Front Drive Shaft Replacement

[Alex Placentra]

A few months back the forward U-joint on my front prop shaft failed, it had been a while coming and I got lucky and was able to push my 110 back into the garage. Anyways, I just now got around to replacing it with a brand new driveshaft assembly that I ordered from mm-4x4 (shaft and both U-joints).

The first thing I noticed is that the new shaft is telescopic with about 4-5cm of travel. The old one shows some evidence of where there may have once been some telescope but it is seized solid. The hiccup came when I was installing the new shaft though -- I bolted the back end onto the transfer case and then when I went to put up the front end, it was about 12mm shy of the flange on the front diff. Fearing I had the wrong part, I took the whole unit back out and held it up to the failed shaft to compare -- but when fully extended the new shaft is actually a little longer than the old one.

So, in a fit of determination, I put in the t-case flange bolts and just barely threaded them on, then (with some C-clamp squeezing) I was able to barely thread in a couple of the front flange bolts and then tighten the whole thing up slowly on both ends. The tightening process went without snag or a lot of resistance but now the telescope seems a little hyper-extended as a bit of the lubricated splines are peeking out of the sleeve (I guess these are the splines that transmit rotation while allowing axial translation). Even after a short drive around the block the telescope looks the same, so I'm guessing it was not just some reposititioning in the suspension that was the issue.

My question is, does anyone have any experience with these telescoping prop shafts? If so, is there meant to be some axial tension between the front diff and the transfer case? Do I have the wrong prop shaft?

Thanks

Alex

1984 LR 110 w/ Perkins Phaser under the bonnet (RHD)

[Les Henson]

All propshafts have to have some telescoping, or the ride will be really rough and something will soon break. The splines shouldn't be showing though, which indicates that the prop is too short.

Les.

[Alex Placentra]

Does the rear prop shaft have a telescope too? Or does it approximate a circle better so that it doesn't need one?

Either way, the shaft I have is almost certainly the one for my year/model -- what could have happened to mess with the transfer box or front axle that makes it no longer fit?

Thanks

Alex

[Sirocco]

Does the rear prop shaft have a telescope too? Or does it approximate a circle better so that it doesn't need one?

Either way, the shaft I have is almost certainly the one for my year/model -- what could have happened to mess with the transfer box or front axle that makes it no longer fit?

Thanks

Alex

Is it all original? T box, axle, Diff, radius arms etc.

Tell us what you have and what part number you ordered.

G

[western]

all LR propshafts have sliding [telescopic] joints to allow for movement between axles & engine/gearbox/transferbox

[andy1969]

Are you running on standard springs? I recently changed the springs on my 110 CSW for heavy duty ones which has increased the ride height by about an inch. When changing a u/j on my front prop I noticed that the splines on my sliding joint also peek out the end, they didn't on the original springs.