Thread: Front prop squeak: act now!

The purpose of my original posting was to encourage early action when "The Squeek" appears, because catastrophic front shaft failure is imminant.
I chose to service the DC centre slip bearing, as it showed no visible signs of wear. This was fiddly, but do-able.
I followed the excellent step-by-step guide on the www.discovery2.co.uk site, and would encourage others to do the same, IF they are competant home mechanics. If in any doubt, consult a trusted mechanic.

My trusted mechanics are Whyatt's Automotive in Geraldton WA.
Andrew is a Landrover trained gentleman who has helped me out on numerous occasions with larger problems (head rebuild, turbo replacement etc), and I have no hesitation in shipping the car / driving the 1000km return trip to have him fix it.

Also, the "big dish" is still up on Browns Range, about to become a museum.

-Warwick

Out of curiosity did any of the cross caps have a shiny area around under where the circlip is? One of mine went and that was the sign (apart from the symptom of the squeak). Theory is that they get wet (A/C) and then seize onto the cross and then they turn in the hole. Just need to be careful as mine has been flogged out of round and needed a new yolk (shaft side of course). Just want to see if anyone else has the same sign on one of the caps. The cap turning in the hole would be the squeak.

Two of my caps were cracked and very worn, the yolk arpetures were not in the best shape either.
Another late sign of wear is any lateral movement in the joints during a "grab and shake" inspection.
I chose to re-use the yolks, time will tell if this decision comes back to haunt me.

It may become a case of "the yolk is on me!" Literally, if the shaft disintegrates and pierces the floorboards!

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[QUOTE=Wasa57;1591737
My trusted mechanics are Whyatt's Automotive in Geraldton WA.
Andrew is a Landrover trained gentleman who has helped me out on numerous occasions with larger problems (head rebuild, turbo replacement etc), and I have no hesitation in shipping the car / driving the 1000km return trip to have him fix it.

Sorry a bit slow with a reply. Been that sort of week.

Yes I agree with you Warwick. I had work done by them about 2 years ago. Even lent me a vehicle at no charge. Would certainly recomend them.

My servicing is done by Rovertec here in Perth. When they replaced my front shaft it was one they modify. It has larger yokes, needle bearings, cross pieces [ what ever you call them ] and grease nipples.I cannot recall the price, except that it was very reasonable.

Tony

Does this problem effect defender td5s? (sorry if someone already asked that question)
I was meaning to ask while I had the defender serviced recentlly...
This happend to my father in laws disco recently while in melbourne,
He is deaf, so couldn't hear the squeek and the mother in law didn't notice... I think he said the repair cost $5k ouch, it needed a new auto gearbox

I only take my defender to Whyatts, they have been good.
I agree with you wasa, Andrew is a legend when it comes to LR
service. A new LR tech has just started to try and cope with the work load (2 weeks wait for my last service) can't remember his name but he did an excellent job servicing my defender, has quite a few years experience at a landrover dealer in South Africa.

If they were authorized, I would buy a new one, maybe even a
Disco 4, as I would be entitled to corporate free servicing, but I dont
want to deal with perth for service.

some deefers with lifts have been fitted with a DC joint other than that no, the Deefer is not likely to have the front shaft fail in the same manner as a disco as the Deefer front shaft does not have the DC.

cheers, atleast thats one thing I dont have to worry about then