Refer to page 502 of the RAVE.

Doing the final touches to hopefully finally get this truck back on the road after weeks of waiting for missing part after missing part. From this page it says to check drive shaft end play and it should be between 0.08 to 0.25 mm. I measured and I am getting 0.6mm - seems well outside range.

The book says to replace with a bigger shim but without calling I assume I can't find these anywhere ....

Also, from searching the forum I can't find any discussion about this. So I wonder - big problem or little problem or no problem at all?

 

Perhaps here Land Rover Discovery I Drivetrain Hub Assembly Parts Available from RoversNorth.com

 

I know I can get them online - but that means yet again another week. I am getting sick of putting this on hold week after week waiting for little parts. I was asking how important this was.

Also - I really don't understand why Rover dealers carry nothing.

 

They are only going to carry parts for the most common things they work on, how many 15+ year old cars do you think they work on?
If you own a car that is over 5 years old 98% chance you are either going to fix it yourself or as cheaply as possible, and the dealer is not the cheapest place possible.
Hell, all of the car manufactures stop making parts for cars once they hit the 10 year mark, that goes for Ford, GM, Honda...they all do it.
Inventory is money, if you cant sell it you wasted your money.
Since you are in Canada, if you buy parts in the US check for suppliers that offer FedEx as a shipping option, FedEx is 2-3 days faster than UPS.
In the US FedEx's average delivery time is 2-3 days, UPS is 3-5 and the USPS (post office) is 5-7 days.

I do not know the answer to your end play question, my only suggestion is to drive it and see how it feels.

 

Also be aware what you and the Rave refer to as Drive Shaft most everybody else refers to as axles.
And what the Rave refers to as Prop Shaft most everybody refers to as Drive Shaft.
Kinda like Bonnet vs hood.

 

I am in complete agreement that they are not going to stock parts that will (more likely) collect dust; however, they are also unable to order almost anything in. I have worked on a variety of different vehicles and generally rare vehicle specific parts that the auto parts stores don't carry can be ordered from the dealership (at an obvious premium in price). The rover dealer - at least in Canada - this does not seem to be the case.

A great example - I needed a new axle needle bearing - found it online so no problem but thought I would check how much extra the dealership would to order it directly (hoping the extra cost would offset the cost of shipping such a small item from one of the online source). I was informed, that they do not sell it seperately. I asked - "if I brought my truck to you as is for repair, would you advise me it is unrepairable?" They told me "no, we only sell the part as part of a whole axle and would tell you that you needed a replacement axle" .... I lie not.

 

That clears things up abit!

For this example I thought that they meant drift shaft play (as in when the axle moves the drive shaft would have to move left to right along with it) but I guess the axle = drive shaft makes alot more sense.

 

My dealership does not stock parts either, but the supply warehouse is only 1 day away.
If the warehouse does not carry the part then they order it from the UK.
I needed a bulb holder, dealer did not stock it but they had it the next day.
The price was the same as if I had ordered it online with shipping.
And to add about the bearing that you needed, unfortunately most techs these days are trained on replacing parts only, they do not rebuild things anymore, takes to much time.
They replace things as a whole, all new cars are made that way now too, hub assembly instead of greased bearings, takes 60min to R&R instead of the 2 hours to remove the hub, remove the bearings, pack them in grease and then put it back and properly adjust it.
Time is money, parts are money.
Tell you what you need, park your car outside and bring in the next one, order your part, fix other car, part shows up, pull your car inside, fix it, park it back outside.

 

What is this "Dealer" you speak of? Sounds like voodoo to me.

 

Sounds about right. The dealer Spike speaks of sounds amazing to me. I think I have to accept - order parts online, wait 3-4 days, arrive at my PO box, drive down to my PO box across the board to pick up, go through customs, get parts home. Put parts on. Find more broken parts. Repeat.