So I bought a lucky8 driveshaft and had it installed after reading all the horror stories.
The truck seems to drive better although I am sure it ismy imagination.
The one that was pulled out appears perfectly fine. No play. No ssounds. Every beating is perfectly smooth.

I suppose that is $400 spent for no apparent reason. Other than piece of mind.

 

That $400 could save you your transmission. Consider it worthwhile piece of mind.

 

X2...

Sell the old drive shaft if it's in good shape to get some of your money back. You paid $400 for the lucky8 drive shaft? I just ordered one on sale for $228. Are you sure you didn't buy a tom woods shaft?

 

I think he also paid to have it swapped out.

Don't think of it as too soon, think of it as right on time. Just a little late can cost you your truck. I think most of these trucks have a book value less than the cost of replacing the transmission. Now, keep up with greasing the u-joints.

 

I put off checking my drive shaft and I got this hole in the transmission instead. I think I was only going 10MPH when this happened.

 

So the new drive shaft has a soft, high pitched squeak that is speed dependent. Its a new sound since the new shaft. Is that normal, will it break in? Should o confirm it was greased?

 

Did you have to replace the trans?

 

I had a similar problem with my new drive shaft from lucky8. I made a thread with some video's. You might want to check it out to see if it's the same sound you are having.
https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...-normal-68474/

The drive shaft had paint on the centering ball the was making a chirp noise. I used paint thinner on a q-tip to get it off and I haven't heard the sound since.

 

Yeah I found a Craigslist transmission for $250 and swapped it out. It has been running good for 2 years now.

 

It does give a vote of confidence to the LR original driveshafts though. Mine did 120K miles before I changed it/rebuilt it and there was nothing visibly wrong with it and it didn't give me any real concerns apart from a transmission vibe which in fact was the original Rotoflex coupling cracked and past it's 'sell by' date. Also vibes are often diagnosed as driveshafts when it's in fact collapsed engine mounts causing the vibes. On critical parts I generally stick to LR spare parts albeit they are overly expensive and a ripoff.