I have what might be a stupid question. I just got a 2000 Rover and from reading on this forum I had planned on rebuilding the drivelines. The big concern with a driveline failing is the damage they do when breaking, so what if I installed driveline loops instead? I know the best thing would be to rebuild the drivelines AND install loops but the rebuild sounds like a pain and this is going to be a very low milage vehicle (maybe 500 mountain miles a year) I have a welder brother that can make loops for free so what would be the pros and cons of doing this?
Thanks,

 

It's sort of like putting on a long sleeve shirt when you rip your arm open on something. True, you won't get as much blood on stuff, but you're not really fixing the problem.

 

the drive shaft loop is a great idea that way to will still have all the pieces of the your tranny when the case cracks from the drive shaft flapping around. But you can ussually just reach throw the hole it make in the floor and pick them up. The u-joint could very well be 12-years old do you want to be stuck in the mountians for less than $100.00 and a couple of hours labor? you'll spend more time fabing up the drive shaft loops than you will rebuilding the drive shaft.

 

Rebuilding the drive shaft isn't that hard, it took me 3 hours to do it with the RAVE and the howto sticky on this forum.

 

Loops won't help anything, you will still damage the tranny or t/case and you are restricting the movement/angle of the drive shaft when your front suspension is off the ground when wheeling a hard line.
Rebuild your drive shaft using good U.S. made u-joints and centering ball and lube them twice a year and you will be fine.

 

I recently did both of my shafts and including the rotoflex coupling it was less than $200. I considered this money WELL spent.

 

I agree. Did you also set up your slip shaft plugs to take a grease fitting so you can grease them at least once a year, also?

 

Is this something different than changing the stock grease fitting plug?

 

No but thanks for the reminder.

 

Well, I guess that's it, I'm ordering the u joints today and will be rebuilding.
Thanks for the comments.