Ok, first I need to say that you guys are all awesome. I would not nor could nor afford to keep a Land Rover roving with out this forum! I have redone my head gaskets, transmission filter, and every other thing in-between and I am NOT a mechanic. Since the head gasket worked so good, 15K so far! I thought I would try new u joints in the front drive shaft...everybody said it was easy...

I wanted to go wheelin on Saturday and found the clicking to the worn transfer side u joints, so lets try this. 3 Precision 344 from Napa with the grease zerks. Start taking it apart until...did not know there was a gimble (?) bearing between the 2 u joints. It pops, rods flyin, kids screaming it was crazy...I could not find them all. (There is alot of talk about the u joints, grease zerks and ease...not much about look out when taking apart...ah probably user error anyways.)

Now for the bad part and dumb part...how important is that middle bearing? If a desperate person put 3 new u joints in without nothing but grease in the middle gimble (?) bearing, how dumb would they be?
Probably get a vibration under load and low speed?

Can I stay in denial and say that the vibration is just going to work itself out? Or since all (3) grease zerks are on the same side = vibration?

And if I have to succumb this to experience...will the vibration wear out the transfer case or front diff if I drive it? Can i take off the front driveshaft and lock the transfer case for long periods of time?

Thanks
James

 

bring your drive shaft to a drive line shop and have it balanced. you can take off the front drive shaft lock the TC and drive for a little while but i would reccomend it for a long period nor harsh starts or long trips.

 

You definitely need to replace the centering ball. I know that getting it apart was a nightmare, but if you've gone to the trouble of pulling the FrDS, the centering ball probably needs replaced too or you'll back taking it all apart again later...

 

If you are asking if you can put a driveshaft together without all the parts, then NO. If you are asking if the fact that you put it back together without all the parts may be making it vibrate, and may lead to it exploding, totally destroying your transmission, the answer is YES. that thing turns at tens of thousands of RPMs, it won't last long if it isn't right.

 

oh yeah don't know how i missed that part of your post you need to have a centering ball kit put in its Precision part 617 and make sure you grease it before you put it in

 

Yeah you need to fix that bearing. You could get by for a while if the center bearing was in good shape and you had all the parts but without it you will not get very far before tragedy.

 

I replaced my ujoints and centering ball about 2,000 miles ago...ujoints were fine and could have lasted quite a bit longer, but the centering ball was pretty loose and could have gone within a few thousand...

Don't take a chance...from what I've seen/read the centering ***** are one of the weaker points and they have to be changed out...there's no sense in only doing the ujoints...

 

If you'd read this thread first it would have saved you a lot of headache and extra work.
https://landroverforums.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=29302

 

Sorry to break the news, but the centering ball is critical and it really is the bitch of the job. Be prepared for it to take a while and you will need a good slide hammer (or at least I did).

 

Don't use one of the cheap slide hammers from Harbor Freight though, or if you do, don't be surprised if it doesn't work out for you. I broke mine trying to get the centering ball out and ended up chopping the old ball/ring out with a Dremmel...