so this morning I was taking my daughter to school and I heard a squeaking sound under load sounding like it was coming from under the truck, I automatically assumed since I have been dealing with driveshaft issues that it was coming from there. I went out to grease all my fittings in the driveshaft and noticed something, as I pushed the truck forward the couple of inches I could to look for the grease fittings I noticed the front most u joint "clanked" as I let the weight of the truck back on the transmission. I pushed the truck forward again and let it go and I could actually see this joint move around! after inspecting the one on the back of the front driveshaft it didn't seem to move but it did look like the outer metal had some knicks in it (kind of hard to explain, maybe I will try to get some pictures in a bit). I am guessing this front driveshaft is a big part of my problems, the vibration I was trying to figure out before and the new squeaking sound (possibly some of the other sounds I was hearing under the truck recently to)

I am assuming I should take the truck off the road until I fix this issue, can anyone give me any info on the front driveshaft like how much money I am talking about here, including replacing and repairing the u joints (also what is involved in repairing them)

 

yup...sure sounds like a u-joint, and it's probably not a good idea to drive it till you can get it fixed or you'll have worse troubles when it lets go. the ujoints them selves are relatively cheap......$40 or so a piece, if you've never done anything like this you had better take it to a local shop, It's not really all that labor intensive....but you'll need a few tools ( like a press or u-joint tool ) that you may not have. If you have a good driveline shop they can balance it for you also, which may or may not be neccessarry.

 

i had mine rebuilt at a local driveline shop with three greasable u joints and a new centering ball kit, balance and then i reinstalled it. he charged me $200 for the parts and labor.

 

My indie Rover shop recommended Great Basin Rovers in Utah. They quoted me around $350 for a new drive-shaft, and then would give a credit $100 after shipping back my stock shaft. I'm saving up for one right now. You'll have to call or email them for a quote, as their website is under construction.

Seems like most guys on here upgrade to a Tom Woods shaft.

 

I am not too afraid to tackle anything like that, I would rather do it myself and rent tools I need from autozone then pay someone else (I am cheap like that!) besides I am pretty good with this stuff. anyways the million dollar question is (since this is my households only vehicle) how safe and if so how far can I drive the truck with the front driveshaft out? my wife is at work now and I would hate to have to rent a car or to pay for taxi's to and from work for her the next few days.

by the way don't know what kind of difference it is but I did see you guys have d2's and I have a d1, and from what I can tell the driveshafts on a d2 are way more than a d1.

 

Mine is a D1......it took me about 20-30 mins to get the frt shaft out....mark the ends so you can re-install in the same bolt holes ( this would in theory keep the "balance" as it originally was ) with a good press or a joint tool you can probably change them out in an hour or so, it's not that difficult. NOTE !!!! make sure you chock the wheels ...as you dont want the rover to rove over you, it will likely be neccessarry to put the transmission in Neutral and the diff lock in neutral so you can turn the shaft to get at all the bolts...you might be able to take the shaft to a shop and let them install the new joints for about the same money as renting a tool, any automotive shop worth a hoot should be able to handle that part.....it's not really a "rover specific" operation...the u-joints can even fail on a billion dollar bailed out chevy.......good luck

 

Replacing u-joints is really easy. Just takes time and a big hammer. I would put money the u-joint is at least a large part of the vibration you've been dealing with. A press is handy but I used a small sledge hammer and socket to push the old joint out and the new one in. You really shouldn't have to rent any tools if you have a good set of tools already. I think it took me and a buddy about an hour of actual work to replace the u-joints in my rear driveshaft (there was a lot of BS time and a run to town involved so it was actually a lot longer). I think I spent $11 per u-joint at Autozone and the D1 has 4 u-joints total unless you have a rotoflex then it has only 3 in the driveline.

You can drive the truck with just the rear shaft for a short time but you need to baby it. And I wouldn't do it for long. Lock the CDL and you'll be good to go. Picking up the wife and kids shouldn't be a problem with just the rear shaft.

 

You should be looking at $75 per shaft balanced with Spicer u-joints. That is what I paid. The shop can spin balance them after they are done. That is one advantage I was willing to pay for.

 

Absolutely don't drive it any more if you can see the u-joint moving around in the yoke.
When you remove the propshaft mark the yoke flanges in relation to the gearbox output flange and the diff input flange. Then when you take it apart, mark the flange yoke relative to each other on each end. (if that all doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll take a photo and mark it so you can see what I mean)

Don't get u-joints at Autozone. Unless you're really lucky and find NOS, they are all made in China.
You can get USA made Neapco at Advance Auto (PDQ 1-0005) or made in USA Precision 344. Someone posted somewhere O'Reilly auto parts was selling a cheaper 344 made in the US, but I stopped and looked at them and they are made in China.

With a pair of snap ring pliers, a brass hammer and a c-clamp, you can replace them yourself pretty easily.

 

actually autozone didn't even list them so I went to Checkers and the only set they had were the cheap ones, they sold precisions but were out of stock so I just grabbed the cheap ones (I hope they aren't too bad but they do have 2 grease fittings per u joint!) I installed them and all went well but I think I may have pressed one of the caps down a tad too much because one side is a bit tight on the swivel (I should say 1 axis of 1 of the u joints is a bit tight) it moves ok but not as freely as all the others. I am a bit concerned because I didn't think about marking the yolks together, I did mark the flanges but if I put the yolks back together backwards that may cause problems (if they are wrong do I just rotate 1 flange 1 bolt hole until it feels right when driving?) I will put the driveshaft back on the truck this weekend and let you all know how it turns out.