot see how it would bang & lock up on what appeared to be each revolution the magically run perfectly once over 10 mph though.
My son decided against it due to the general rot, we should be chasing it around forever, there is another one he is interested in with a gas conversion, injection with a Megasquirt ECU fitted that sounds a much better bet.

 

[Cyberprog]

I wouldn't buy a recon, a s/hand one would be around £100 or less on fleabay.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Does the Defender model you looked at have a viscous coupling in the transfer box ? I'm wondering if a Range Rover V8 and gearbox / transfer box fitted. The viscous coupling can seize and then damages the diff. Neighbour bought a very cheap Rangie a while ago with "slight knock" that has turned out to be seized coupling and teeth missing off front diff when checked as previous owner had carried on driving rather than having it sorted. Now it's at the point where cost of even secondhand parts are going to be boarder line worth fitting and probably more cost effective to break ! That got quieter the faster you went with noise only noticeable at slow speed.

 

[Cobbler]

I wouldn't buy a recon, a s/hand one would be around £100 or less on fleabay.

The quote the owner had was £1500 to £2000, I think they were hopeful don't you? My son was budgeting about £200 for a used one when we went to look at it.

 

[Cobbler]

Compo,
I don't know about the Range Rover diff, it may well have, as the engine was injection, on an '88 model it had had an engine change, & the owner talked about having to fit different exhaust manifolds, maybe the complete unit had been changed. The owner said it was a 3.5, but it was incredibly quick, so who knows. I think the gas one sounds a better bet, cheaper to run certainly.

 

[Robotstar5]

Compo,
I don't know about the Range Rover diff, it may well have, as the engine was injection, on an '88 model it had had an engine change, & the owner talked about having to fit different exhaust manifolds, maybe the complete unit had been changed. The owner said it was a 3.5, but it was incredibly quick, so who knows. I think the gas one sounds a better bet, cheaper to run certainly.

3.5 EFI was first fitted to RR in 1987

 

[500e]

Had the same symptoms years ago knocking noise, sudden stop when nearly stationary, would not go forward till reversed at traffic lights in Bath on Christmas eve turned out to be crown wheel bolt falling out no knock after 5 MPH

 

[rtbcomp]

I had similar symptoms on a 2-door Classic Range Rover with the original transfer box.

This turned out to be the roller bearings in the transfer idler gear. They were ground up into little pellets.