I'm getting ready to rebuild my front drive shaft. Got the 3 u-joints and the centering ball already. Do I have to get the drive shaft balanced? All the places around me in MD are wanting anywhere from $200 to $350 to do the work and that's with me supplying the parts and handing them the shaft. Seems a bit high to me after reading older posts on this subject. BTW....it's an 03 with 113K miles. Bad vibration from the time I let off the brake no matter how fast I'm going. I read on here somewhere that I can remove the front shaft but still will be able to drive it? If someone can please walk me thru that or send me a PDF file it would be greatly appreciated it. Thanks in advance!

 

you cant remove it and still drive because your 03 doesnt have a CDL. it shoudl cost $200 to have it rebuilt including parts so yes you are correct their estimates are too high. You can buy a Tom Woods for $350. There are plenty of write ups on how to do it. do a search.

 

I'd get it balanced.
Read this thread:
https://landroverforums.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=29302

 

Thanks! Saw that link but I was still unclear about the balancing part of it. I figured shops around here were ripping me off. I've called about 8 places and none are cheaper than $200 with me providing the shaft and parts.

 

Most shops don't want you to provide the parts for several reasons.
They make a little money on parts.
They don't know the quality of parts you're providing so don't want to provide a warranty.
If there's a failure there's going to be conflict between you and them, whether it was the workmanship or the parts.
So they are probably charging a premium for labor to off-set the headache of any issues.

You can figure on $30-$40 per u-joint if they provide them, plus about $40 or so for the centering kit.

 

Yeah I got the 344 u-joints for $15/ each and the 617 centering kit for $35. I work in BMW wholesale parts and it comes in handy every once in awhile for my Rover lol

 

Hmmmm.... $35 is a bit high for the centering kit ($29 from Advance) and $15 seems really low for the u-joints. I know O'Reilly is selling some Chinese that use the Precision 344 part number for about that.

 

That's about what my cost from O'Reilly would be also for the Precision brand. $17 for the joints and $40 for the ball. The crap joints are $11. The shop I work for doesn't get a good break on that product line, so as long as the joints came in a yellow, not blue box, he should be good to go.

 

I did my first one..never again. The next one (wife's 01) I had done at a driveline shop here in SA. 150 parts, labor and balance. Spicer u joints..I made them show me the made in usa box.

 

Ah, yeah, I stand corrected.
I just looked. The retail on them has gone down since last time I checked.
I used Neapco because I like the zerk in the end cap so hadn't checked on Precision in a long time.
I had recently checked on the knock-offs there and remembered the retail was around $15.