I had a clicking noise coming from the front/under my Disco. I did a bunch of reading and figured it was my front drive shaft so I pulled it out and drove it and the clicking went away. It would only happen when I was turning at slow speeds. I would have a slight vibration at highway speeds but not vehicle shaking. It was more like low freq vibriation. Anyway all that went away when I pulled the driveshaft. I didn't run it on the highway because I am leary of running fast on one shaft. But my flex joint on the rear is fairly new so I could probably get away with it for a short distance.

I scored new u-joints for $23 a piece (20 bucks off each) because I had to wait an extra 30 minutes for them to come from the wharehouse. What a deal!! Am I on the right track here? I think I am. I got the shaft out so I might as well replace everything. What is a centering ball? I've seen it mentions on several posts that are talking about driveshafts. Thanks!

 

Yes, your problem is u-joints. Make sure to grease them really well after install and keep them greased. Grease them at least every 6 months but I prefer to give them a little fresh grease every oil change.

D1s don't use a centering ball. That's only for the double cardan joint on the D2. Rover got the front shaft right on the D1 then went and screwed it all up when they changed to the D2.

 

The service interval for u-joints for "normal" use is every 5,000 miles or 3 months, whichever comes first.

To correctly service u-joints you need to pump in grease until you see new grease coming from around all four seals on each u-joint.
Sometimes this requires fiddling with the u-joint to shift it in the cups so the grease can get out.

You will see some people on forums talk about not too much grease so you don't blow the seals. That's BS.
It's impossible to "blow the seals" on a greasable u-joint.

 

With manual grease gun you can't blow any seal.I don't know what would happened with air powered grease gun.But I will tell you one thing , I work in the printing shop on the printing press, and there are many grease-able bearings and joints that we have to grease monthly . And there is warning at most of the nipples not to use power grease gun.

 

U-joints and their seals are not like other bearings and seals. You can not blow them.

U-joint seals are designed specifically so you can pump grease in to the u-joints until you get new grease coming from around all 4 seals. Because of the nature of u-joints that can mean you get a lot of grease coming from 1 or 2 seals before you get any from the other 2.

Both my manual guns put out 10,000 psi max, more than the typical powered gun. So some grease seals could be be blown, like hub bearing seals.

 

The new grease coming out of the seals pushes any dirt out and away from the seals to help insure nothing gets in.

 

Thanks guys just wanted to make sure. I worked a farm when I was young and have plenty of time on the pump end of a grease gun. The first time someone told me you'd blow the seals I laughed out-loud. "That is the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard" is what I remember saying. I haven't been good about greasing them but will change my habit's now that I have new ones. Has anyone gone to a u-joint on the rear drive shaft? I'm not too keen on that flex joint.

 

Lot's of people have. Lot's of people run with the rotoflex as well. The rotoflex is fine as long as you inspect it every oil change. And maybe keep a spare as you can't just run to your local parts store to get another.

 

Speaking of rotoflex I can't for the life of me remember which way the arrow points on install. Sorry to hi-jack just thought I would ask while I was thinking about it.

 

That didn't fix it. I'm thinking I have a problem with my hub or axel bearings. I had it locked in 4WD and the clicking turned into a clattering. When I took it back out it was just a small clicking noise. I recently changed the front brakes and re-packed all my bearings. I'm a little stumped. Is it possible I tightened the axel nut too much? It wes very loose when I took it off but I torqued it to what the RAVE manual said was acceptable. Pretty bummed right now with this vehicle. It always requires one thing or another to keep it going. I have spent every weekend this summer except for one working on it.