An Update:

So I got up this morning and dropped the propshaft out. the double-cardon end near the T-case was squeaky, and had a decent hitch in the articulation.

Took to AZ Driveshaft, which is a reputable offroad shop in the suburbs of Phoenix. They do a lot of work on offroad stuff, and use almost exclusively Spicer components.

The crew at the counter were nice, knowledgeable folks, all with "toys" of their own, and were quite familiar with the discos. Rounding out the case was the shop and parking lot full of fairly serious-looking offroad vehicles.

They use, for rebuilds, the "factory Spicer units" - which I was a little confused about. These are U-joints and bearings that are the "factory sealed", aka "permanently lubed" units.

Normally, I'd have laughed my way out the door, but after some discussion, and a shop tour, and seeing the owners jeep with 100K on the driveshaft with those units, I said go for it.

They offer a 24 month warranty on them, and frankly, if I have to rebuild this thing in 2 years versus that god-awful grease job on the centering ball every 3K, so be it.

they also said that the centering ball kit will have a grease fitting, and will need "oil change interval" greasing, along with the slip yoke.

IMHO, this is something on the discos that should get planned into the schedule. On my truck, I have most wear components on a planned schedule for replacement, and it hasn't let me down in many years. Alternators, ball joints, batteries, etc - just factor it in and drive it.

I get the idea of saving money, but lets face it - you don't buy these pigs because you're thrifty.

 

IMO non-serviceable u-joints aren't the worst thing... they lasted quite a long time originally. The issue when comparing Jeeps to Rovers is that Jeep didn't put the DC an inch away from the burning hot cat.

 

You got talked into buying the wrong u-joint by the off road shop. The reasoning/purpose for serviceable u-joints on a Disco II is because of where right hand catalytic convertor sits. RIGHT NEXT TO THE FRONT DRIVESHAFT. It cooks the grease out over time. You need to keep fresh grease in your u-joints, you do not need to worry about "u-joint" strength vs. non serviceable/serviceable in that rover, unless your doing the Rubicon every other weekend or something. And yes you can service the centering ball with fresh grease. And yes you can reuse your 8 drive shaft bolts with nylock nuts. MO

 

It seems like they get 100k or better out of a factory d-shaft?? So if you replace with a non serviceable joint, that driveshaft will probably out live the engine!! haha
So yeah, not the end of the world is it....

 

There was roughly 160k on my original before I replaced it, and that was only because I did it preventably. The original was fine at that point.

 

I bought my rig with 127k, drove it couple thousand miles, and then noticed a strange clunk, turned out to be a u-joint so close to flying out that it almost ruined the yoke! I had just gotten back from a 600 mile trip too! LUCKY. I was able to get it rebuilt/balanced and center bearing inspected/serviced at the driveline shop. It was less than 100 bucks here. The driveline man said to service the cardon joint around every 25k. So that's my plan....Hope it doesn't bite me.

 

Yes, these drivelines are notorious for being sketchy. I think that either is a good solution, but for the record, my rig had the grease fittings in the propshaft, and it still failed.

So for the money involved, I'm going to try the alternative and see what happens. In the interest of science, so to speak.

I'll probably just treat it like an alternator, and plan on swapping or rebuilding every few years.

It's annoying yes, but catastrophic? Not hardly.

 

Also - has anyone made a heat shield for the DC joint? Doesn't seem that hard to fab one up, and place it in between the cat and the u-joints?

If so, did you happen to do a write-up or take a picture?

 

That's a genius idea...

I took another tack a couple of years ago...removing the cats and wrapping the pipes (I live in a lawless frontier)--actually, one of the cats went bad but I was also thinking about the heat issue--and learned that, without cats, my truck sounded like a glass bottle rolling down a hill. I ended up with a new Y pipe and cats just to avoid the "glass bottle effect."

 

ATL will you kindly video, photo, or post a how to when you do your master cylinder rebuild? I realize that I have had my rebuild kit longer (and therefore should go first), but I have no clue...