Stu's Tdi project

[Bob Fell]

The prop shaft is back and looks well made as expected. It couldn’t have a double cardon joints both ends or there wouldn’t have been enough room to have the sliding action.
It definitely has wider angle joints than the previous one.

IMG_5954.jpeg

The angles are much improved so let’s see how it drives.

Hi Stu,
There's a crack in one of the casings from what I can see??
Regards
Bob ĺ

[StuWright]

The prop shaft is back and looks well made as expected. It couldn’t have a double cardon joints both ends or there wouldn’t have been enough room to have the sliding action.
It definitely has wider angle joints than the previous one.

IMG_5954.jpeg

The angles are much improved so let’s see how it drives.

Hi Stu,
There's a crack in one of the casings from what I can see??
Regards
Bob ĺ

Hi Bob,

What crack?

[StuWright]

I am definitely convinced the angle of the prop is the main culprit for the noise. I have measured and there is a 4.5 inch difference in height at either end where it fixes to the gearbox and dif. I have an idea which could reduce thing and the angle. On various picture of parabolic springs I have see blocks on metal on top which got me thinking why because mine doesn't have them on the Rocky Mountain versions. If I it had a block it would raise the diff and reduce the height but surely I would be lower at the back. I decide to investigate this and after checking realised the height of the back is 20mm higher than the front which is probably down to the extra weight of the Tdi engine and box combo, So I am thinking a sensible thing to do would be to add a 20mm block to level out the the body and reduce the angle.

I will take some pictures next week as we do this.

I guess I could have got away with this extra work if I had taken the easy route and had no intercooler and certainly not have the full Defender frame to house the intercooler and radiator in. I wanted to have an oem looking install and not a bodge job so at least when I have finished I won't regret anything on the build.

[StuWright]

I realised that the 200 Tdi clutch bearing is the wrong one and I needed a special one from Ashcroft that matches the conversion. It uses the casing and the bearing is replaced separately.
I’m also waiting for a rear diff seal as we noticed a weep.

Regarding the prop we’ve measured the height difference with the new prop and camber correction wedges and it will be lowered from 4.5 inches to 3.2 inches. The prop angle looks like it will be much better.

The back up plan after seeing how it drives it to have custom spacers made that incorporate the wedges that are 24mm on end and 36mm on the other end. This would drop the difference to about 2.5 inches. If I do this mod I need extra long u bolts and I’m not sure where I can buy them from.
If it runs fine I may go this route to improve it further but it would be a job for the Winter.

[StuWright]

M beî I will be taking the rear prop off on Friday and inspecting it fully to check for cracks Bob noticed on the rear prop-shaft.

I am hoping it is just the weld marks and the crack effect is shadowing.

These are pics taken whilst in place again using my iPhone and some lights.

IMG_6013.jpeg (2.53 MiB) Viewed 2933 times

IMG_6018.jpeg (3.77 MiB) Viewed 2933 times

[attachment=3]IMG_6019.jpeg[/attachment

[StuWright]

I got under the Lwt last week to try and see the potential cracks on the rear prop-shaft. Unfortunately I couldn’t really see well enough to be able to say if it was cracked or not but I could feel ridges.

Yesterday I managed to get the prop shaft off and luckily it’s not cracks but shadows from the weld ridges. Looks like I could have driven it yesterday but I guess better to check it out properly than driving it and finding it breaks on the M25.

[attachment=0]IMG_6017.jpeg[/attachment

[StuWright]

I tried deleting the last two pictures as they don’t help see the shadow but for some reason they show deleted and don’t actually delete. I tried deleting the post and doing it again but I’m not authorised to.

[the landy man]

Pictures deleted mate.

[Bob Fell]

I got under the Lwt last week to try and see the potential cracks on the rear prop-shaft. Unfortunately I couldn’t really see well enough to be able to say if it was cracked or not but I could feel ridges.

Yesterday I managed to get the prop shaft off and luckily it’s not cracks but shadows from the weld ridges. Looks like I could have driven it yesterday but I guess better to check it out properly than driving it and finding it breaks on the M25.

[attachment=0]IMG_6017.jpeg[/attachment

Hi Stu, apologies for causing you a whole lot of grief , just the original pic you posted didn't look good but I can see from this post it is the weld ridges causing a shadow that misled me.
Sorry mate, just was concerned with what I was seeing.
Best,
Bob

[StuWright]

I got under the Lwt last week to try and see the potential cracks on the rear prop-shaft. Unfortunately I couldn’t really see well enough to be able to say if it was cracked or not but I could feel ridges.

Yesterday I managed to get the prop shaft off and luckily it’s not cracks but shadows from the weld ridges. Looks like I could have driven it yesterday but I guess better to check it out properly than driving it and finding it breaks on the M25.

[attachment=0]IMG_6017.jpeg[/attachment

Hi Stu, apologies for causing you a whole lot of grief , just the original pic you posted didn't look good but I can see from this post it is the weld ridges causing a shadow that misled me.
Sorry mate, just was concerned with what I was seeing.
Best,
Bob

Hi Bob,

Don’t worry mate because I couldn’t tell it was a shadow from the weld until I got it off. Better safe than sorry or knowing my luck it would have snapped and caused more damage if I hadn’t checked.