Hello!

I recently purchased a 2004 Discovery that had a broken front prop shaft. I replaced the prop shaft with a new factory land rover shaft assembly and was looking at the RAVE manual for maintenance recommendations on the shaft. In the manual it makes mention to grease the sliding section of the prop shaft but makes no mention of greasing the front universal joint. Is the front universal joint a factory greased and sealed unit like the rear hookes joint?

Thanks!

 

If it's factory shaft then single u-joint to diff should have a zerk to take grease,

 

Our 2003 had the original factory front drive shaft and it was non greaseable, except spline shaft/slide. So, if you bought a factory replacement...l'd assume it would be the same.

Rear drive shaft has a greaseable u-joint in the forward joint (behind parking brake drum).

Brian.

 

The 2003 TD5 had only one zerk on the splined slider with a replaceable cap and none on the UJ's. However, it lasted 12 years and 100K miles.

 

I see that it does have a zerk fitting for the front u joint but find it odd that the repair manual makes no mention of ever greasing it. I'm also curious as to if the factory prop shaft came greased or if I should grease it and if it requires routine greasing.

 

I believe the original factory prop shafts had sealed U joints, and that's one of the main culprits leading to sudden and catastrophic prop shaft failure. If the factory units didn't have Zerks, the RAVE manual won't mention lubricating.

It mat be that someone in Solihull figured it out too and they are now using serviceable U joints

 

Just grease everything front and rear as much as possible. I've had 2 fail on me throughout the 3 years I've owned it. Once when I got it. Then once last week. Autozone carries a kinda junky one BUT lifetime warranty other mfg also make some other high dollar ones. Especially grease after high water! Grease grease grease!

 

2 shafts in 3 years?? Was this the Autozone shaft that was failing on you?

 

I don't know where the first shaft came from. But the second shaft was autozone.

 

One has to bear in mind and visualise the type of person who originally bought these trucks new and indeed buys them new now, RR, RRS, D4 etc etc even today. These trucks might be cheap today but were very expensive and complex in the late 90's and early 2000's and the owners invariably would rely totally on the LR main dealers for servicing, parts replacement and advice etc etc and not worry about how much it's costing them as they were treated like royalty by the main dealers for which they charged their customers lots and lots of money with an eye for the 'main chance' for later replacement every 2-3 years with a nice new shiny truck. They are invariably in good condition, especially the 1-2 ownership ones, but the 5 to 10 owners types are usually altered, modded, tampered with, tuned, etc, etc on a tight budget which invariably creates problems for later owners but good for scrap parts dealers. Like everything you buy it is built to a cost plus sales margin and if it were super dooper engineered it would cost you €500K and not €40K new so it would be beyond most peoples budget new or used. That's why you have super cars/trucks costing super money for glitzy celebrities and actors