Outer Limits 4x4 Board

was wheeling with a mate in his 89 patrol, when going down a steep hill, his front made a lound bang. He seems to still have 4wd without any aparent noise, any ideas of what happened ??.

It could be several things.

Simple thing to do would be put the vehicle in 4wd and have a hubs locked.
Jack the front end up and try spinning one wheel while holding the other.

If there is a metallic grinding/crunching noise coming from just behind the wheel. Its more likely a CV has blown.

Its unlikely under the circumstances you described, but stranger things have happened.

possably a hub also. I have repaired them when the ring inside crackes and it allows the locking drive to retract.

Yes that is also a possibility Nastytroll.

Hubs usually make a loud bang when they go. When a CV goes they usually don't make that loud a noise not i've ever heard and if they do you would have known straight away as the steering would have been a touch different and it would make a noise of some sort if you kept driving like that.

My pick would be hub.

Cheers Mick.

Not being a smartarse or anything but it wasn't a spring re locating or anything was it? Cause sometimes they have a bangy clunky noise. =p

Cv's using make a loud clicking/crunch noise when they go. But not a bang. Could be in the centre. A spider gear tooth or anything. But 1 thing is foresure, if something has broken he will find sometime .

Had similar thing happen to my Maverick when going down steep inclines. When it made the bang did it lurch forward a bit and then regain control, mine would do that every few metres. Turned out to be the front R.H. hub was not engaging completely inside and it was slipping when under extreme force. If you undo the 6 allen key nuts on the hub and just lift it off you will see a mark that runs all the way around the inside wall about 3 or 4mm down. This is where the hub should go up to when its locked, so if you turn the dial bit and watch it go up and down if its falling short of the line then it will slip under load. I got one hub from a wrecker and put it in all good. The old one wasnt physically broken but wasnt being pushed up enough by the spring mechanism inside it.

yup, sounds like the hubs had this problem too.