Sacrifice a ford to the Rover God's and pray.

If there are no zerk fittings then there is little you can do. I think that on the stock shaft itself there is a plug that you can remove, install grease and reinstall the plug, but that does nothing to grease the U-Joints. All you can really do is take it easy on the gas pedal and try not to go off-road. Drive it like an old lady basically.

 

I'm at 68k miles on my original driveshaft and I crawl under the truck about once a month and check it for wear. If yours doesn't have any slack in it and the caps don't get hot after you drive it, I'd say it might last while. My niece is at 145k miles on her original drive shaft without any problems.

 

My front propshaft Cardan/Hookes (driveshaft in the US) was original and still in good working condition at 120K miles although I then rebuilt it using new GKN UJ's and centre bearing. It very much depends how hard it's been worked typically offroad, towing etc, and how lucky you are Mine had done 25% of it's mileage towing heavy loads at highish speeds on motorways, circa 70/80mph.

The penalty though if it disintegrates is possibly a 'lunched' transmission case, hmmm, expensive.

 

I'm currently sitting at 194k miles with a stock drive shaft. Granted, I'll be replacing it soon. I'm the second owner and am friends with the original owner. This truck has been babied it's entire life.

 

I got under my truck today to take out the fiberglass/plastic shield under the oil pan and checked out my front driveshaft. I did notice that the foremost U-Joints have a zerk fitting to install grease. I also noticed the plug that you take out to grease the shaft. SO - am I good to go with my current driveshaft? I did not notice any grease fittings on the rear part of the driveshaft, just the front. Let me know. Thanks!

 

Those two U-joints right off of the transfer case are the ones that will fail. The non-servicable joints fail because the grease gets cooked by the close proximity to the cats. The factory propshaft had the zerk in the front joint a and the shaft. The destructive failures happen in one of the rear two u-joints. Then the back end of the propshaft flails around and breaks the transmission. Once you either rebuild or replace the factory propshaft, you must keep up with greasing the u-joints. Grease them every oil change or 3,000 miles. I learned that you can't trust a shop to grease them properly for you during an oil change. If they do anything at all, they squirt a little grease in and call it good. When you grease the u-joints, you must add grease until fresh grease is coming out of every end cap.

 

Well that's what I was suspecting. Let me ask you this. Can I just rebuild the unjoints off the transfer case with greasable ones? Or should I just get a new driveshaft from, say, lucky 8 to replace the old one? Thanks!

 

You can do either...buy a new replacement or rebuild yours but, if you rebuild, replace all of the u-joints and the centering ball.

Moog makes a centering ball part # 617 which is not greaseable but, since your drivesahft is not setup for the centering ball to be greased you can only replace with another non greasable centering ball then grease it well when assembling and live with it.

Moog also make a u-joint part # 344 which is greaseable and made in USA and are pretty descent.

Adavance Auto Parts carries the moog 344 for $26 each but you can shop around and find them a little cheaper.

Advance also sells the Moog 617 centering ball for $46 but you can find it cheaper.

I see the 617 from amazon is $34 and from RockAuto for $25. Rockauto also sells the 344 for $16 each.

So you can rebuild the driveshaft using Moog parts from Rockauto for about $75 to $80 including shipping.

Also GKN makes good greaseable replacement u-joints and GKN is what is in it now but, the two in it from the factory at the t-case are not greaseable.

If you buy GKN replacements buy the Heavy Duty or Medium Duty not the Standard Duty. Rovahfarm carries them for $30 each for medium duty and $40 for heavy duty.
Then you may have to buy the Moog centering ball from Rockauto to go along with it.

So, if you buy moog parts from RA you will have approx $70 in parts total and if GKN from rovahfarm approx $90 MD to $120 HD for u-joints + a moog centering ball from RA $25 + whatever they charge you for shipping with a total of probably $130 to $160 in parts and shipping.

Just to note, I wouldn't buy any of the GKN heavy duty copies/knockoffs sold everywhere as I have read that they are total garbage. They look identical to the GKN HD joint from the outside with the silver metal seal covers but do not have GKN embossed on the casting and are made in china with poor castings also the needle bearings are poor quality.

THEN... after buyng your parts, you have to rebuild it and unless you've done this before, and even if you have, it can be a PITA especially changing out the centering ball.

So, unless you are into pain, you should probably just buy a new replacement shaft and sell your old one on ebay for $75 to $100 and you can then deduct that from your cost of a new shaft.

You can buy new shafts from $225 to $350 average and up for a replacement but some of the cheaper ones and some of the overpriced ones that are actually just the cheaper shaft with a crazy high price do not have a greaseable centering ball and have 1300 series u-jounts. If it's aftermarket and doesn't have a greaseable centering ball then it's probably not the best choice. there are better ones out there.

If I had to buy one today, and didn't want to spend $400 to $500, I would probably try one of these for $250 with free shipping from taddcom on ebay.

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Land Rover Discovery 2 New Upgrade ft Driveshaft | eBay

They are a driveline only shop and do some building and balancing in-house. They sometimes have them on sale for $235 + free shipping. Their shaft has the 1310 series 369 greaseable u-joints, a greaseable centering ball and greaseable shaft.

They have 100% + feedback (says alot since people would speak up if they had a negative experience) and I have seen them selling those for awhile (probably 30 or 40 over the past 2 months or so since I first noticed them) obviously with no complaints.

(BTW, I have no affiliation with taddcom and I have not tried their driveshaft personally but, probably descent since no one is complaining.... and a good price.)

Also if you ever had to change a u-joint it has the 1310 series, which are more heavy duty than 1300 series and you can buy 1310 spicer replacements.

I have also read that Tom Woods and GBR sell good replacement driveshafts, but may be a little higher in the $350 to $500 range.

I also noticed that some sellers on ebay who used to sell their cheaper driveshaft for $250 have now raised the price to $550. I really don't know what the logic is behind that? Maybe an attempt to drive the market price up? Hopefully other sellers will not follow suit.
Just goes to show that retail prices do not always reflect quality and that you have to shop around for parts for these things!

 

I know it's an old post but I'm looking for a new drive shaft to replace my chirpy one looks like parts alone for rebuilding is 140 and work I'm not familiar with. No real reliable mechanics around.. Would it be easier to just replace drive shaft with after market and would there be any downside off road or on road?

 

Lucky 8 has one for 228 that bolts right in. No down side I'm aware of.