Just did mine last week, also, It's very handy to have and extra set of hands to help put the ball kit back together and press the last u joint in. I had a friend helping me and I'm not sure i could have done it without his extra set of hands to work the press.

 

Thanks for keeping the conversation going. I've learned a lot from these posts. I've only have my '03 for about a year and I'm still learning a TON everytime I log in. Great links that got posted earlier in the threat too.

Thanks again guys, good stuff.

-Ug

 

No problem Ug. I've learned so much since I got my Disco only 3 months ago. It does get to be addicting for some reason.

BTW, my SD is bigger and may just beuglier too (this was my pre-Disco addiction).

 

I know it's an old thread, but it is probably an appropriate place for some of my tips after doing this job over the weekend.

1. I agree with replacing the nuts, they are not strong enough to be re-used. They should be tourqued for the same reason, use a crows foot on a torque wrench and adjust the torque settings to compensate for the extra length (there are forumlas all over the net for this).
2. Use a c-clamp ball joint tool over a press, way easier to set the caps on the bench and still keep the centering ball intact.
3. Run some sandpaper inside the hubs for the caps, clean up any sharp edges, burrs, and general damage if the caps were knocked out with a hammer. Makes installing them much easier.
4. My centering ball was a nightmare to remove, had to put a little heat on it to pop the race out (you only need a little, do not overheat to red or it will ruin the hub). Use the old race to tap in the new race and ball as is is the right diameter to not damage the ball.
5. Transfer case output flange nut was hand tight, good thing I was replacing the seal or I may have never checked that. Seal was easy, torqued nut to 109 lb-ft.
6. I used two ramps on the p/s side to tilt the truck, removed two nuts on the transfer case side, backed the car off the ramps and then another 18", reset the ramps, drove it back up and the other two nuts were then accessible to remove. Saved the hassle of jacking it up and working the shaft in neutral.

One thing that did puzzle me was the so called dust cap for the centering ball, no matter what I could not get it to stay on properly. Maybe I should have replaced it, any suggestions or experiences with that??

I think that covers it, I used precision ujoints and precision centering ball. Old ujoints were perfectly fine for 67k miles. Next, d/s cv joint...