Club 80-90 Forums

Hello,

I took my van out today and on the journey home there was a sort of clonking bang noise from towards the rear of the van. At first we thought we may have a flat tyre as the drive felt wobbly and uneven. We reached our road and there was a clunk and a bang which sounded as though it was towards the passenger rear of the van with a gradual but rapid loss of drive. There is now a mechanical clanking sound (almost like a chain rattling) underneath at the rear of the van and no drive though the engine continues to turn.

I just wondered whether anyone may have any suggestions. I have looked underneath the van but can see nothing apparent. Husband is going to jack it up tomorrow when it is light. This is my first van and I am not really sure what I should be looking for.

Could well be the driveshaft bolts.Hopefully its not the auto box.

Thank you, will have a look tomorrow at these.

I'd be surprised if it were the box.
Reads like sheared bots on the CV driveshaft coupling as Rob says.

and as you cannot see anything underneath then it would point to the outer ones in one of the trailing arms. easy enough. lay under it and grab each shaft, one will be solid the other will wobble about a bit//
mm

Just stopped raining and blowing long enough to jack the van up. The passenger side drive shaft outer joint (by the wheel) is completely loose and floppy in the housing. Does anyone have any experience of this and whether it is something we can put right ourselves.

Depends how mechanically adept you are.If the bolts have snapped off in the stub axle.You will no doubt have to strip the rear end down.Remove the stub and either replace with a S/H one,or try to remove the threaded bits that are in the hub.Good luck..

OH is reasonably mechanically capable and though he has never worked on a camper before, in our younger days he stripped down and rebuilt various vehicles. Our problem these days is lack of time. I have been saving up for the van to go in to a workshop at the end of January to have rust issues dealt with and all the window seals out and replaced. At the same time if funds allow I was hoping to get the engine re-built as it is currently on 178,000 miles with the original engine. I am now wondering whether it would be better to use my savings to get the engine and gearbox done together and forget about rust issues for the time being. If the parts need to be dropped out I guess it would make sense for everything mechanical to be done at the same time. Many thanks for your comments and help.

Drive shaft is not difficult, If the bolts have just undone and bent it is easy. You will be able to get what is left of them out as it is. If however some are broken you will need to see if you can get the rest of the shaft out of the way and see if there is anything to grasp to remove the stubs. Usually once the pressure is off they unwind quite well. I have even heard of them being drilled out in situ with a left hand drill bit, as it grips it will often unscrew the stub for you. Last resort involves a 46mm socket a length of scaffold , undo the hub nut remove the brakes and backplate. Undo the 4 bolts holding the hub to the rear arm and work on it in a vice!!! This is not as bad as it sounds even I have managed it. The rust is the most important as this holds the value of the vehicle and also it never stops advancing. I have some under my windscreen seal which I desparately want to investigate before it gets bad. At present you cant see it but I know it's there. The engine is just a lump in the back when it dies replace it until then just keep going!!!

178,000 thats just about run in now so it should be good for a long time yet.
don't fix what ain't broke
just enjoy the camper.

fix the shaft and get the rust sorted asap.
that's the killer

OH (here)who is reasonably mechanically capable (If you count taking fast jets apart and putting them back together again with no spare bits left in a box!), thanks for the replies. Its the outer CV joint that has exploded
with a loveley ring of grease covering the swing arm housing.

If one CV has gone is it worth investing in replacing both as the other one may have been stressed etc.
Or is it worth replacing all four as a precautionary measure as we have no way of knowing if the joints are original and could have have covered 170K and may be heading towards group failure at the most inconvienent of locations (probably Little Langdale)

Cheers

OH (SteveH)

there you go again...
just fix whats broke.

^^^^^^ says
it would be worth checking that the bolts are tight.all present on the remaining side and that there is no undue play,then just remove the one that undid itself and replace that,also buy a new hub nut so you can slit the old one off with a disc if it is stubborn ,
mm

49Wigfeet wrote: no way of knowing if the joints are original and could have have covered 170K and may be heading towards group failure at the most inconvienent of locations (probably Little Langdale)

Cheers

OH (SteveH)

the whole camper has covered 170,000 miles are you going to replace it all!
several years ago I began my life with our van. I inherited a catalogue of paperwork that told me when parts were replaced,
So a maintenance routine was set in motion and spares were collected (and still are) over many years.
Thankfully Brickwerks are available as a quality supplier with a trusted stock of parts so I would replace new for old. VW shows are another mine of obsolete OE parts.

I will replace any non functioning item, if the replacement causes deep surgery, then it IS prudent to replace parts in the area uncovered by the surgery .
A clutch replacement will incur many other parts than just the clutch.
Engine removal for whatever reason is another opportunity to get at other stuff easily.

However if it calms the furrowed brow to renew the CV's then please source your parts from a quality supplier, do not let a garage order them or settle for parts made from cheese, you get what you pay for when it comes to non OE parts, there is a post in the mech. forum regarding quality parts suppliers....