There are many new D2 front drive shafts for sale on Ebay for under $150. The photos of the front drive shafts are generic. Some show grease nipples and some do not. Sellers on Ebay do not know what they have because these items are drop-shipped, meaning they are shipped to the buyer from somewhere else, and sellers do not know or even understand what they have.
Some of these front drive shafts are rebuilt. If you are lucky, you may get the one with five (5) grease nipples on both ends of front drive shaft. If you are not lucky, you may get one with 2 grease nipples on one end and none at the other drive shaft end or without any nipples at all.
I like to buy one drive shaft with five grease nipples - 3 nipples on the bigger end and two nipples on the smaller end for under $150 from a seller who knows what he is selling. Anyone here replaced their front drive shaft recently that was purchased online especially from Ebay??

 

Beware of cheap Chinese eBay/Amazon items. If I was so inclined I could pull good condition drive shafts out of my parts rigs, throw on fresh paint, then sell them as remanufactured on either site having not done anything but the paint face lift. Complete with 90 day warranty.

It could also be cheap Chinese bearings, unbalance and a ticking time bomb waiting to take out your transmission.

 

A drive shaft is a critical part, especially the front one. I would not source it from random sellers and it is not worth the savings.

 

So, why not just swap out the u-joints in your current driveshaft to the greasable ones? They have 2 nipples so you can fill all the caps with grease and the slip yoke on the shaft should have a nipple.

 

I did that myself for the rear drive shaft and it was pia. A would go to a shop if the price is reasonable and if they can balance it.

 

What's the reason you want to replace it?
If it can be serviced, that is by far the superior solution for renewing a driveshaft. If the welded/forged parts (slip joint, and CV joint internals) are not worn beyond usability, then service or replace the serviceable parts and you have a brand new driveshaft with none of the concerns about cheap Chinese parts. It doesn't take any unusual special tools to change out the crosses, though there might be some that you don't have - but you SHOULD have them, so improve your tool collection if necessary.

 

The front drive shaft on my D2 is not serviceable. There are no center grease nipples on he bigger end of the drive shaft. A good driveshaft must have two grease nipples on the smaller end and three grease nipples on the bigger end of the drive shaft.
I dont want to drive the car without knowing condition of the of drive shaft. I dont want to wait to hear any noises coming from the drive shaft. This is called precentive maintenance.

 

If you were answering me then I think you might have misunderstood me. Service your driveshaft, don't replace it. That was my point. Not having zercs doesn't make it unserviceable, it just makes it difficult to service. Rebuild it with crosses with zercs. You can even remove those crosses and clean and grease them without replacing them and that would be a totally valid service...but why the hell would one pull them out and NOT replace them with new ones with zercs? One wouldn't! Point is they just need grease. I used the word "serviceable" in its meaning of "still able to be used". Able to be used as opposed to all broken/beat up.

Going this route gives you a factory driveshaft with upgraded crosses. You CAN get high quality crosses and not have to worry about cheap Chinese junk. Best part is that you learn how to rebuild u-joints. Kool.

 

Because my front drive shaft does not have the three grease nipples on the heavy end, I believe it is an aftermarket one. I do not want to service it. I want to find one which has three nipples on the heavy end and two nipples on the smaller end of the drive shaft.
You want to find a drive shaft with all the grease nipples in place in order to re-grease them at interval period, and that drive shaft will last for a long time for the lifetime of the car

Many of front drive shafts on D2 have been replaced with aftermarket ones without the proper number of grease nipples on the heavy end of the drive shaft

 

Go to lucky8 offload. I just bought a second one yesterday. It was like $180 or something.