Had to apply handbrake to get car to move ( RRC 1992 )

[Eddie_P]

SYMPTOMS  - Loss of drive - engine revving fine - had to apply handbrake to get car to move ( yes I know it sounds nuts but it happened )

 

Was driving before Christmas, when suddenly the Range Rover Classic 1992 started to slow down. Pressing the accelerator harder made no difference to the speed,  the  engine just revved  and the speedo went up to 70 mph.

I pulled over into some roadworks whilst I still had movement and blocked these though it did not hold up a busy A road  which is what I was concerned with. 

I look under car expecting to find a driveshaft off  but no such luck.  I got back in and started up, and again tried D  for Drive.  Pushed pedal, engine revved, absoletely no movement of car  and  speedo went up to  80mph.

Heard one wheel spinning, so applied handbrake, whereupon the car started moving.  Handbrake off - it stopped.

 

So I drove back home  with the handbrake on and the car driving fine.   After two miles, I felt it slowing as the handbrake was dragging now.  I removed handbrake, and car pulled unfettered back home.

Over Christmas I parked up a  very gentle grassy slope which was wet. I could barely move the car up the slope the next day as the front right wheel  was the only one spinning as evidenced by burns on the grass. I had to reverse back to  tarmac to have a good run,  in order  to get up the slope to the garage I have ( other cars are on the tarmac  driveway up to it )

I have never had to apply the handbrake to  get drive before. Does anyone have any idea why this should have happened from the symptoms I gave?

Could it be the ABS activating ? And reducing drive to  the wheels in all cases?  If so, why does applying the handbrake make the car move?

 

Thanks for any views and advice

 E

[Bowie69]

Failed viscous coupling.

[elbekko]

Something in your rear axle has failed, you probably didn't notice for a while because the viscous locked, now the viscous failed open too, so by pulling the handbrake you're locking the rear output and driving on the front wheels only.

[Simon_CSK]

On 12/28/2018 at 8:28 AM, elbekko said:

Something in your rear axle has failed, you probably didn't notice for a while because the viscous locked, now the viscous failed open too, so by pulling the handbrake you're locking the rear output and driving on the front wheels only.

Would agree that it is something on the rear drive train. Possible options are rear half shafts, rear diff or viscous coupling. My money is on the coupling as that is a very common fault.

[elbekko]

Just the coupling alone won't cause it to fail open, there's still a diff.

[ThreeSheds]

On 12/27/2018 at 7:23 PM, Bowie69 said:

Failed viscous coupling.

That gets my vote too, although I think that there must be an additional failure in the centre diff? Since the viscous coupling only prevents excessive slippage, the main power transfer is done by the mechanical diff

I'll be very interested to see what you eventually tie it down to!

Rog

Edit: ! two people with the same thought! elbekko

[Dave W]

As i understand it, you left the handbrake on while driving ?

That being the case, it's a diff or half shaft gone in your rear axle. If the rear axle was in one piece then you would not be able to drive with the "hand brake" on as it would effectively lock the rear axle unless you also removed the rear prop shaft. It's unlikely to be the viscous, if it was you'd have lost all drive, front and back, not just rear.

If the centre diff (viscous) wasn't working at all you wouldn't have drive to the front but it sounds as if it's functioning as you'd expect with the transmission brake on - all drive going to the front. BUT it would only need to have the brake on if the centre diff was no longer locked and was slipping.

The viscous diff on these is, effectively, locked all the time with the diff "slipping" when the front/rear torque is different. It sounds to me as if you've had an issue in the rear axle, the viscous diff has compensated for it and now the viscous diff has given up and is slipping.

If you can easily turn the rear propshaft (with the handbrake off) and all wheels on the ground then you have both a rear axle problem and a viscous diff problem.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Dave W