Ferret erratic knocking from left hand side front.

[Malcolm Towrie]

Originally Posted by 45jim

Insect suspension ball joints, steering joints and wheel nuts to ensure tight and serviceable. If all OK, disconnect the driveshaft from the transfer box to the suspect bevel box. Drive the Ferret around a parking lot to see if the noise is related just to the suspect wheel station. If noise stops suspect u-joint on driveshaft or bearing on bevel box input or transfer box output or the transfer box itself. If still knocking from the wheel station you know your problem is the wheel station itself, remove the outer hub cover and remove the sun gear and replace the cover. Move the vehicle carefully in a straight line. The tracta joint and bevel box will be disengaged and should remain stationary. If the noise goes away your problem is there and you will have to remove the wheel station to further diagnose. If the noise is still there you will have to dig further into the hub itself as this may be a bearing failure or a broken gear in the reduction hub.

Thanks, Jim. Good logical diagnosis. We've inspected brakes and suspension so far. All looks good.

Malcolm

[Robin Craig]

Malcolm the honest answer is I can not recall the sequence of noises during the failure.

As Jim said raise that side off the ground and you should quite quickly be able to diagnose the troublesome component by disconnecting various items in the drive train.

The cause of failure on the bevel box was a very nicely painted over breather for the bevel box. It had several layers of paint, it is something I warn about often and loudly to new and keen Ferret owners.

[Malcolm Towrie]

Robin,
Why would a plugged breather cause such a catastrophic failure?

Malcolm

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Malcolm Towrie

Robin,
Why would a plugged breather cause such a catastrophic failure?

Malcolm

Malcolm,
Failures are often due to lack of oil or low levels. With a blocked breather the pressure build up could force oil out of the bevelbox / inner tracta via the cork seal around the inner tracta housing, also it could well pass the seals in the challis and overfill the outer tracta and hub, seen this quite often. It pays to check the levels frequently.

[Robin Craig]

Malcolm,

Richard eloquently and precisely said what I would have replied.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Guys

Was wondering if any of you have used and IR gun to check the drive train temperature on a Ferret?

On my CMPs I make it a practice to check the drive train of trucks after any drive of length. Using a check sheet I record the different points, transmission, transfer case, brake drums, wheel bearings, etc. If anything is out of line it jumps out pretty quick. The one time I didn't check a +10 F (of norm) wheel bearing temp that was out of line the next time I drove the truck nearly lost a wheel the axle nut keeper had failed.

Would think with a complex drive train like a Ferret you would get a good hold on what normal temps should be.

Cheers Phil

[Malcolm Towrie]

Good point, Phil. It's a lot easier to reach round the tire with the gun than crawling in there. A great way of picking up an oil level getting dangerously low.

But be careful with those cheapy IR cameras with the laser sight. They will read dangerously low if not used properly. This is because the area of the so-called "spot" seen by the camera gets bigger the further away the object is. If you are looking at a small hot object 10' away with a cool background, the gun will give you the average of the 2' diameter circle it is seeing at that distance, even though the laser dot is right on the hot object. So get as close as you can.

Malcolm