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viscous coupling new info


zippo105

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  • 2 months later...

Well, it took me a bit longer than anticipated to get the recon viscous fitted, but now that I have I can tell you it ain't half bad! :)

After having a bit of a brain fart and looking into phasing the two halfs of the shaft (D'oh!!) I finally stuck it all together and realised that the bolt hole didn't line up so needed to turn a wheel (bit dodgey as the car was up on ramps) in order to line up the diff flange. For a laugh I tried turning the rear half of the shaft by hand. It was tough, but I was able to do it and easily lined up the holes.

The car drives fine. I can reverse on full lock without the familiar braking feeling, and I managed to get the car up a muddy bank without and problem... so at the mo I'm a very happy customer :D

Mind you, it has made me worried that maybe the VCU on SWMBO's TD4 may be a bit tight! If I end up replaing that one too, then I will be going back to Beaumonts.

Dan :)

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  • 1 month later...

the vcu...the bain of my life...............

i thought i had vcu issues on my freelander, put a new one on hardy spicer (?) i think, from the lr center...apparently hardy spicer (?) make the genuine ones for lr....

i put it on and also had the ird split and all the bearings renewed..the total cost with a service aswell was 800 quid!

when i tested the new vc out it felt just as tight as the old one, maybe even a tad tighter... ???

so after a new vcu and overhauled ird .. the answer is "its suposed to feel this way...."

the best advice i was given was forget about it and just accept that this is how its supposed to feel....

im still suspicious of the bugger but after renewing all the bits involved im convinced its normal to feel like the breaks are on when on full lock...

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this sounds like a great compromise - loose vc - extended life of ird and still 4wd

mines been in garage for 8 weeks having work done, one more hub to replace, but alot of the noises that we thought we ird / vc related have gone

was going to knock it to 2wd to save the ird / rear diff from future wear, but if i can have it 4wd still and with less stress I may well spend the extra 2/300 !

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  • 9 months later...

Well, I've had my "loose" one on for a few months now, and in the main I am still pleased with it. Given the use that the car gets (98% on road, 1% in the garage on axle stands and 1% in the fun stuff!!) I think I made the right move. As I said before I can reverse round corners without that familiar Freelander drag. Handling doesn't appear to have been compromised.

Off road its now even more useless than it was before (or maybe that my driving skills!). I've managed to get it into some nicely rutted areas at a couple of play days, but when stuck it became obvious that the VCU isn't doing anywhere near as much as a normal one would, however this is to be expected. Slippery grass hasn't caused me any problems yet.

Unfortunately I didn't get to drive it in the snow, so can't comment... you'll have to wait 'til winter ;)

As with most thinks in life, this is a trade-off. And given the use the car gets I think it's been worth it.

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I changed a VCU unit for a re-con unit for a mate of mine, out of curiosity I stuck a jack under and lifted the front wheels off the ground, stuck it in gear and tried to go forward- Guess what ? Would'nt move a cm!!!

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As a contrast, I bought a "proper" recon VCU from Bell Engineering (who I think charge similar money as the "slack" ones) and it works perfectly. You can feel a little bit of drag when maneuvering but the rest of the time it drives very nicely, feels more sure footed than when front-wheel-drive only and Bell were reasonable to deal with.

My daily commute involves nipping across a busy road from a standstill between cars coming round a blind bend, in FWD the TC light would come on quite regularly but now it just launches across the road in a very satisfactory way :i-m_so_happy:

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I spoke to Austen at Bell the other day and i think i'm heading down that route TBH. Next dilema for me is that the freelander has a 3 month warranty - stating very clearly that any work not done by the garage invalidates the warranty - however, Austen suggested that the VCUs are treated somewhat like a cam belt and changed at least every 70K so i dont necessarily want to wait until the warranty runs out to change the VCU! There is a little resistance when reversing wround a corner on full lock, but nothing feels like it is scrubbing - it doesnt roll as freely as the defender, so is that normal? Its off getting all the electrical problems sorted as we speak, so i cant do any tests on it at the mo.

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I bought a standard recon unit from www.freelendersparesuk.co.uk and so far it is very nice to drive, although I haven't done many miles with it yet due to 'other' freebie issues, (Head Gasket). I have only got the hand brake to sort out now, parts being ordered from the link above tomorow, its taken a wee while to ID the parts required. (although mine is a X reg 2000 model it seems to be a very early 2001 model as it has newer style brakes and a coil pack engine.

Anyway, the VCU seems great, no drag and 4WD seems to be fine. I would deffo recomend the guys at the link above, very good to deal with and fast delivery service.

Gary

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It helps if you can raise one side of the car - so an axle stand front and rear is ideal. You then disconnect the front propshaft from the IRD, and the rear propshaft from the diff, undo the 4 bolts holding the vcu bearings in place and the whole thing will drop out. Be warned it's heavy, so if you can put say a trolley jack under the vcu it will make it easier and safer.

The biggest problem I found (and I haven't solved it yet) is separating the propshafts from the vcu. On mine the rear one came off easily, but the front one appears to have welded itself on. This is quite common, I believe.

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It helps if you can raise one side of the car - so an axle stand front and rear is ideal. You then disconnect the front propshaft from the IRD, and the rear propshaft from the diff, undo the 4 bolts holding the vcu bearings in place and the whole thing will drop out. Be warned it's heavy, so if you can put say a trolley jack under the vcu it will make it easier and safer.

The biggest problem I found (and I haven't solved it yet) is separating the propshafts from the vcu. On mine the rear one came off easily, but the front one appears to have welded itself on. This is quite common, I believe.

Mine also did this, I couldn't get the front unversal joint yoke of the vcu. I ended up buying a rear half propshaft from a scrappy and used the yoke from that on my front half, along with a new UJ and bearings. It is possible a hydraulic press could have got it off but I didn't have one.....

Gary

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Mine was stuck too when I did it... I managed to get it off by putting a ratchet spanner on the main uj bolt... then I put another, slightly smaller nut in between the head of the UJ bolt and the end of the propshaft. If you then undo the UJ bolt with the ratchet spanner, it's head comes up, presses against the smaller nut and pushes the propshaft off as you undo it.

You can't get it all the way off like this but it shifted enough (about a CM or so) so that the splines unseize and you can get if off the rest of the way fairly easily.

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Reb78 - why are you buying a new VCU if yours is working? :unsure:

Because i'm paranoid! :D (My luck is such that if something can go wrong, it definately will and cost me as much money as it possibly can!)

I havent read a definitive way of checking the VCU for sure.... I can certainly tell its there and doing something, i guess having only driven one freelander, i dont really know what normal feels like. There is resistance to rolling in reverse on full lock, but in manouvring in such a way, it does it without struggling at low revs. I figured for similar/less than the cost of a timing belt change at a garage, i can change the vcu myself and forget about it for a bit.

What i have found for testing the VCU is mainly in this thread:

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f9/vcu-torque-test-results-109486-4.html

but it seems some disagree as to whther or not the tests are worth doing. Will be trying it once i get the freelander back after its had its leccy problems sorted.

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How easy are these to fit. Do you need ramps or can it be done on axle stands?

It's quite an easy job to do, but you will need to line up the bolt holes on the prop with the holes in the diff drive flange when you re-assemble. If the back wheels are off the ground its a lot easier as you just rotate a wheel until things line up. ;)

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Because i'm paranoid!

But not paranoid enough to work it out before you bought the car? :huh:

Have you tried radical approaches like marking the front & rear sections of prop to see if they're changing phase (VCU = working)? Failing that, there muse be a forumer locally with a freebie who can help you out with a comparison.

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