front prop advice pleeeeeeeezzz !!!!

[like_a_mole!!]

hi all
i have a 97 tdi which i love dearly,
she started to make an unbelievable chirpy kinda squeely sound on acceleration and a small ching when put in gear, i had a mate have a look and hw said front prop was unhappy and very dry he repacked it with grease and there is no more noises but it obviously still needs changing, there lay my confusion, there appears to be 3 different styles of prop ! mine has a large knuckle (union) at one end but this style sounds like a td5 prop ? on ebay i see a solid prop with uj at both ends but in the haynes manual it show a third version with spline in the centre ..... help ! which is the better option, she is used for mild off roading but mainly on public roads and is a 5 door if that matters
thanks for reading any advice is useful as do not want to get the wrong prop, cheers

 

[MUSKYMAN]

why not just replace the ujoints and go on with life?

 

[like_a_mole!!]

car has done over 130k and would feel more at ease changing whole thing just need to know if the 3 props mentioned are interchangable, and if one has an advantage over the others

 

[Timmy!!!!!!!]

Man up and just change the u-joints. You don't need to change the whole thing.

 

[JMK]

Its steel isn't it? Unless something happened to it (bent, holes rounded out, cracked etc) why the hell would you change the whole shaft? Ill admit it I fucking hate changing uj's but Ill do it over buying a whole new prop shaft. Whats your logic (other than it having 130K on it)?

 

[SGaynor]

Look at these posts:

http://discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46196&highlight=joint

http://discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46196&highlight=joint

for part numbers and some suggestions. Search for more info on how to change the UJs. They really arent that hard to change.