Long time lurker, first time poster. My fiance has an 02 Disco2 with 68K miles on it. Today the front drive shaft was sheared out of the car by what I am assuming was u-joint failure (the offending shaft is decorating a freeway somewhere.) I had no idea this was a more common thing until I was reading thru past posts for transmission trouble and related items (I thought the tranny was blown or the similar before I saw the car). So keep those u-joints lubed, no fun when all propulsion just stops (if youre lucky and nothing else happens).
Now on to my questions.. quite a few since I am not that familiar with these and some things don't make sense. I replaced the drive shaft with one I had picked up from a wrecker (labeled as an 03 shaft). The guy swore up and down that it would "pop" right in (they are a land rover wrecker talked to a mechanic he knows, etc). It did. However, in reading the shop manual, it states that the 03 shaft is 15mm longer then the 02 shaft. He did give me the option of returning it and there were no 02's anywhere to be had (from multiple places..."they sell like hotcakes") Desperation took over, I went with it.
I've taken it for a test drive and it seems fine at speeds below 35mph. Above 35 it starts to vibrate, but only if you are on the throttle, off throttle all is smooth. At freeway speeds, it is a bit scary, again on the throttle only. It was doing this prior to the failure just not as bad. It also had a screeching fan belt, which has now stopped (I was suspecting a soon to fail powersteering pump). The fan belt would only screech under load, so I was never able to diagnose it properly. I suspect that the vibration, screeching belt, have to do with something else, but I'm not sure. Any suggestions and recommendations are a welcome.
And thanks to all who post here, it's one of the best sources of information regarding you vehicle out there (I have lots of "toys"). You folks seem to know your stuff better than most!
Now on to my questions.. quite a few since I am not that familiar with these and some things don't make sense. I replaced the drive shaft with one I had picked up from a wrecker (labeled as an 03 shaft). The guy swore up and down that it would "pop" right in (they are a land rover wrecker talked to a mechanic he knows, etc). It did. However, in reading the shop manual, it states that the 03 shaft is 15mm longer then the 02 shaft. He did give me the option of returning it and there were no 02's anywhere to be had (from multiple places..."they sell like hotcakes") Desperation took over, I went with it.
I've taken it for a test drive and it seems fine at speeds below 35mph. Above 35 it starts to vibrate, but only if you are on the throttle, off throttle all is smooth. At freeway speeds, it is a bit scary, again on the throttle only. It was doing this prior to the failure just not as bad. It also had a screeching fan belt, which has now stopped (I was suspecting a soon to fail powersteering pump). The fan belt would only screech under load, so I was never able to diagnose it properly. I suspect that the vibration, screeching belt, have to do with something else, but I'm not sure. Any suggestions and recommendations are a welcome.
And thanks to all who post here, it's one of the best sources of information regarding you vehicle out there (I have lots of "toys"). You folks seem to know your stuff better than most!