Okay guys, I need to make a decision today:

Should I have the front drive shafts on my Rovers rebuilt, or should I order entirely new ones?

Are rebuilt drive shafts ANY weaker than new ones?

Thanks guys,

Pat

 

Here are your options, places like Tom Woods and GBR in Salt Lake City offer great new and rebuilt shafts.
If you have a drive line shop in your area and they use U.S. made parts for less then $250 rebuilt, this can be a good way to go.
If you buy a shaft on-line make sure where it is made, that it has all new U.S. mad u-joints and centering ball or don't buy it.
Then there is always the option of rebuilding it your self, if you are mechanical and can follow directions.

 

Got it, thanks Mike!

 

Hey D2F, found this poking around today, reading about Drive Shaft stuff. May be somewhat helpful to you.. I wish I would have found it a bit earlier.. I had a lot of fun rebuilding my drive shaft though, so I guess I can't complain, and It didn't cost me near as much, but here it is anyways.

CLICK HERE

Thanks man and best of luck bud.

Regards,

 

The only problem is that a part number for the Durango was never published and I haven't been able to find one that fit off the shelf.

 

Probably, once put in to service there is always some stress on nearly everything.
Noticeably weaker? Significantly weaker? Probably not. I've rebuild numerous prop-shafts without concern.
A rebuilt, or new, stock DII prop-shaft, which uses 1300 series u-joints, is going to be weaker than an aftermarket, like TW or GBR, that uses 1310 series u-joints. Should that be a concern? Probably not for 98% of DII owners.

 

Yeah, Anti- I see what you mean about the Durango shaft. Shane, I just read all four pages of that thread. VERY interesting, and I love the sounds of that. $250 sounds a LOT better than $389 for a Tom Woods.

I think I'm going to pull the trigger and just order two Tom Wood drive shafts... I really don't want to have to put a new tranny in either one of these.

The ONLY thing that worries me is one of the posts in the thread you just linked to me, Shane. A guy says his new TW shaft vibrates more than his stock one did. Maybe he just got the wrong length?

Tom wants me to measure my shaft from flange to flange. That sounds real scary- I'm going to email him back asking if he can find a stock Disco and measure it. It seems like a millimeter in the wrong direction is going to strain something.


Thanks guys!

 

Ahh, thanks for that great information. I keep going back and fourth on this Tom Wood thing. I am not an off-roader, and I don't like spending money on this kind of stuff when I could get a roof rack or something cool (lol)... but I also don't want a busted tranny. $389x2 is better than even one broken tranny... I guess if I knew a reliable drive shaft guy around here it would be different...

 

Yeah man, I hear ya, just wanted to give you all of the options! Like I said before, I did my own, but I have other vehicles to drive and didn't have to have it done that day ya know! Even at that, if I would have messed it up, I wouldn't have minded spending the extra money to buy a new one, it was just a project that I had never done and wanted to give a shot!

Either way you go, its all good, there is a great place here in San Antonio, its Thrash Automotive and Driveshaft.. You wont have your front drive shaft in while they are rebuilding it, but they are the ones that balanced mine and they did an awesome job. took all of the vibrations out for sure. I was talking to the guy and they have Disco owners ship their shafts in all the time, they charge 260 total with parts and all, there would be extra with shipping for you, but thats still about 100 bucks cheaper and I can ensure they will do an awesome job. After he balanced mine, he painted it an everything for me, really good people. I will post the link for you and you can give them a call. I'm sure you have CDL on your 04 so you can creep around while its getting rebuilt and you can just send in 1 at a time and save 200 bucks.. theres a roof rack for ya D2F!! Plus they have a 48 hour turn around so you can have it all done within a week...

HERES Thrash Driveline Shop

Let me know what you think man.

Regards,

 

A little added note, since you don't do a lot of off-roading like myself, you probably don't need a big beefy DS like the TW one. That was another deciding factor for me.

Take care,