Drive shafts

[Mikes defender]

My drive shafts are starting to make a bit of noise. They have been greased and still there is a funny noise at very low speed. Since they have done 170,000, i was thinking they might need replacing.

While i have done heaps of work on cars at home i haven't had much to do with live drive shafts.

What bits can you rebuild? is there a kit to just rebuild the uni joints? Does the middle sliding bearing wear out? Or should i just buy a whole assy?

Any help would be great..

thanks

mike

[JDNSW]

Universal joint kits are available and can be bought from any bearing supplier - just make sure you know which size you have or take in a sample.

Fitting is easy provided you have a large vice and an assortment of sockets to use to push the joints into place.

The sliding joint can be replaced but legally this must be done in an approved workshop as the shaft will need rebalancing. The cost of this in my experience exceeds that of a new shaft.

When reassembling the sliding joint, the alignment is important. For the rear shaft this is with the yokes in line, but this is not the case for the front shaft - there should be arrows marking the alignment position on both shafts, if you can't see them, make marks so you can align them correctly.

Driving with U-joints that are noisy despite being greased is risking failure of the U-joint, which, if it happens at any speed is definitely not something you want to experience!

John

[Mikes defender]

Thanks for that....

Looks like ill be under the defender on the days off...

[jerryd]

I just replaced my front propshaft with a brand new one, the old one was rather worse for wear. Both uj's falling to bits and the sliding joint seized solid

The cost of the new one was $295.00, this is a county one which is slightly different to a defender.

The rear propshaft I fitted new uj's myself, which was a bit easier than I thought it would be.
My County now drives like a Rolls Royce , instead of shake rattle and roll.

[Mikes defender]

Well i have just pulled the front prop shaft out and found nothing wrong....

The centre joint is fine and there is no movement in the uni joints.. Altho i can't generated the torque of the defender on the bench. I might just replace them any way since i have go it this far.

I think i might have to look else where for the noise at speed. Where to start? The defenders done around 180000km of urban driving. Im a bit stumped as to what to replace next.

I might take it for a drive with the center diff locked and the front prop shaft removed to see if the noise is still there... I can see this getting very expensive. Do worn diffs make much noise? or CV's? it could be any thing.

I think it might be the transfer box.. Anyone know how much a reco'ed change over is?

I plan on keeping this defender for a fair old while, so its worth spending the money on.. or thats what i keep telling myself!!!

thanks

Mike

[lardy]

of course its worth spending the money on mike ...we all do it cos we love em quirky bloody things that they are !!!
maybe look up blknight he is the daddy on most things mechanical and deals with em all day long might be worth the ask matey

[Mikes defender]

Took it for a drive with the front drive shaft removed.. so much quieter, untill i engaged 5th gear. then the noise started. So i belive that the noise is just everything slowly wareing out together..

So im thinking every thing is just worn out.... ill start from the front and work backwards.. i did notice alot of play in the front diff, and a bit of slop in the CV. Monday looks like off to the parts shop to look in to diffs and CV joints.