Hi guys. I drive a 2000 Discovery II and I love it. Recently one of my u-joints gave out and threw my drive shaft while I was driving with my daughter. My husband and I both work long hours, but I work at night, so I have time during the day to attempt to fix my drive shaft. I've had to order a new one, as the force of the u joint escaping tore up the end of the shaft. The drive shaft also tore up what I think is my transmission pan, but I am not sure. What I mostly need help with is identifying a couple of the parts in my undercarriage so I know I'm fixing the right thing.

This is (I think) my transmission pan, am I correct?

This is the end where my drive shaft tore out, you can see the shredded metal on the left. What I'd like to figure out is what is this part (circular, with bolts) and do I need to replace it as well?
Any help is appreciated, as I am a newbie to car maintenance.
Edited to add: This is a view of my drive shaft from the passenger side.

 

Yikes....


A bit blurry, but basically remove the 4 nuts you see in the second photo, and whatever is left on the front differential, put the new shaft on with 8 new nuts.

 

Where are you ordering your new drive shaft from?
Might consider British Parts of Utah or Great Basins Rovers in Salt Lake city as having the 2 better replacements for the poorly designed Rover shaft.

 

WOW! You were extremely lucky that you don't have a hole in your transmission. That would have been REALLY bad. The shaft is pretty easy to replace, 4 bolts on each end. Don't re-use the nuts, you'll have to replace those as well.

As for the trans. pan, I'm not sure about that. You might be able to find one at a salvage yard somewhere. Or, if you search the "For Sale" threads on here, there is always someone parting out a Rover.

 

Thanks guys, I know it's a bit blurry, but my husband has the jack and I couldn't quite wiggle under there.
I believe I ordered the A1 Cardone drive shaft, it seemed to be the best option for the money I was willing to spend.
Okay, so that's the differential. Am I going to be able to bolt the new u joint/drive shaft onto that, or do you think it will need to be replaced?
The transmission pan, we were just planning on going to a pick and pull for, but I wanted to be sure I didn't get the wrong thing. There is a definite hole in it and I've been leaking transmission fluid quite steadily.
We were extremely lucky.

 

Not knowing much about a1 driveshafts i know they are just reman parts supplier. my guess is their driveshaft isnt any better than the factory one that just broke. not sure what you paid but for around 300 you can buy a much better built one that is serviceable so this wont happen again

 

This is what I got and was very happy with it for my 2000 Discovery.

Land Rover Discovery 2 CV Front Drive Shaft 1999 2004 | eBay

ProShaft LLC - No issues at all. Even came with the hardware.

Dave

 

Not to patronize, but extremely lucky doesn't even begin to describe your situation. This is the number one thing we try to inform new forum members about - inspect and change out factory drive shafts.

I just did a quick read on the A1 shaft. The good thing is it was rebuilt w/ serviceable U-Joints. EVERYTIME you change or have the oil changed pump grease into all three U-Joints.



Here's a quick synopsis of why your Drive shaft failed. Compliments of Bill from GBR

"Factory Discovery 2 front driveshafts are a very high quality shaft. The premature failure issue with them is related to excessive heat, not the quality of the component. "

"Discovery 2 Front Driveshafts - As we are fond of saying, Land Rover finally added a double cardon front shaft but unfortunately it was 29 years too late! To complicate matters, it is a good news/bad news situation. We already mentioned the good news - they did it.

The bad news is that someone at Land Rover decided to make the double cardon joint non-serviceable. Non-serviceable u-joints are becoming quite common on many modern vehicles but we question the choice on a four wheel drive vehicle especially one with Land Rovers reputation for off road prowess in condition such as wading in water and mud.

The really bad news isn't that it is non-servicable but rather it is located in close proximity to the catalytic converters. Catalytic converters become quite hot when they come up to temperature (approximately 700 degrees). Combine this with sitting in traffic (no air flow under the vehicle) in a hot climate (worst case scenario) and the lubrication in the shaft starts to degrade. Since there is no convenient way to lubricate the shaft and Land Rover doesn't list it as a service point, it is overlooked.

To make matters even worse the air conditioning compressor drains onto the joint! The result is premature failure of this driveshaft. Unfortunately as the driveshaft deteriorates it frequently does not have an ominous warning sign of the looming failure . This means that you frequently find out about the issue as you are driving down the road at a higher rate of speed. The results are usually catastrophic. The shaft breaks in two and the longer heavier piece flails about destroying exhaust system and ends with it usually knocking a hole in the transmission!

The solution to this issue is to upgrade to a serviceable shaft and service it regularly and frequently especially if you are in a worst case scenario. We offer a couple of options to deal with this problem. If you have one of these vehicles and you start to pick up any vibrations or clunking or sqeeking noises or any combination of them - immediately inspect the front driveshaft. The consequences are so dire you might consider immediately stopping driving the vehicle! A minor problem this shaft has it that it also throws balance weights which results in vibrations., which frequently mimics the major problem."

 

So I have a bit of an update to our driveshaft problem. My husband took a closer look and realized that the shaft took out a chunk of my transmission. The reason he didn't see it before was because the chunk is so big and the break is so clean it's like an optical illusion. It looks like we are going to have to install a new tranny, which neither of us has done before. Does anyone know of any good resources on replacing the transmission, preferably with pictures? I also have a video of the break if anyone wants to take a look. We were lucky, but not quite as lucky as I thought.

 

That makes more sense...sorry for your misfortune. Replacing a transmission is not a walk in the park. If you do not feel confident you could destroy the new transmission with an incorrect installation.