Discovery problem discovered and fixed - It was scary

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
09/28/2020 at 21:17 • Filed to: Disco Inferno

One fewer vehicle is sickly! After trying about 1000 things to fix the front end wobble in the Land Rover, I finally just took it to a shop and paid $90 for them to diagnose it.

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Actually, before I tell you what the problem was, I am going to list off all the things I checked, serviced, or replaced that made little-to-no difference:

Tires

Wheel balance

Shocks

Brakes

Front driveshaft

Steering damper

alignment

transmission

motor mounts

transmission mounts

parking brake

rear u-joints

Now... most of these things needed to be serviced/ replaced/ checked anyway, so I don’t feel like I did any of these thing without need. (The front driveshaft being the possible exception)

Everything on that list, and more, were suggested to be the problem by internet people. To their credit at least a few people asked about the actual problem, which I dismissed because I’d replaced that part...

So yeah... shop called. The problem with my vibration...

Rear driveshaft bolts were loose!

Wait what? That is fucking terrifying!

I replaced the rear flex coupling a couple of years While I am 80% sure I put loctite on those bolts and like 70% sure I got them all torqued to spec, but apparently I didn’t do it well enough!

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In fact there is a picture in the above article with both a tube of loctite, a torque wrench, and the flex coupling in one picture so maybe add 5% to that. That said, I also remember not having the right tool to get a good grip on the bolts so... who can say?

Well... the rear flex coupling can say because clearly it was unhappy with my effort.

Anyway. That is done. The shop warned me being loose for that long (seriously it has been a problem for like.... almost two years...) could have damaged the flex coupling, so I’m mulling over blowing the $250 on a rear drive shaft conversion, which swaps the flex for a standard u-joint.

Anyway, happy to have that behind me!

DISCUSSION (15)

Just Jeepin' > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/28/2020 at 21:26

No kidding. What an odd discovery.

I’d vote in favor of the $250 conversion, but that’s easy to say when it’s not my money.

VincentMalamute-Kim > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/28/2020 at 21:50

So the driveshaft would’ve dropped down at the rear? No big deal compared to the driveshaft dropping down at the front and pole vaulting, right?

BTW, I couldn’t tell from your photo, did you use the red “permanent” loctite? I assume it makes a difference. Ford specifies permanent loctite on the Transit’s guibo (flex couplers) bolts.

Ford has a recall for those guibos as some fail early . And caused the driveshaft to pole vault itself through the floor.

Ford replaces the guibos with an upgraded version, they won’t replace it with a U-joint. The presumption is the flex / vibration absorption / something is needed in the design that U-joints don’t provide.

Your guibo isn’t likely to fail catastrophically so I’d just k eep an eye on it. OTOH, my Transit was built at the beginning of the recall when they didn’t have enough of the newer guibos so they built mine with a U-joint which most Transits don’t have.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/28/2020 at 22:19

My Jag has a bit more vibration than I’d like, especially around 55 mph. It’s not too bad at higher speeds though Ive had it up to 85.

shop-teacher > Just Jeepin'
09/28/2020 at 23:14

Samesies.

HammerheadFistpunch > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/28/2020 at 23:42

Sounds very similar to my recent shop experience. Paid someone to tell me my lower control arm bolts were loose. You know what though? It was worth it to finally have it solved.

Have you talked to the guys at Tom woods custom driveshafts? I bet you they could sell you a much cheaper, much nicer shaft that would get you converted over.

I got 2 brand new drive shafts with beefy DANA joints and a double cardan joint on the front for $250

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > MiniGTI - now with XJ6
09/29/2020 at 01:58

Balance your wheels on a road force balancer before you try anything more expensive.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > HammerheadFistpunch
09/29/2020 at 09:47

+1 on Tom Woods

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > HammerheadFistpunch
09/29/2020 at 10:19

Allllllllllllllllrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight I’ll take a look. Because yeah the double cardan conversion is like $400 off the shelf

HammerheadFistpunch > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/29/2020 at 11:00

how does the conversion work? I can’t imagine you need a double cardan if you aren’t lifting it a lot. In fact I am probably going to go back to the standard broken back joint setup since i fixed the castor issue for maintenance reasons.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > HammerheadFistpunch
09/29/2020 at 12:28

Yeah the double seems to be for anything over a 2" lift, which I don’t see myself doing. The regular conversion I think you have to swap a flange on the diff, which sucks.

Kit:

Kinja'd!!!

HammerheadFistpunch > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/29/2020 at 12:34

Ah, the factory is a 3 bolt flange. Interesting. Land Rover...you so weird. When this is all over you need to buy a Toyota truck to work on just for comparison sake. It will leave your head scratching as to why other makes do things so odd.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > HammerheadFistpunch
09/29/2020 at 13:25

Yeah because flex joint? But D1s had a u-joint, so it is unclear (other than cost savings) why the difference. I’ve heard a lot of rumors that Ford’s accountants had a big hand in designing the D2, so maybe money is the only reason.

HammerheadFistpunch > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/29/2020 at 14:56

I should ask, my accounting teacher was an accountant at ford during that time.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > HammerheadFistpunch
09/29/2020 at 15:26

Haha nice! Accounting is the explanation I’ve heard for why the CDL linkage was deleted for the D2 (except in 04, the last year ) but a much more plausible explanation I’ve also heard is the linkage was removed to promote the traction control system.

HammerheadFistpunch > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/29/2020 at 15:31

Yeah, I think LR genuinely thought that the traction control system was the way forward, which they were right...in a way. Glad they kept the hardware though, which probably was a cost consideration.