I just reread my posts. After reading other websites, I believe I used incorrect terminology. It was not any of the universal joints that failed. They were all greased. It was the center bearing or center ball with the needle bearings that was dry and failed. I previously referred to that as the cardon joint.

It seems to me that all four wheels would need to be lifted with the vehicle in neutral to rotate the driveshaft to get the optimal angle to access the inside of the cardon joint to grease the center ball. Is that what everybody does? Do I need to get back with my mechanic to determine what he put in there as it may be possible he replaced it with a sealed center ball? Is there a sealed one and an unsealed serviceable one?

 

The easier way would be to just remove the driveshaft. Its 8 bolts. Doing it on the car is needlessly tiring. And you don't have to have all four off the ground. Front 2 will do.

 

The OEM front drive shaft from the Land Rover was sealed and marketing to never need service. Of course as the Disco's age more and more they are failing. A direct replacement with sealed "non-servicable" fittings costs $1000 from LR. Which is part of the reason why everyone goes with a cheaper, serviceable shaft like you did. For off road it has obvious advantages.

You need to actually remove the four bolts holding the double cardon side to the transfer case, to access the needle point in the center.

For future reference, the rear drive shaft has zerk fittings on it as well, from the factory. Every time you get an oil change all zerk fittings need to be "lubed" on any car/truck/suv/van etc. Hence the names like Jiffy Lube, Walmart Oil & Lube, etc, etc, etc.. Now you finally know what the Lube part stands for

Even if that center ball was lubed your drive shaft would've still failed without lube to all zerk fittings in regular intervals.

 

I just drive mine up on ramps, jack one front tire up with the truck in neutral and e-brake on. You can turn the shaft by hand to get to each fitting. One foot holds the free front wheel when I take off the four bolts holding the double side to get the needle. Just did this again today with all of this talk. Takes about 20 minutes, 15mm socket.

 

I also have access to a lift and tech grade tools( read air ratchet). So for me, its faster to remove, grease and reinstall.

I watched a kid install one in the parking lot of a 7-11 before we went offroading on day. Took him 30 mins.

 

Cool, and 2rovers, you may want to read this thread about someone who had the same issue. It has some pictures and more info: https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...-failed-31383/

 

Ok, I appreciate the link. I had the same thought earlier as one of the guys on that forum conversation. Wouldn't it make more sense to use a sealed set up and put a heat shield in place to protect the shaft from the catalytic converter? There is no way around this. Dropping the shaft every 3,000 miles is high maintenance. This is the only vehicle I have ever heard of that being necessary on. I think we are also approaching this from two very different uses. It sounds like many of you have the tools and garages set up to work on these. Many of you have highly modified vehicles that see occasional use. It is more of a weekend toy and ATV. Mine is bone stock and a daily driver. I appreciate that it is so capable off road and use it in that capacity frequently, just not to the extreme. Florida sugar sand and occasional mud is what it sees mostly. No rock crawling or river crossings. At this point, it is what it is. I will have to do more maintenance on it than what I anticipated. Thank you everyone for the feed back and help.

 

still trying to figure out what needle you all are referring to on this ball joint....can someone help me out here? When i replaced all the ujoints and ball joint, i didn't see any "needle". Thx

 

I may be way out of line here, but I think your frustration came from lack of knowledge and assumptions that people should have been more specific with details for you.

It's very cool of ZGPhoto's company to be putting in a card describing how to maintain a driveshaft - That's excellent customer service, and absolutely not required.

Greasable vs Non Greasable isn't something that need be written down somewhere. This is the lore of Automobiles, or horse carts prior - Moving parts need attention. Sealed non greasable, in theory, last as long as the parts continue to work with the original amount of grease installed, right up until they don't.

Serviceable allows you to add grease to replace the drying out grease. Generally, we're taught by fathers or uncles or grandfathers these legendary tricks - Fill it with grease until you see fresh grease coming out. Wipe away expelled excess grease.

You have an old diesel truck - I'm sure it has grease fittings. Maybe not on the driveshaft, but I'd be willing to bet it has balljoints that can be greased, or something else on the truck that does. Same thing goes for motorcycles, lawn tractors, ATVs, Kids bikes! Anything with a bearing frankly!

I'm not a mechanic either. I'm a network engineer. I do have a 2 car garage and quite a bit of tools gathered over time out of need. I do my own work because I care about how things get done. Bring your car to a place that will change your oil for $25 with oil included is paying a kid $8/hr to do your oil change. You'll get what you pay for. Countless times I've gotten a bit in over my head on a project - sometimes having to bring someone else in to assist that knows more about the topic than I. This overall however, is what makes someone be better at these things.

There are some things I just won't do. I'm not willing to learn it - like differentials. Setting up gears isn't all THAT hard, just takes time, and lots of patience checking patterns, readjusting, again, again...

A pro tip I could give you - If you're going to do a vehicle repair - have someone else with you. Have a buddy over - You can bang your head against a problem for 3 hours where your buddy may spot something in the first 5 mins and resolve it.

The Rover isn't really all that special. They're just more needy.

Dave

 

This is what I made to send with every shaft we sell.