Sticky Wheel

[shez82]

I've got an odd problem on my 2WD 1983 camper, when the rear is jacked up the offisde rear wheel seems tight and doesn't spin freely, when the wheels are driven by the engine (still jacked up) the nearside spins fine, but the offside starts, but then ginds to a halt as if the differential is cutting power to that wheel.

My first thought was that it's a brake problem as it had just failed its MOT on the rear brakes, even though shoes and springs are new. The backplate was replaced with a second hand one which wasn't in great condition and the drum was scraping it so I bent the backplate back into shape to no avail. I then backed the brakes right off to make sure they weren't scraping the drum and that made no difference.

With the drum off I found the hub by itself is difficult to turn by hand and my mate who was watching it while I was in the drivers seat said it wasn't spinning properly when the engine was driving it with just the hub on. The hub itself comes off and back on the splines without too much difficulty and doesn't seem to be jamming in the housing.

With the hub off the axle is still difficult to turn by hand (I've not tested it being driven by the engine with the hub off). I've replaced the wheel bearings today and this seems to have made no difference, if anything it seems worse, but the new bearings probably need to bed in a bit. The old bearings didn't seem in bad condition but I decided to rule them out anyway.

I'm now thinking along the lines that it's either the CV joints or a problem in the diff, but has anyone experienced this before and is there anything else I might have missed?

[kevtherev]

Any noises when driving?
Maybe a bearing has collapsed

[shez82]

There was a scraping noise from the backplate which has pretty much gone now, but otherwise no.

I replaced both the bearings on that side yesterday, the old ones were in good condition when I got them out anyway and changing seemed to make no difference but I wanted to rule it out completely, that was pretty much my last idea before I go looking for a new diff hence this post.

on the subject of differentials, can you replace just the diff or do you have to do the whole gearbox?

[bigherb]

Probably the CV joints are dry.

[Plasticman]

Undo the cv joint at the gearbox end of the offending side , should only take a few minutes, the see how free the wheel turns, if ok the problem is in diff,
if stiff then problem is within hub etc,
cv shouldnt cause such rotationasl stiffness
mike