Tom Woods Driveshaft Install for a Discovery Series I

by Tom Pearson

The following describes the install of a Tom Wood's custom driveshaft in my 1997 Discovery. Thanks goes out to Mike at AedoFab for doing the measurements and showing me how to do the install.

The Driveshaft
Measurements - Tom Woods to make you a custom driveshaft, you have to provide them with measurements. For my application, we measured the full length of the driveshaft with the front axle at full droop with the frame jacked up. It came out to 25 1/4" from flange to flange. Your application may differ, but it makes sense to me that if you have the same length or shorter length shocks, you will be fine with this. Typical disclaimers apply! :)

Here are some shots of the driveshaft from Tom Woods. As you can see, it uses an Aluminum adapter plate to connect to the transfer case. As you also can see, it is one beefy piece of equipment.

The Install
The install is pretty straight forward. Off with the old, on with the new. The pain in the butt is simply bolting the thing on. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Removing the old drive shaft
Unbolt the four bolts which attach it to the front differential. You don't absolutely have to do this end first but it makes life easier. Next, take a look at the end of the shaft which connects to the transfer case and remove whatever nuts you can get to easily. After you take care of those, the following step is to put the transmission in neutral and ensure that the center diff is not locked. Then, rotate the shaft until you can easily get at another bolt. Once you can, put the transmission in park and lock the center diff. This will keep the shaft from rotating as you unbolt the rest of it. Repeat this procedure as many times as necessary until you can take it off. You will notice that for this end, you cannot remove the original bolts, only the nuts.

Step 2: Putting on the adapter This is the easiest part of the install. Simply slide the adapter over the bolts that are there, put the supplied washers in place, and bolt it on. Once installed, it looks like this:


As you can see, the adapter is threaded to accept the supplied bolts. Be sure not to forget the lock-washers.

Step 3: Attaching the new driveshaft
The driveshaft, as shown in the pictures above, has a double cardan joint at one end. That end goes near the transfer case. Opposite of removal, it is easier to put the end on near the transfer case first, then do the end near the diff. The hardest part about this step is holding it up while you try to thread the bolts onto the adapter. Be patient and relax, and you'll get it. Use the same method for removing the old one to be able to get at bolts to torque them down. After that, bolt the other end back on using the stock bolts.

That's it!!
Once you have it all back together, it looks like this.