A LR buddy of mine seems to think that Rovers in general have weak drivetrains. Specifically the axle shafts. He went on to say that some VW axle shafts are bigger than those used on our trucks. Is this true? What are your thoughts? Ive never heard of anyone complaining about Land Rover drivetrain save the front prop shaft on the D2 and the rear driveshaft on the D1. Thoughts?

 

If you are just focusing alone on the axle shaft.... size alone does not dictate absolute advantage. The yield strength of the shaft material is another key factor.

In addition, the overall strength of a drivetrain system is dependent on the weakest link in the system (e.g., driveline, u-joints, axle gears, shafts, etc). It will be hard to make any true conclusion until you do an apples-to-apples comparison on nominal capacities of the key VW drivetrain components versus the key Disco drivetrain components. In other words, what is the weakest link in the VW drivetrain versus the Disco drivetrain?

 

strong enough?....sure. could it be improved?....sure.
I personally do not like how hard the cv joints are. but give me some vw, or whatever, components and I can break those, too.

 

Axle shafts are one of the stronger parts, as well as the LT230. The diffs are the weak parts.

I've run 33s on stock front shafts for over a year of events now.

 

" Yea the axle shafts are ridiculously under sized!! Like I've seen Vws with larger shafts." From a conversation with Don Trudeau. He did not elaborate further on this notion so that's why I'm curious.

 

Undersized yes, but not under-strength'd for their application(which are 29" tires). Don ran 37s on stock axles, so I'm not sure why he thinks they're so weak haha.


*Note for clarification- you can break stock axles if you beat your truck too hard, and if you're locked you should upgrade them.

 

Yep, and most of that is the carrier. Even the people that have broken teeth off of the ring gear or snapped a pin, it's usually the carrier flexing.

There are SOME four bolt carriers out there, that are much stronger, but they are hard to find, so it's easier to put a locker in.... and then you have a locker

 

D2 has a good tcase, that's about it.

The axle housings are thick and strong, but the steering knuckles attached are sketchy, nothing you can do for these.

The diffs suck, because of what jafir said, you can peg them to counter act the flex though.

The axles are 24 spline axles, they are small, and they will break. The fronts are less likely to break as they always have less weight load on them by nature, the rears, when going up hill, 70% of the trucks weight is shifted to them, that's why they break. You can buy the HD axles though, to run a 33" tire (under warranty)

 

A lot of people don't like the exposed cv joints and ball joints on the D2, but I rarely read about people having failures.

One problem with the D2 is that it isn't a full float rear like the D1, but it is kind of halfway there. If you break the axle shaft at the diff, the wheel won't come off. You have to break the shaft at the hub to risk separating the bearing and having the wheel come off.

 

well, here you go. I blew out 2 cv joints, last year...I carry a spare now.
and I have some good slingshot ammo.