Front drive shaft clunking; universal joint or shaft?

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

I was finally able to climb under the IIA and found the source of our loud clanking sound when we are starting to pull away. It seems the sound is from the front drive shaft / universal connection. Where the shafts slide together under the boot. That is where all the slop is. Does this sound normal? Or would a new universal joint tighten this up?

I tried to separate the front end of the shaft at the 4 bolt coupling but they sure are snug. I'm afraid I am going to snap something. Would it be unwise to hit the nuts with some heat from a torch? Any tricks here to remove the whole shaft or is that over-kill.

Thanks...

jay

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

uhhh.. maybe I posted my question too soon. I just saw the price of an entire new front shaft assembly. $148.00 from RN. I think I am just going to order that unless someone thinks that less costly shaft is not a smart move?

j

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

Got the old shaft out and it is very sloppy at the splines. The rest seems fairly tight. I don't see any way to fix the spline wear so just ordered the cheapest front drive shaft RN sells. I am hoping it is worth the money and not a complete waste of steel. Having faith that RN will come through for us. We'll post back on how it wears over time.

jay

[SafeAirOne]

That happened to my front driveshaft too. Vibrated like heck at highway speeds. Unfortunately, I've got a 6-cylinder setup, so there's no cheapo replacement shaft for me, at least not one from Land Rover. I ended up measuring the shaft and had a friend look through his pile of good take-off jeep driveshafts till he found a good one that fit perfectly.

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

We'll keep that in mind if this one pretzels. I would never have guessed there would be a match at the bolt pattern. Thanks for the tip!

j

[o2batsea]

Yup. Land Rover drive shafts are good old amurrican Dana-Spicer. You can get parts at any auto parts place. The splined shafts are off-the-shelf and any drive line shop can replace them cheap.

[SafeAirOne]

We'll keep that in mind if this one pretzels. I would never have guessed there would be a match at the bolt pattern. Thanks for the tip!

The bolt pattern on the jeep flanges aren't the same, but later rover driveshafts all use very-common 1310-style universal joints, just like jeeps, meaning that if the middle section of the shaft is the right length, you can just swap your existing flanges on to the ends.

[Cutter]

Good to know, didn't realize that and my former 109 would do this from time to time up front.