Some of the aftermarket heavy duty propshafts with 1310 u-joints have a greasable center head, with a fitting.
On the stock propshaft you can get grease in to the centering ball via the vent hole on the back side of it if you have a small bent needle adapter for your grease gun.

 

Maybe a dumb noob question but would the most conservative approach be to replace both front and rear drive shafts with double cardan units when buying a new truck (~95K miles)?

 

Nope. Driveline angles determine whether or not you need a DC. Just rebuild what you have.

 

Please accept my apologies in advance for the n00b question...

I am looking to buy the parts this week for a rebuild. The front prop shaft cardan joint doesnt have the fittings, so i am assuming they are OEM / Not rebuilt.

Is there any other way to tell which U-joint is used in my 1999 lr2, short of removing one and measuring it?

I really don't want to do this twice, or leave the truck in a unusable state for any period of time other than during the rebuild.



Many thanks!

 

If there are no grease fittings on it odds are very good it's the stock u-joint, Neapco 1-0005 or Precision 344.

 

Antman/Antichrist,

Thank you both for all of your efforts in documenting the procedure, I spent yesterday rebuilding the front prop shaft and had zero issues when following your procedure. (Ok, I did have one issue due to my lack of attention - didnt realign the shaft properly and found it as apparantly a roller pin fell causing the last cap to not seat. After much effort I got the offending Ujoint out, replaced with another new one (I had to beat the bejeezus out of it to get it out), and realigned properly.

Also, thanks to DiscoMike and yourselves for insisting this be one of the first and foremost high mileage service points! Upon removing the forward most U-Joint, I discovered it was totally dry, and rusting to the point where the pins were mis-shapen. (Pic attached)

I suspect that due to your advice you have saved me one major headache (and a new transmission)!

So for others thinking "meh" its working, if you do not have the greasable Ujoints in your front prop shaft, heed the advice these guys give, its well worth it!

 

Here is an alternative way to get the center ball out. Take the washer out of the center ball. slide a nut that fits the inside lip(smaller hole),and rotate the ball to expose the small hole. thread the slide hammer onto the nut. a little grease held the nut still enough for me to thread mine. 3 whacks and out she came!

 

ok...insanely noob question...what kind of grease should i use? hubs is in class and my job is to go to the parts store. love the south, but these guys are generally clueless about landy parts/service. they gave me the wrong transmission filter last time i was there!

 

Tell them you want the green grease, it comes in a tube like the others, and is water proof, a very good grease, I use it at the office on tractors and big equipment, plus cars and trucks. And you need to deal with that hard engine knock you list.

 

So I have a vibration around 45 then again around 70 and when I'm towing its worse so I looked at the front shaft and noticed that the front joint is the only one that has a grease fitting in it. The double joints do not and I did not see any rust like you normaly see coming out of bad joints. Today I pulled the shaft out to check them and they all seem to be fine and I'm going to change them anyways because I do not want to do this again in a year. Anyone have any other tips on where my vibration could be. I have also checked all tires for balance.

thanks
mark