uhh "universal"?

[jackassisadgk]

so my pops said that if I take my disco mudding the "universal" on it will go, I was under the impression that these were vehicles that could be moderately abused.. does anyone have a clue what he's talkin bout?

[jackassisadgk]

also does anyone know of a good technique for rust proofing the frame and underside of the truck. I've heard bedliner is good cuz it'll absorb impact too. any thoughts would be much appreciated!

[brooksa]

He is probably talking about the "universals" in the front drive shaft, these are known to fail and can cause big money damage to the trans and tcase. All you have to do is take the front shaft off and have a local drivline shop replace the non-greasable joints for some that have grease fittings, and grease them every 3k, not an expensive project but expensive if you put it off.

If you take care of the trucks maintenace then you can beat the hell out them, stay on top of the recommened maint!

I am no help for the rust issue,

[ArmyRover]

I agree with Brooksa on the no greaseable u-joints being what your Dad is talking about.

Also if your interested in a club in the area that has monthly meets for trail runs look up SNHLR - Southern New Hampshire Land Rovers (Southern New Hampshire Land Rover Club) We have members all over New England and get together every month for wheeling trips. Great group of guys and gals, that have a lot of fun putting our Rovers through their paces. The site is going through some changes so from the home page click on the forum tab and navigate from there the home page isn't quite finished being updated yet.


On the rust issue bedliner is pretty durable but if your going that route you have to make sure the undercarriage is extremely clean. As you don't want to trap dirt mud etc under the bedliner. The other problem can be if you get moisture trapped under the bedliner that it will hold it against the metal and help rot it out quicker.

[Disco Mike]

Your Dad probably doesn't even know about our Rover's 2 non greasable u-joints. Your Dad is old school, like me and the old belief was that u-joints and water crossings or mud, don't mix. That is still true to some extent, if you play in alot of mud, you should power scrub the bottom of the truck off afterwards, especially the joints to keep the dried mud from wearing away at the rubber u-joint boots. You should also grease them after every really deep, proloned water crossing to force any water that may have gotten into one of the cups, out.
So, how often do you grease your u-joints?
Mike

[unstable]

as far as "rust-proofing" goes, there is a product that is well-known in the hot rod circles called "Por 15". The stuff doesn't come cheap but it is very durable and non-porous. You first scrub off all the loose rust using a wire brush, then you clean it using their marine-clean product, then hit it with the "metal prep" which is phosphoric acid and converts the rust from iron oxide to iron phosphate or something like that...then you coat it with their paint.

The only issue I see with this is alot of cars are undercoated, which traps water and eventually chips off. Unless you were able to get all of the undercoating off, it might not be worth the effort to try to coat the underside of the frame because the undercoat will inevitably chip off and water is going to get at the frame from that angle.

[jackassisadgk]

thanks for all the great help guys I'll look into all of your suggestions. it's great to hear from you guys and I'm definitely gonna look into the club you mentioned