Hi all,
This is my first post here. I work on a 2002 Land Rover Disco II for a friend and wanted to please ask a question before doing something.

I usually have visited another LR forum, but found a LOT of information about rebuilding the drive shaft on THIS site. Yesterday I literally printed about 25 pages of information from this site, went home, then found the problem.

On the front drive shaft, at the back end, one knuckle of one U-joint has rusted and is chirping. My idea is to mark the shaft with with where it mates, so it goes back on the same way, then unbolt the 8 9/16 bolts, drop the shaft, have her drive with the rear wheels, while the front shaft is rebuilt. I will hire a mechanic because I don't currently have a workspace. I'll have the 2 or 3 u-joints and centering ***** replaced.

Can I just remove the front drive shaft and leave it as is, or do the now exposed places where it connects need to be covered or anything?

What's the procedure to drive with no front drive shaft?

Thanks!
Jamie

 

No need to cover the ends.
From the photo it very obviously wasn't beeing lubed correctly, no wonder it failed.

 

Thanks for the quick response. Most likely they were not lubed. The other boots looked good, but this one obviously got shot to hell.

 

Forgot to ask, will she need to disengage the front drive shaft by changing her 4wd inside the cabin?

I don't drive a Rover, only do some maintenance, so I am not familiar with all the workings.

I did replace both valve cover gaskets and the intake plenum gasket last month, so I have cursed at this truck.

Thank you again.

 

Sorry, on a 2002, unless the transfer case has had CDL addded, she can't drive it with only one propshaft.

Also, if it's not going to get lubed correctly it will last longer with sealed u-joints rather than serviceable ones.

 

thanks. What is CDL and how do I know if she has it?

jamie

 

Stands for Central Diff Lock, and to the best of my knowledge the 02's don't have the 10 mil "nipple" you can turn with a wrench to engage it. The only way to use it is a $420 kit from lucky8 or other LR shops.

 

the truck will be layed up while the shaft is rebuilt, there is no practical way to drive it.

 

So, you can not drive an 02 with one shaft off.
How many miles on it, when was it rebuilt before, was the centering ball replaced also?
I would suggest that you replace all 4 u-joints, as well as the centering ball, to make sure this won't happen again and then have them greased at every oil change.

 

All pretty irrelevant questions. It's obvious from the photo that the u-joint failed because it wasn't greased properly.