My drive shaft just bitch slapped my tranny...

[Mongo]

A couple of you quickly refer to my need to do proper maintenance to as you say solve this problem... I beg to differ as I have seen brand new u joints fail. I personally believe in doing better than minimium in life. If you can make it better, safer etc. why not. For those of you who want to know if there is a better,safer way stay tuned.

really, I had my front shaft blow up 2 months after I brought my truck, brand new. Had a custom double cardon driveshaft built by Fleetpride back in upstate New York, put 80k of very hard miles on it and have not had a single issue...

proper maintenance and installation cannot be replaced by putting a cage around a driveshaft...

 

[Big Papa]

I just replaced my front stock shaft a few days ago after 87K miles. Heard a unusual chirp or squeek from underneath. Got it checked out and replaced before it blew.

 

[WNYDiscoIIErik]

A couple of you quickly refer to my need to do proper maintenance to as you say solve this problem... I beg to differ as I have seen brand new u joints fail. I personally believe in doing better than minimium in life. If you can make it better, safer etc. why not. For those of you who want to know if there is a better,safer way stay tuned.

The minimum?? Its actually a fact, as other people are stating. If you're interested in doing better than the minimum, then why didnt you have the problem fixed before it became one? Youve been here since 2004. How many times have you read about this happening? I believe proper maintenance, or the lack of, was your problem here. As Antichrist said, U-Joints dont fail under normal circumstances. So go ahead, and instead of fixing the problem, do the minimum, and build a guard for when it happens to you again.

 

[flyfisher11]

Thank you so much for this pdf...and this thread! I'm completely new to the realm of fixing your own vehicle. I just bought a 2003 Disco last week and I knew ahead of time (thanks to the kick ass people on another forum I found) that the driveshaft needed to be replaced. I have been trying to figure out a) what parts of the manual I need to print out (as printing all 1600 pages at work has to happen in a stealth like manner over the course of a few weeks...) and how to do it.
This is fantastic...thank you!

Just save this:

http://www.landroverresource.com/

 

[gsitts]

When I described the problem I assumed you would understand that I will replace the front drive line with a properly set up driveline which will include new u joints on both ends... I will not even try to use the old one since it has several large dents in it now. When I described my idea of adding a cage to protect the tranny in the future it was because My experience last wed evening. I had driven the discovery approximately 220 miles that afternoon and had experienced no noises of any kind, no vibrations of any kind, no clunks or loosness of any kind. I stopped for traffic and made a right turn 127ft later(yeh I measured it), I was broken down with a fist sized hole in the transmission and a drive line completely disconnected at the transfer case end. I had no time to react... My maintenence is as good as yours... Why are you flaming me and whats wrong with trying to keep a problem that is apparently common from happening again?

 

[Mongo]

My exploded under the same circumstances...I looked into a cage to protect the transmission from a exploding ds and realized that it's really not a solution...put a serviceable ds, do regular maintenance and don't worry about it

 

[Lutzgaterr]

I have not experienced a sudden failure, ever. I have only been warned by pending failures. Being warned is your ability to sense something different, be it sound or vibrations and working to uncover the culprit.

Not saying that sudden failures don't happen, just never happend to me thank god.

 

[gsitts]

I guess the real reason I am going to persue this is I really don't like to have to wait for the other shoe to drop... I really believed I was doing everything I could to keep my disco healthy including very regularly personnally checking the drivelines for loosness,grease leaking etc. I never caught a sign of pending problems and unfortunately did not happen to read this thread before the fact. I'll be a lot more comfortable if I know another failure would only cause a tow bill and a driveline. About $300.00 verses the approximately 2K I'll spend. I'm not doing the work on the Disco this time because I am building the engine on my 1991 montero in my shop at the moment and don't have the room for 2 projects.I'll start on the cage or guard after the montero is done and out of the way, Approx 1week from now. I'll keep you all informed
Thanks Gordon

 

[MUSKYMAN]

this is just stupid..call tom woods and order up a new better then stock shaft and go to the next project.

thinking you can build a DS loop that is small enough to fit there and strong enough to absorb the shock loads a flopping shaft can exert is just laughable.

I am sorry your front shaft let go...I have seen it happen over and over on these but that still wouldent make me think this is a good idea.

the good idea is replacing the old shaft with a better one because you know what...there has yet to be a failure of a 1310 series front shaft on this or any other rover board I know of.

MM

 

[jimjet]

thinking you can build a DS loop that is small enough to fit there and strong enough to absorb the shock loads a flopping shaft can exert is just laughable.



MM

ive seen a drive shaft fail on a 1970 396 camaro race car ,the safety loop failed and nearly cut his leg off the shaft remianed under the car.

Ive seen a drive saft fail on a boat ,the shaft remained inside the boat but the loop failed and sawed a cut into the bottom of the hull as it spun with the shaft.

Im anal retentive and have OCD and ive thought alot about this.
final outcome
i grease and inspect every oil change and keep loose change in the cup holders.

 

[MUSKYMAN]

I'm right there with you Jim...the answer is maintain it !

 

[Tempest]

I went with a TW shaft (new design without adapter)... end result was a rebuild of my stock shaft that I am using now. The TW front was out of balance (paid for it to get checked and balanced locally... the guy showed me how out of balance it was on the balancer)... still had vibes with it and ended up returning it for a refund. Had the front stock one rebuilt... no vibes. Perhaps it was just a defective example or perhaps I have an unusual angle (only have OME HD lift) that just didn't like the TW DS for some reason.

I will do business with TW again... excellent customer service and as a result when the time comes for me to go the HD driveline route because I need HD... I will be back as a customer.

IMO... if you don't need HD and your stock DS is smooth... just get your stock one rebuilt with serviceable UJs...

 

[apg]

I can only think of 3 reasons a new/low mileage u-joint will fail.
1. It's stressed beyond spec.
2. It's defective
3. It's installed incorrectly.

For probably 90% (if not more) of Land Rovers on the road, the stock one is fine if it's installed correctly and maintained properly.

The problem in this case is the design on the DII: although the double-cardon joint is a step in the right direction, it's defeated by the fact that the whole unit is non-serviceable. (Will has a pile of these things stacked up like cordwood....) Whatever grease/lube that was in the shaft originally, soon gets cooked out by the exhaust pipe close at hand. And when the shaft lets go, it takes an expensive bite out of the tranny....

 

[Mike_Rupp]

APG, the correct spelling is cardan, dimbulb.

 

[antichrist]

The problem in this case is the design on the DII:

I was referring to the comments about "brand new" u-joints failing. The 3 reasons I listed are the only ones. Even a non-servicable one will last longer than "brand new" if it doesn't fall in to the 3 reasons for failure.

 

[Lutzgaterr]

Tom, there is one more category you missed. The UJs made by Lucas. They fail when the smoke escapes.