Wobbly prop shaft problem

[Slugsie]

Hi all, long time since I've been on here, but that's because my Surf has just been utterly reliable with no problems for a long time.

Until now...

Coming back from 'down south' last weekend and the Surf developed a judder at 20/40/60mph, along with a clunking jingling sound. My immediate thought was that I had shed a wheel weight, but they all seemed intact, and swapping the spare around made no difference. After checking on here I found mention of almost the exact same problem as being caused by the UJs on the prop shaft going bad, and indeed upon inspecting the rear UJ was utterly toast in a very bad way.

New ones ordered for both ends of the main prop, and (with a lot of effort and swearing and assistance from a mate) fitted, but no change apart from the clunk/jingle sound has now gone. I did a quick test with no prop shaft and 4wd and no wobble.

So.... any ideas?

[BUSHWHACKER]

Did you mark the diff/T/case mating flanges at the shaft ends before you removed it so that you refitted it the same as it came off?

Did the sliding joint come apart at any time during U/J replacement?

[Slugsie]

No. Yes. Bugger, as I suspect I know where this is going.

I've currently got it with the arms at each end set at 90deg to each other as mate (ex LR mechanic) said that is how they should be. Hopefully I just need to rotate it all 180deg then.

[wishbone]

The ends should match each other - I'll take a pic for you in a mo..

[Slugsie]

OK, well if that's true then I only have two positions to try hopefully. Taking bets that which ever option I try first is the wrong one. However I'm going to take a rest for tonight as I've already given myself a black eye today after taking a prop shaft to the face once.

I've got the flanges on each end matching up with the mud marks, so at worst they're 180deg out. But surely they shouldn't matter?

[wishbone]

It shouldn't matter if they're 180 degrees out but they need to match each other. Apparently they speed up and slow down on each revolution so if they are out they can cause vibration (article in total off road a while back)

[Slugsie]

OK, cheers for that. I'll spin it all off again tomorrow after work and try again.

BTW, do you normally just have a prop shaft lying around?

[wishbone]

BTW, do you normally just have a prop shaft lying around?

Pretty much - my 3.0 is all apart and waiting for a new head before it all goes back together (eventually)

[Slugsie]

Just taken the prop off and rotated it 90deg (only takes 2 minutes now I've done it so many times these past few days), and took it out for a spin up to 40mph, and no wobbles. Thanks for the help.

[TonyN]

I've currently got it with the arms at each end set at 90deg to each other as mate (ex LR mechanic) said that is how they should be. Hopefully I just need to rotate it all 180deg then.

You should know by now that Toyotas are built properly and you don't have to bodge the Prop alignmet to stop vibrations like Defender rear props.



I've said before, don't let a Land Rover mechanic near anything thats not a LR or built after the war, they just don't get it.

[Albannach]

Make sure the grease nipples are aligned, that's all you have to do. Anything else is wrong...

[Slugsie]

You should know by now that Toyotas are built properly and you don't have to bodge the Prop alignmet to stop vibrations like Defender rear props.



I've said before, don't let a Land Rover mechanic near anything thats not a LR or built after the war, they just don't get it.

Well, to be fair, he has a lot more tools than I do, so that's always handy.

[Slugsie]

Make sure the grease nipples are aligned, that's all you have to do. Anything else is wrong...

That might make sense if I had been paying attention to that sort of thing when putting the UJs in. For all I know they could be 135degrees out (!?!?!).