I have used the Tom Woods and BPUtah front driveshafts. Driveshafts are greased often. Thought I would share my experiences and get thoughts from others on their experiences. I offroad frequently, though not an extreme offroader. Standard 2" lift. No extreme driveline angles.

1) Period from 2015 - 2019: Started using Tom Woods.... then the center bearing pin broke. According to the shop, this bearing oes not normally carry much load. I searched for some threads on the Tom Woods shaft. They come in highly recommended, but recollect someone mentioned a similar failure.



2) 2019 to current: I then switched to the BPUtah driveshaft (https://www.britishpartsofutah.com/S...&Submit=Search) What I like is the use of the 1310 u-joints which are commonly available, plus heavier duty walled tube. However, first driveshaft had a balance issue.

Replaced with another BPUtah one. This second one was installed June 2021. Greased often. Just did a check as I have a vibration issue. Discovered slight play in ujoints.

Anyone have experiences with the Tom Woods, BPUtah or other options for someone who uses their Disco for the occassional (but not extreme) offroading? I am going to order a new driveshaft and keep the current one as a spare (and take my time to replace the u-joints). Just wondering about available options. Thanks!

 

my anecdotal experience: tom woods uses parts made by someone else and, i think..then 'assembles' the shafts for different vehicles. The yokes and bearings are standard or heavy duty standard parts you can find at certain other large drive shaft parts suppliers. I know because I bought all the parts to rebuild one a year or so ago including the machined castings and greaseable internals.....I loved my older TW driveshaft, until the center ball wore out (my fault!). I then tried a heavy duty BPU or LK8 (can;t remember which) but it was out of balance. I ended up buying a new cheapy ebay driveshaft for ~130$ and it worked fine on my 4" lift, very smooth...not sure if I will get 30000miles out of it..but will find out...

Some of my parts below may be outdated, used for an older TW shaft....some are for other D-shafts...

tip: I suggest to anyone rebuilding these, do not hammer the bearing caps in or out, use a U joint press. And LABEL all parts and locations and alignment.


T-woods rebuild kit assembled from various vendors...

 

I installed one from Atlantic British 4 years and 40,000 miles ago and it's been real great. No issues, always maintained. I had a TW in my other disco and no problems with that one either.

 

I am not in the Tom Woods driveshaft camp anymore, after mine needed to be balanced after receiving it... and after I replaced a bunch of other components trying to chase down a vibration. It was basic stuff on an expensive new driveshaft.

 

I went with a Great Basin Rover driveshaft based on recommendations. Gimme a couple of years and I'll let you know how it goes

 

I have a GBR standard duty front drive shaft that has worked great for 72k miles. I grease it every 5k miles. No off roading for me though. https://gbrutah.com/

 

I’m running a BPU front shaft and have had the same issues. Took it to a local shop and they said it was way out of balance. Still have minor vibrations from it. Considering ditching it in favor of trying something else just to get rid of the ol shake rattle and roll.

 

I had a BPU drive shaft installed 40k miles ago and no vibrations. Standard suspension, mostly road trips, sometimes easy trails.

 

I’ve had 3 TW shafts go bad. But at least 1 was my fault.
1st. Was on the truck when I bought it and I didn’t grease it at all.
2nd one was greased every OTHER oil change and I caught it squeaking before failure. Had this one about 20k
3rd one was greased every other oil change and @30k miles it snapped and put a hole in my trans
And now I have a GBR front and rear. Working good so far but I do have a little vibration at 80mph

i was at 2in lift on the first, 3in lift on the second and 4in lift on third and current

 

GBR. End of discussion. I actually had this very conversation with Bill a couple weeks ago and this precise failure. Tom and Bill are where I learned a good bit of what I know about Discos and I couldn’t recommend them any more adamantly. Just great guys that make incredible products from such a small shop.