fixing driveshaft FRC9542 (front driveshaft RRC with catalyst)

[Hulliemam]

So I am rescuing a 84” Range Rover Classic. Bought it for parts, then decided that it was within my power and budged to save it.

I thought it was 2”lifted, but turns out it is 4” lifted… so I think the original driveshaft was:

Or to short?

Or it hits the cross member?

The previous owner changed it to part FRC9542 and this is a solid axle, very nice and small. Only its rare and the price second hand is its weight in gold..

The UJ’s seems in fairly good conditions and are affordable new and in stock at paddocks, so not a problem. Only it seems that the sliding shaft is worn. it has a lot of play in it, I can move it around quite a lot. On the 2 picture’s I could find online the sliding piece has a metal cap screwed on, mine seems plastic.

Is this fixable? Are there new sliding couplings available?

The picture from eBay: (I take a picture tomorrow)

[Bowie69]

To my knowledge, once the spline is worn badly it'll need replacing.

Yes they are worth their weight in gold!

Does yours have a Borg Warner or an LT230 transfer box? The BW one only ever used that prop, when fitted to a vehicle with cats, and is longer than one for an LT230-equipped truck. I think the difference would be quite a bit, from memory around 80mm, it's possible that 4" of lift could make this difference up, or it still could be too long...

You thought about dropping it back to 2" lift and putting a standard/HD prop on it? Probably cheaper than trying to get a new one of them!

[Hulliemam]

I have the old LT95 4speed... it shifts good, only it does make a lot of noise in 3th and 4th gear. so I am going to change the oil and stretch its life until i can afford a 5speed swap:D

the photo's:

should this be enough room for a standard prop shaft?

cleaning is still on my to-do list

I have thought about lowering it, only it has a good set of Monroe offroad 4x4 shocks. And I like it this high, only it doesn’t have camber adjusted so it steers a bit weird and nervous.

I am a student so everything is on a very tight budget

Are there any other cheap options?

idea! should a std prop shaft fit? Length wise? I can hack a bit out of that crossmember to make room for the bigger prop and weld in some plates

Edited January 20, 2016 by Hulliemam

[Bowie69]

Measure the prop length, and compare against part numbers to be sure.

Just had a lightbulb moment, that actually, the Disco 1 would also use a thin prop once it had cats, which could well be a shorter one.... So really you need to check the length you have, then google part numbers and work it out from there.

I would say there is enough room for a standard prop in there.

[Hulliemam]

I searched and the partnr for the discovery would be FRC8641 and these are a lot cheaper on eBay(still expensive, at €100 used). I know a local guy that has a lot of disco parts so maybe he could hook me up with one of these.

I start with remove it and measure it. I will post results because when I searched I couldn’t find any info so I hope it is useful to someone else too!

Thanks for the help bowie

[Hulliemam]

I have solved this problem a couple of months ago. So, for future reference:

I removed the propshaft and because it dint had the original dust cap on the sliding part, I could not measure the maximum length. It just slides right out. Also the splines were pretty badly worn.

After removing the shaft I found out that the lower UJ was frozen for 80% so needs replacing anyway.

 

I went to my local guy and got a standard (hollow) type disco 1 driveshaft, all greased up already. Checked the length and it still got room to slide out from driving height, and plenty of room at the cross member.

 

Fixed