HELP! Need to put Disco back together, think prop is wrong..

[Iain C]

My Disco has munched a gearbox end front propshaft bearing within about 5000 miles, not good.  So I've taken it off, and it's sat on the bench.  At no point have I slid the splines apart so the orientation of the yokes is the same as when I bought it.

Trouble is, I've convinced myself the yokes are 45 degrees out.  I was convinced that for a UJ to work properly, the yokes must be a 0 and 90 degrees, not 0 and 45.  In effect, one spider is in "cross of St George" configuration whilst the other is "cross of St Andrew".

Is this right?  Please help as I can't put the truck back together until I know!  I'm trying to search the web for front prop pics but no joy so far!

Thanks ever so much!

[Big Rich]

I've never slid mine apart but I would guess they will only go in one way. The pto shaft's on tractors will only fit in one way.

The picture I looked at in the rimmer bros catalog shows the propshaft with both uj's at the same angle though.

Rich

[Iain C]

Hmmm, I think they will go in any way, however I found a pic from Island 4x4 on ebay and it matches mine...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LANDROVER-DISCOVERY-1-89-98-TDI-FRONT-PROPSHAFT-NEW_W0QQitemZ150134476412QQihZ005QQcategoryZ31348QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

But then I've found a pic of a custom shaft and both yokes are in the same same plane, ie both at 0 degrees...

[Iain C]

D'oh!

Forgot I have the LR workshop manual (enormous file!) on my laptop, and they are indeed deliberatly "out" by 45 degrees...

Phew!  Back under the truck we go then!!

Thanks all!!! :)

[Big Rich]

My spare prop in my grage matches yours. Thinking about it it may not matter how the uj's apr possitioned.

Rich

[Wanderer]

It does matter quite a bit. They are done that way on purpose.
If you do it properly then you can't get it wrong.

There is a small raised dimple on the yoke of the UJ.
Looking at the splines on the propshaft there's one of the splines missing.
Line up the missing spline with the raised dimple on the yoke.
The two pieces then should slide together easily.

It is in the right position.

If it is difficult to slide in then you have either got damage to the "plastic coating" or the splines are in the wrong places.

Ed

[Sharpshooter]

They must be right. I have just checked my 1992 Disco and my 1984 110. Both the same as yours.

[beast5680]

if it has a master spline and you cant get it wrong then what have is right , however most propshafts should be "phased" that is the yokes are in line down the length of the shaft, my V8 one was out like yours and i,ve turned it so its in line which resulted in a lot less vibration when off roading

[carls200tdi]

just checked a rangie prop i have in shed exactly the same as yours

[SteveGoodz]

It's almost certainly an optical illusion (or too much vin rouge ~ hic!) but the prop in that top picture looks bent to me.

[Range Rover Blues]

Ear;ly props were about 30 degrees out but the solid ones I have for my LSE are 45 degrees out like that one above.

However if you lift the front of the car 2" then the whole reaosn they are 'phased' that way is lost, I rotated my front prop so that the UJs were in line and it got rid of a small amount of vibration.

Now I'm using a TD5 prop.

There was a long-running discussion abou this last year sometime and the conclusion IIRC was that the front diff and the output of the T-Box were not at the same offset to the centreline of thge car, hence the need for the front propshaft to be aligned like this.