A couple weeks ago I noticed a slight vibration when my automatic tranny was shifting at about 45mph, but today it got real bad. The whole car starts vibrating and shaking before each gear change or going up a hill. No check engine lights or anything, just major vibration, so I think it's in the tranny or drive shaft. Has anyone out there had similar experience?
It's a 2000 Disco with 68k miles. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Pat

 

Bad u-joints. Get it checked ASAP!

 

Kind of what I figured. Should I just replace all four, or is there a way to determine which are bad?

Thanks

 

If one is bad then the rest are sure to follow. I would replace all four and be done with it.

 

you should have 5....2 rear, and 3 in the front. ( 2 are int he double cardan joint on the rear of the front shaft) Get it fixed now. If you lose your front shaft, you will slap the tranny out of the truck....don't drive it anymore..

 

Thanks, I'm going to park it and drive my wife's jag until it's done. I'm doing it myself. I've replaced
u-joints before and am a pretty decent backyard mechanic. Is there anything tricky I need to know?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks

 

http://www.box.net/shared/jbgsi67tnx


Don't strip the nuts getting the front shaft off, they are very close to the flange on the front yolk and it's hard to get a wrench on them securely (at least on mine it was). You may want to grind a wrench a little thinnerto fitit (I didn't, but I almost striped one ot the nuts).

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind when I get started.

 

Take the front drive shaft to a drivetrain specialist in your locality. You can get the job done for 180-220 dollars parts and labor, and it saves you a day of your life wasted wrestling u-joints, and then trying to get the double-kardon hookes joint back together. You can do the rear yourself. Be sure to mark the attachment points so your parts go on just as they come off, helps keep it balanced.

 

First, if it is a u-joint, it will most likely be the two in the front shaft where it hooks to the t/case as part of a double cardon set. They usually fail because the factory doesn't install grease fitting and they fail quickly. If you have never done a double cardon, you might want to find a mechanic to do it cause they can be a bugger. As for the other two u-joint, if you have lubed the u-joints once a year, they should be fine. Also make sure you add zerks to the slip shaft on both drive shafts and really grease the splines.
When replaceing the u-joints, use something like the 344 Percison or the 1-0005 from Car Quest, they will have grease fitting on them.