The only way I have been able to identify a bad centering ball is to drop the driveshaft and fully articulate the joint in my hands. It squeaked as I moved it.

 

The sun shines on a dog's *** occasionally; I got lucky.

 

Clean up the bolt with a wire wheel and use some Red LockTite. The flange should come off pretty easy. Its the rear rotoflex flange that can be a PITA. You can run a coarse wood screw into the old seal, then grip it with some pliers and pull it out.

 

fishEH: This is the front drive shaft we are talking about, so no rubber flex coupler. The rear drive shaft was rebuilt with new bearing, u-joints and rubber coupler afew years ago.

Charlie_V: I think an audible can be heard when you manually move the double cardan end of the shaft. Theres also some resistance when you try to move the joint cardan.

Money is tight this week so I will focus on the u-joints for the drive shaft and the pinion seal. If this does not solve the issue than I will order the centering ball kit when I can and swap out the old bearing. I found this centering ball kit on RockAuto: http://www.rockauto.com/en/parts/moo...ball+kit,10469 will order it regardless - when I have the extra $$. I also found this very useful DIY write up on Discovery2.uk: http://www.discovery2.co.uk/propshafts.html As for the leaking front driver side axle shaft seal, Ill hold off on that as well for another week or two and top off the diff fluid.

This is the type of work I actually enjoy doing myself and enjoy learning how to do. Basic mechanical maintenance. Stuff that does not require diagnostic computers, fault codes and endless possibilities. It took weeks to make any progress on the misfires despite replacing tons of ****. Whereas the drive shaft issue was identified with help from you guys in one day or less, and many less parts are needed. The only thing I dread is working on the axle shaft seal, but only because its been replaced several times and still leaks and the seal is a bitch to seat properly.

Thanks again for the help.

 

I totally agree. Electronics on a rover are dishonest, sneaky, and vain. Things that you can take apart, measure, beat into shape, and eyeball are honest and far more fun to fix.

 

Guy just spends $300+ on an awning to go glamping but doesn't have $24 to fix his driveshaft properly.
Please stop wasting people's time.

 

Google my friend. A quick google search would reveal that I paid less than $200 for the awning. If you have nothing nice to say or wish to assume than feel free to remove your presence

Just so happens I was just laid off from a new job, and rather than bitch and complain about it here... - but thanks for your input.

 

Sorry to hear about your job.
So you could have only bought 7 centering ball kits with the awning money, my bad.
Here's some advice. If you have to wait until your next paycheck to buy and important part, maybe you should stop buying unimportant parts until your situation stabilizes.
Don't halfass your driveshaft rebuild either. Wait till you can replace the centering ball and do the whole thing at once.

 

If only we had the ability to see into the future, certainly would make planning and investments much easier now wouldn't it? Alas we cannot. I ordered my awning 2 weeks ago? It was cheap and something I wanted to buy. Just finished the tinkering with the misfire issue and wanted to get ready for some camping. Had I known then that my drive shaft would need to be rebuilt Id have waited on the awning and ordered the rebuild parts.

Today I removed all the rust and old paint from the shaft using a wire wheel and 200-400 wet/dry sand paper. Used the sand paper on the stainless steel part of the shaft and the wire wheel on the painted surfaces. Played around with the double cardan end of the shaft and concluded that it probably IS the centering ball thats the issue. Picked up some hammer rite spray paint and new bolts and stainless steel nyloc nuts. The new Moog u-joints and pinion seal should be here by Wednesday and I just ordered the centering ball kit so that should be here by Friday. Not sure how Im going to get the centering ball out without the special took thats recommended but Ill do my best. Once everything is back together and the money is flowing again Ill bring the shaft to a shop to have it rebalanced. Im going all out with this shaft.

 

You dont need that stupid slide hammer to get the ball out. I say this as someone who bought a slidehammer for this and realized its overkill and sucks for this purpose anyway.

Put the ball in a position so that the hole is "perpendicular" to the carrier.

Pad the edge of the carrier with paper towels, then pry the ball out with a couple of flatheads.