Clunking from the front diff (I am guessing)

[Sneezing7]

I will try and explain this to the best of my ability.

So If I am driving in a forward direction everything is good. Lets say I stop, and put it in reverse then there is a clunk (about 5 times) whilst reversing. After that it will go away.

Again, if I then select first and move in a forward direction it will clunk for a bit then go. It is worth mentioning that this will only occur in 2wd mode. If I wack it in 4wd everything is ok.

Unfortunately it is not a gentle clunk...sounds quite violent, thus why I am concerned about it.

This all started after my mentally lacking brother went off roading on the weekend. Basically he engaged 4wd, but when he switched back to 2wd he did not reverse to release the autolocking hubs (thus my previous post earlier this week).

So all in all I am led to believe that it has something to do with the front diff. Would I be right in assuming that? Or alternatively what else could it be?

My mechanic had a look at it and said he has no idea. I asked about the diff and he just shrugged his shoulders. Basically thats the last time I will go see him.

Any help would be really appreciated people. Fez's are rare here in Cyprus, so parts are near impossible to find.

Cheers!

[RockyF75]

My limited (very) knowledge would say auto locking hubs, they are shhhht, (so is ur mech if he had no idea ) It wouldnt be your front diff if it only happends in 2wd, which is good cuz diff would be alot of $$$ i think. TRY and find manual locking hubs for your make/model... i dont think its that hard to swap em over ... but wait for more ppl to respond too, and go to a decent mechanic, maybe a 4x4 place, not just generic Mechanincs

[Sneezing7]

Cheers RockyF70,

I thought that the hubs could be a possibility. But is it strange that both of them have shagged themselves at the same time?

[Patchy]

yeah sounds like it could be auto hubs. The thing is that auto hubs usaully only f#ck up if they dont get used all that often. But also if it was your auto hubs you could/would also expect it to cause a noise all the time with a direct relation to wheel speed.
There isn't all that much to them really, if you wanted to pull them apart your self and have a look just lay everything out the way it comes out so you dont get into strife..

A way to test if its your hubs, is to remove your front drive shaft and drive in a way that causes the noise if its still there its almost 99.9% going to be your hubs, as no drive should be going to your diff. If the noise is still there with the drive shaft removed jack up the front and spin the front wheels no drive should be going through to the diff pinoin gear, also listen the noise will still be there just might not be as violent.

p.s i would get a new mechanic he sounds like one of the spoon fed monkeys(apprentices) at my work

[Sneezing7]

Cheers Patchy,

I will give that a whirl over the weekend.

Yeah, this mechanic is a bit on the dense side. Usually I do all car work myself, but as I am living here temporarily I dont have the tools to do the job.