I will start off with a quick intro... I am the proud owner of a 2003 D2. I have done a fair bit of work on her and she has treated me pretty good. I couldn't have done any of the jobs without the knowledge within this site and for that I want to say thank you first. One of the first things I did when I bought this Disco was rebuild the front driveshaft. I was hoping for years of worry free use, with regular greasing of course, but that ended today on the side of the highway. I have the official LR Dicovery owners pic of it being loaded on the tow truck to prove it! After a quick diagnosis, I pulled the front prop shaft. After a look over, I found the remnants of my center ball bearings. I removed the outer u-joint and this is what I found. Is this ball still usable? Thanks in advance...

 

Firstly the outer carrier looks well mashed up. It's part of the cardan carrier and may need replacing. As far as the center ball it's not worth taking the chance so replace it with the carrier. You can buy a newish carrier with a used driveshaft off of Ebay or similar. I would investigate the costs for the used driveshaft, 3x UJ's and a center ball as it might be worth buying a complete and balanced driveshaft from Lucky8 or elsewhere.

PS. You may even have problems getting the seal and center ball out of the existing carrier as the burring may have mishapen the carrier.

 

Thanks Offroad France! I am going to get a new centering ball kit and one u-joint since it had a lifetime warranty. Was mainly concerned about that carrier. I will clean up the burrs and clean up the nicks to 'socket' as well. Fwiw, interesting timing as I just put about 100 miles on her since I did a 2" lift. Not sure it had anything to do with it, but odd timing.

 

The lift is probably your smoking gun. I had a driveshaft that was working perfect, put a 2" lift and some larger tires and started hearing a clicking noise. Switched out the shaft and that was it.

 

I reckon you are right Abran. It also depends on the radius of the driveshaft in the droop position. There are driveshafts around for sale that cope with greater lift and more articulation. The cardan, as you know, was introduced because of the stardard driveshaft was over flexed on rough terrain and would be on it's limit but I reckon as stock the cardan DS is on or nearing it's articulation limit.

 

IMO LICKDLISH, the carrier is clashing or binding with the mating part due to the 2" lift when the front axle is in max droop on one side or the other hence the carrier housing ball being burred badly.

 

Thanks Abran and Offroad. I saw some previous posts on the subject today when I was looking for the possible cause. I know Rovers North sells a prop shaft spacer. I am in the process of rebuilding this driveshaft now. It was a 2" TF MED. lift if it helps. I will put this back in and see if it will get me through until I come up with a new plan.

 

Tow truck pic....

 

Nice looking truck LICKDISH.

If you have a lathe or access to a machineshop try putting a slight chamfer on the carrier ball to avoid future clashing. To my recollection the carrier ball only runs in a rubber sleeve so no big deal and as long as there is enough land (or meat) left to fit and hold the grease seal it should be OK. Also check the mating center ball flange for similar clash marks and if possible machine that as well.

 

I dont think your lift kit has anything to do with that centering ball breaking. We all have lifts on this site (for the most part), and we aren't throwing front shafts left and right. Its 90% neglect, or lack of grease, etc that kills them.