Folks, lately, my DII is getting some weird and loud noise. From the start, I believed it's from the new EBC brake squeal, but it is not a squeal anymore-- it's a type of clunking sound that sounds like a jet down the street. Any my gosh, passerby are looking at me like crazy (I'm sorry I do not have a video of the sound, I'm usually good at uploading either photos or video)

Well, the sound is coming from the Tom Wood's driveshaft. With the vehicle in park, there were a lot of play. The problem is not a failed u-joint but the centering ball. It's not even a year, about 10 months. So I had the factory shaft put back.

What should I do? TW's warranty expires 180 days after purchase. Do I have someone rebuild the centering ball? And why is the centering ball even failing?

 

Was the centering ball being greased at EVERY oil change along with the u-joints?
Alot of people do not know that you must grease the centering ball or even how to do it.

 

You need to grease the centering ball or it will fail. To grease it you pretty much have to remove the driveshaft. Call Tom Woods be honest about the fact that you did not know you had to grease it and he will probably rebuild it for a discount.

 

Thank you both of you for the quick response. I religiously grease the u-joint every oil change but not the centering ball nor do I know how to grease it. I think that is the problem.

Spike, how I do grease the centering ball. The only way I see doing it is what lipadj46 said, to remove the shaft.

Now since the centering ball failed, my options are... (1) to rebuild it with a new ball. (2) I don't think I'll new drive shaft.

So are there drive shaft designs that doesn't have a centering ball like they have it on the DI? I figure the double cardan with the centering ball serves no purpose. Or better yet, does the DI shaft fit?

 

The driveline angles from the DI and DII are different, there is more of a angle on a DII thus the need for the double cardon.

You need a needle fitting for your grease gun and there is a little "port" that it fits into on the centering ball and you pump grease into it.

The DI shaft would be to short as far as I know.

 

I have to rebuild mine as i have a squeeky noise comming from my double cardian... i suspect the centering ball.... as mine has been replaced as it looks like it just came out of the box.... It depends on neapco or percision, $29.00 to $49.00 to change your centering ball. i guess if you have to greese the stupid thing every oil change you have the ability to change your own centering ball. I am considering rebuilding mine as non serviceable..or as i put it, not having to fu%^k with another POS part on this truck every week. Like i dont have more important things to occupy my mind.... Jeeezzzz...My 95 RR 4.0 has 300,000 miles on it and i have never changed the U joints or centering ball on it ,as for that matter, any other car or truck i have owned for some 35 years.. It's enough to make me run mine in to a canal.. It's like head gasket and head bolt questions on this forum... 'what the best ones to get"... None...they are all sh*&^t... give me a Fu^&cking break already. Is it so hard to build a truck you can drive without everytime you start your truck your *** puckers so hard you could turn a piece of coal into a diamond. People.....we send people to space...give me a break ... And toyota gets a bad rap for ther issues..WTF happened to Land Rover....i guess they only kill you financially and not actually...

I feel for ya, chris

 

Thanks for the info Spike!

Chris, I can't agree with your more. You mentioned something about non-serviceable centering ball or u-joints? Are they better and actually not have to worry about removing and greasing the ball?

I know want I was getting into with driving a LR DII. But, really, dropping the shaft every 3 months to grease. I see a lot of soccer moms driving Discovery's around my town, do they know anything about greasing the shaft, or the u-joint, or even the centering ball...NO!

This is a crappy design! TW should make a drive shaft like the DI with no double cardan and better angle.

 

Well, Tom and a few people on this forum know there stuff about what works best for these piles.. i too have owned land rovers for almost 10 years now. i will say my 2004 DII , which i like, is a big POS compaired to my POS 1995 RR 4.0. You have to think of it as when it was new it was a $37,000.00 truck. Not even 6 years old and i could almost put a third of thay price in it to get it back to new. and then what 45,000 more miles and have to overhaul it again... FT.....

You can get the non serviceable parts from rover shops as one near me sells the parts. Tom has told me that i would need to chage them every 40,000 mile though.. ican live with that though... Yes, alot of soccer moms do run these into the ground and never change the drive shaft so why should i change mine.... I could make a heat shield for $30.00... why service it.

I knew what i was getting into also but i am a idiot!

I think this summer i will be building a new motor for this pile..one that actually works... and i will drive it like any truck should be driven ....i going beat the living **** out of it.

I will find out about thoes parts in the morning and post the info..

 

This first paragraph is the notes i took while talking with Troy at Tom Woods:

He says you should grease the center ball about every 3,000 miles or 3 months, the most being 6,000 miles or after it has been submerged in water. He also said with our Disco's you would have to pull the shaft off to really be able to get to the center fitting. Only do 2 pumps with the gun tho otherwise you risk pushing the seal out. If this doesn't fix your issue and you have had the shaft for less than a year they will rebuild it, re-balance it, and ship it back to you for about $100. You have to ship it there first of course. They would replace the ball and whatever else is needed during this rebuild.

If you have the "Conventional Double Cardan" like I do you should have a total of 5 fittings (4 being the normal kind and one being needing the flush type fitting on the CV ball). You will need the "needle" type tip for your gun to do this one.



First thing is: you do NOT have to remove the whole shaft... Only undo the end connected to the t-case, NOT the differential side.

I took a few pictures to help:

First thing is first mark the shaft where/how it was connected so you put it back on the same way you had it before. I use White-Out as you can see from the picture:



You will only be able to take 2 nuts off at one time, then just in the truck and place the t-case in "N" so you can rotate the shaft, then put in back in HI so it will stay still while you take the other 2 bolts off.


Then pull the shaft off the t-case side and let it rest on the cross brace:



Then rotate the shaft until you see this female fitting, my finger is pointing right at it:



Then put the needle type tip on the grease gun and pump it a few times until you can see grease come out:



Then put in back together using the markings you used:




Of course you do not have to remove it to grease the other zurks and you can use the normal grease tip. You should notice that after you grease this inside one that it rolls around much easier now, almost no resistance at all...


Well I hope this helps... P.S. It took me about 30 minutes in and out of the garage to do this.

If I missed anything or if anyone has questions, just let me know.

 

Also, not sure if I mentioned this or not, it makes it easier if you just lift the whole front end so you can twist the shaft by hand while under the truck.