Hi.
After pottering around town with a rather loud knocking noise from my car i have decided to get it sorted
I took it to the garage, and we have found that the rear UJ on the front propshaft is, well, VERY worn out. In fact, he said he had never seen one so bad :S woops!
Does anyone know if this is a Stage 1 specific part? and even better, does anyone know the part number?
The the uj's are still available and can be fitted to the old prop assuming your one isn't trashed. The rear uj's are AEU1997 and there are two of them and as far as I know are unique to the Stage 1's. The front one is RTC3346 and is a more common LR application. LR Series stock both types.
Personally I would have the old one refurbished.
Good luck...
Last edited by Mrs Bingham on Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
All three UJs on the front shaft are popular generic sizes. So to, the spring thing between the two joints.
You should have no problems at your local bearing shop. You may need to specify that you want grease nipples.
Most of the service items appear on some other Land-Rovers including some Discoveries. However the shaft assembly and slider are unique. If you are pulling the unit off, I would be checking for spline wear. Any free movement means replacement and these are expensive.
Personally, while it is off I see no value in replacing only one of the three uj’s if it obvious that they are either original or appear old. From what you say in your post the one that has failed is one of the two joints in the double cardan joint so you really should at least address the both of them. Assuming of course your prop and the slider spline are good. I would also buy good quality uj’s that have the grease nipples in them. LR Series as I mentioned stock them all and give you a choice of either pattern or OEM, I would opt for the latter. I think OEM ones are around £20 each so a no brainer in my mind.
To clarify. The double joint has 2 x AU1997 uj's and the front joint has 1 x RTC3346 uj. All are available from LR Series.
If you are mechanically savvy you should be able to change the joints with a bit of patience some sockets and a decent vice. I would also mark the prop and yolks to ensure it all goes back in the same place to reduce the risk of it being unbalanced. Read up on some web info about changing a prop uj particularly the double cardan arrangement. If in doubt however seek further advice or take the prop to an engineering shop or such like.
If you need some help, I have just used a company called 'Dave Mac's propshafts' in coventry. They have just rebuilt a prop for my Renault. They were a most helpful bunch and come highly recommended.
Hi Ollie, you have to change both the UJ's as you need to break all the "spider" end caps to get the thing to bits. As another reply wrote you might manage this with a hefty vice. I had access to a large (90 tonne) hydraulic press - it took quite a few tonnes to break the the things - you need to keep your nerve with this one! The replacement UJs I got were genuine parts as per the numbers already quoted and these had grease nipples provided too. Unfortunately once I got mine apart I found the locating ball joint (between the two UJs,) had died. The ball is replaceable but mine had been spinning on it's mounting peg and said peg was toast! Complete front shaft assembly had to be bought and all is now fine (interestingly the replacement shaft has nipples on the rear UJ's too unlike the original.)
