I recently had a Front Driveshaft fail at the Hooke Joint. Lots of clunking and chirping and whining while accelerating until the vehicle got up to a steady state speed.

Not the U-Joints but rather than cup-and-ball joint in the middle of the double-jointed Hooke, though I could't tell that when inspecting it in-place.. Replaced it with a pretty nice one from a donor that I pumped fresh grease thru, and I am back on the road.

The one I pulled from the beast binds at the cup-and-ball joint in the middle of the Hooke. I can clearly see some scaring on the surface of one of the ***** that I am guessing is causing the binding: the one I harvested from a donor is "smooth as a baby's bottom".

I was wondering whether I should chuck the old shaft or try to rebuild it? Can you buy a new cup-and-ball?

 

Yes, use Precision/Moog repair ball kit 617. It has the centering ball, spring, and seal. It is pressed in. Remove old ball (can be difficult) then press new one in.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Guessing this is the right kit?

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/m...xoCrIMQAvD_BwE

Is there one or two of those cup-and-ball joints in there, i.e. do I need one or two kits?

I note that it says the cup-and-ball is lubricated and sealed for life: I coated the heck out of the the exposed part of the ball after cleaning the new used shaft, that should be OK, right?

Have a press so no problem there getting it in, but how do you get it out?

And how do you recommend getting at it? Do I push out both U-joints, or just on one end of the double cardan/hookes?

I guess I am asking whether there is a video out there showing the steps needed to rebuild this.

 

Yes, that is correct part, only one needed. Remove u-joint on that side of the double Cardon to expose and access the end of the shaft. You can try a small gear puller to pull it out. I didn't have one on hand, I just cut a split with a Dremel then chiseled the split until I could force out with heavy screwdriver. Time consuming, but straight forward.

 

Thanks, all, won't throw it away but will spend the $30 to rebuild it and then set it aside for a rainy day.

Do those centering ball joints fail often? Seems like LR considered it a non-serviceable item.

 

They are common on many brands of vehicles. However, LR, in their infinite wisdom, decided to place a very hot catalytic converter directly adjacent to it, and cook the double Cardon to early deaths.

 

So heat causes the "sealed for life" cup-and-ball/centering bearing to ooze out grease and eventually fail? No one has come up with a heat shield mod for that? Next time I am at junkyard, I'm going to take the tin snips and get a hunk of heat shield from elsewhere from a D2 donor and shape it to block that direct heat. Thanks for that insight.

BTW, the cardan-next-to-cat converter sounds a lot like Porsche's idiocy in putting what is effectively a wheel bearing directly in the early Boxster motor (the infamous IMS bearing failure legal disaster for Doc, Ferry's company). Bearing fails 2% of time in 1997-2000/1 and 10% in 2001/2004 Boxster at 90,000 miles, resulting in a hand grenade going off in the motor. Huge lawsuit for Porsche.

Yes, sometime German engineers can be as moronic as the English ones (but at least the English engineers are clever/creative/innovative, partly compensating for the lack of any attention to reliability/maintainability, which can't be said of the German ones).

https://www.oregonpca.org/ims-saga/

 

You can always grease the ball.

I just redid my front prop with new UJ's and ball, and the ball cup has a threaded hole (fitted with a bolt) for a tiny grease nipple, or You can just get a cone shaped nozzle for Your grease gun.

Didn't even need a press installing the new ball.

 

Cool, so the ball can be greased. Can I do it in place or do I need to take it off again? Is the bolt hollow and that's where the nipple goes? Which end of the joint do you access this grease hole from: the transfer case end or the differential end?

 

You might be able to grease it on the truck, maybe.
Too bad I didn't take pics of it while it was off, usually I take plenty of pics while working on my cars.

This is the best I have to offer at the moment


So it's on the transfer case side, on the bottom half, the cup itself.
It is smaller thread than the other nipples have. The head of the bolt was odd, it had a collar on the edges with slots for a flathead screwdriver. So, a normal flathead is needed for the bolt.
The bolt is not hollow so You need to take it off. And it can be really fiddly to get back on if You have the prop on the truck.

To grease it I got a cone shaped nozzle for my grease gun.


I'm not sure is the prop original or changed in some point by previous owners, and if the V8 and TD5 are different, no V8's around here.

This is why I redid mine.