Zfidmick

Hi thanks for the reply. Yes been thinking and internet searching about this. Will take drive shafts out, inspection cover off and have a good look tomorrow morning. Will take some pictures too. I do hope its not the diff but am a bit flummoxed. Ive had this landy for 10 years and managed to fix most things...(well all to date) thanks to the good people who set up these forums...but this is a first for me! Hopefully just my oversight somewhere..(other than..yeah lack of maintenance mate)

Hi Newbie here. Have used your forums as a non-member for a while...always good info 1995 300Tdi 110 CSW 200K miles. Last week, driving at 20mph in town traffic, suddenly lost drive...diff lock on and made it home. I thought 'drive flanges'. Over the weekend did the swivels and hubs etc (this was planned as had been due for a while...wobble at 55mph), and today got the chance to look at the rear drive. Well, the off side flange was worn...but not to the point it didn't work, and had eaten its circlip, and the near side flange wasn't too bad at all although the half shaft was protruding by an inch or so. Also excessive wheel bearing play (really really excessive). What's bothering me is that, in neutral, handbrake off, the rear propshaft spins and no movement (diff lock off). So, lifted each wheel in turn, but both wheels can spin freely! Am i right in thinking that the problem is the rear diff, and if so what? There's been no untoward signs (noises, clunking, grinding) and it happened at low speed, so not at undue stress or speed. Ive been looking at the exploded views of the salisbury axle, and cannot really see what's likely to have gone. Will be taking the inspection cover off tomorrow to see if anything is obvious...but any advice or if anyone's had similar problems, I'd be very thankful! General 'tinterweb' advice seems to be that it's easier to fit another axle (if necessary) rather than try to fix a salisbury.. is this really true? Thanks