this was very helpful rickety, i really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. i will keep you posted.

 

No problem. Don't take a chance driving it if it's the driveshaft chirping. Hopefully you will be able to center lock it, remove the shaft, and drive it while you are waiting on your parts.
If you can't center lock it just park it till you can fix it. UJ's are cheap, transmissions are not.
and be sure that whatever u-joints you buy are greasable and grease them at every 3K miles or so. The grease bakes out.

 

i triple checked the front shaft again...trying as hard as i could to shake it to test the three joints-it did not move at all. could the chirping and rattling be from something else? i understand the front shaft needs to be rebuilt but i'm worried there is something else causing the vibration. I havent heard the chirping in a while.

 

Remove the shaft and see if it still makes noise. It takes 30 min tops.

 

since i can't lock the center i didnt think i could drive it without the front shaft...is this not the case?

 

You can from underneath with a 10mm wrench. Turn the "nipple" clockwise.

Also, invest in a CDL shifter from a D1 so you can lock the dif when you need to. Way better for snow and off road driving.

 

i am about to purchase the three UJs and the centering ball kit...this might be a dumb question but how does the centering ball fit into the picture?

 

If you can center lock it with a wrench, do it and then you can test to see if that's definitely it before buying parts.

 

These may help

https://landroverforums.com/forum/ge...302/?styleid=2

http://www.discovery2.co.uk/propshafts.html

 

guys, thanks for all of the help. the front shaft was failing (see pic)...i've put a replacement (thanks anthony) in and its working without any vibration or chirping.