I got the entire bolts out but the spacer wont come off. Im soaking it right now with pb blaster and hammer tapped it.
Im having problem with the spacer now. I cant take it apart from the part. I had to remove this coz the original part is too long.

 

JayB, i purchased GBR heavy duty but the original lasted much longer without grease points. Last year I got a remanufactured from GBR for $4++ for my other disco and its very similar ir same as the ones sold on ebay for less than half the price. I just thought the one I purchased from GBR is the best for the price and quality In my experience, its not. Look at the green shaft from gbr.

 

Good to know. Didn't want to hijack the thread but figured i would get a few good opinions

 

Is the one next to original shaft in pic the one that failed or different,? It looks identical only difference I see is greasse nipples & fresh grease.
If not same then does broken one also have grease points,? & it still broke,! Then U-joints must not be of good quality, & you said paid +$400 for it, what a ripoff,!! Then I guess we are better off buying the cheapest one & change it often huh,?

 

The green one failed and it has grease points every joint and one on the shaft itself. Appox 60-70k miles, original went more than that miles. Greased almost every oil change. Not too long ago I posted a problem with noise, squeaks and metal grinding sounds, etc. https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...explate-82174/
Then, I bought a grease gun to do the greasing myself. After doing all points, I found out the rear of the drive shaft, one of the joints collapsed. Actually the original drive shaft can be made to accept grease-able Universal-Joint.
The idea from my experience, that the original factory shafts lasted longer than the heavy duty shaft I bought from GBR, so it can be done. In RAVE, page 47-9 shows how to OVERHAUL the shaft. I will try to disassemble it later.
BTW, the cheapest one on ebay has grease nipple fittings. Which looked like the remanufactured shafts on GBR that I purchased 2x the price.

 

You greased it every oil change & it failed 60-70k miles,! That sucks,! I thought if it's greased regularly it should last at least as long as original if not longer,,,
I have replaced front factory shaft on both my D2's, because I was afraid they would fail, one had 139k miles & other one 73k, (& honestly both original ones felt perfect after I took them off), now that I read your post I am afraid the replacement ones might fail way sooner than I thought, so now I will disassemble grease & reuse factory ones before replacement ones reach 50k, thanks for letting us know,

 

Hi LR03NJ, my original driveshaft lasted well over 100K miles and may have gone much further but I took the decision to rebuild it rather than trash the autobox. I used genuine GKN U/J's for the 3 front an 1 rear driveshafts plus a new GKN rear rubber donut. The centreing ball was also new and all the new U/J's has grease zerks in them. To be sure allow yourself 8 hours solid work to rebuild both driveshafts and be sure to mark the flange and cardan positions also the diff flanges and transfer box flanges with a centre pop marks otherwise you may be into a re-balance of the shafts, particularly the front one. Good luck.

PS. Don't buy the cheapest U/J's but go for good quality as it's not a job you want to repeat too soon.

 

Bom, I would like to add some of my thoughts about the drive shaft issues. I replaced my shaft already and everything works fine and smooth riding again. But, the shaft came from a 162k miles disco that I purchased 2 years ago. Out of curiosity I called the 1st owner and asked if it had been replaced, so for me to have peace of mind using it again for this truck. then he told me that was the original. The other truck that recently had problem had replacement shaft 3 times almost every 60-75k miles.
I was thinking that some issues might be less of a heat related problem because its near the cats but the use of larger tires. The truck which had the 162k miles had original size tires. My other disco just had its 3rd replacement shaft in 150k miles and using 31 or 32 inch tires.
The first problem was the shaft split at the shock absorber look a like part, which was near the cats and the 2nd was at the back end of the front shaft which is farther to the cats. The u joint got messed up bad and cant be repacked again.
Im just thinking that your trucks must have the factory size tires thats why the shafts lasted that long. Anyway, ill be looking for shafts again soon. Im using a 162k miles used shaft with larger tires. Cheers!

 

That must be it huh, tire size. I think you are very right , yes my trucks have standard size all-terrain tire's, shafts besides being next to Cats, they were always in very hot climates (even more heat for shafts in traffic),
Thanks for info,

 

Thanks OffroadFrance,
I thought about your message. I checked the damage and im not sure if I can still rebuild the shaft. The u joint lost all the bearings and the housing blew and made a deep impression inside the ring. It caused the broken gear sound because the metal is hitting the ring that holds the bearing. A new joint will wobble again.
How big are your tires? Im wondering how your shaft reached 100k miles. Cheers and many thanks!