U Joint

[DigginDisco]

Hello All,

I’m a daily visitor to your site and finally decided to come aboard. I’ve own a 00 Disco with 79000 miles. I only drive it on the weekends and I try to take it off road as much as I can (or enough to keep it happy). I noticed from about 5mph to 30mph I hear a chirping. I read in another thread that this issue could be from a worn U-joint. How can I check this and is this an easy fix?

[Disco Mike]

At your mileage, there is only one thing to do. You need to have the front drive shaft rebuilt before it breaks which can also cause you loose your tranny. So replace all 3 front u-joints with ones that have grease fittings also ad a grease fitting to bothe the front and rear slip joint on each drive shaft, there are caps that can be removed n order to do thi.Then you will be fine.
Mike

[DigginDisco]

Thanks Mike.

I'm still covered under an extended warranty. Do you think something like that is covered? I wouldn’t think so but I thought I would ask.

[Disco Mike]

It would be covered if they find that any of the u-joint cups have started truning do to failed neddle bearings.
Mike

[RudemanRB]

Becareful, I had that u-joint go and it took out the tranny case also. I had to fight with my dealership cause it was considered a servicible part.

if you can't get it rebuilt you can have one installed for under $500 bucks. or you can find a drive shaft for around $220 and do it yourself.


best wishes.

Rudy

[Disco Mike]

You can have your drive shaft rebuilt for about $200 if the warranty company won't cover it, but they should.
Also It can be declined because it is not a servicable unit as it came from the factory.
Mike

[zoomblur]

Is there a way to look and see how far gone this issue is? Can a shop fix it in a day?

[Disco Mike]

I had to change mine out at around 36,000 miles. Between the 2 u-joints, 3 of the 8 cups had turm to metal powder.
Yes, a shop can rebuild one in about an hour and a half.
Mike

[m1943]

I've got (as stated in other threads) over 120,000 miles, all seems fine. What should I do regarding this U-joint business??!!! Is there a way to diognose a potential problem?????

[DigginDisco]

Thanks for all the advice. I’m taking my truck to the dealer soon. I will let you all know what I find out, wish me luck.

[DigginDisco]

Well I heard back from LR Nashville today. They said there was not a problem with my drive shaft. They greased the u-joints and that is it, so the chirping noise I hear must be in my head.

[Disco Mike]

Make sure to have them hand inspect each of the 2 u-joints in the constant velocity housing, looking for a polished u-joint cup which is the wear indicator for failing u-joints. There are no grease fittings and it is going to fail. Make sure they will replace the transmission if and when the shaft fails.
Have them write on the work order that they inspect the housing, didn't find anything wrong and will when it fails do all the additional repairs caused by the shfat the is now noisey.
Mike

[hevkev]

I posted a detailed .pdf on yahoo groups (disco2owners) on how to replace the u-joint complete w/ part numbers. it's not difficult and the required tools can be rent for free from Autozone and Advanced Auto. Within the group, look under "Files". The name of the file is "Front Prop ReBuild.pdf" rebuild cost was $80 in materials.
kevin

[Muddy Oval]

$80 in materials? Where can you get quality u-joints and centre bearing for that? I can't buy the parts at cost for $80 for good quality stuff. (Spicer mil-spec joints and Precision bearing)

I rebuilt mine myself and it was a PITA, so I started collecting cores and having my shop rebuild them so we can do an exchange thing so people don't have to wait. I personally hope to never do one again- ugh.

[scotth]

don't always believe what the dealer ship tells you. I took mine in because I had a bad vibration at 70mph and I couldn't figure out what it was. It was also making a cluncking sound about every minute or so. The first thing they told me was the front driveshaft was bad. They called me back and said the driveshaft was good but the computer that controls the ACE system was bad and needed to be replaced. I picked it up after the computer fix and still had the vibration. Took it the next week to another dealership and the front driveshaft was worn completely out. So beware.