So, I definitely need to change some U Joints. I'm tempted to have a crack myself if I can get the P38 high enough up in the air for me to get myself underneath....

I have a couple of questions :)

Are bearmach any good for UJs? They seem ridiculously cheap...
Are all the UJs the same in the front and rear propshafts? I can't see any different part nos but I'd like to check before I buy the wrong ones.

It seems the perfect time of year to be rolling around underneath a vehicle!

If you don’t have a vice and sockets to press them out have a look at Propshafts as replacements.

If you are looking at LRDirect,I'd go for the Hardy Spicer or OEM ones. They may be a bit more but from known manufacturers. If you don't have a vice, use a big hammer......

Mine would never have come out without a vice

You need a bigger hammer......

I've got the Bearmach ones on the Disco, and they have been fine so far, been on there about 6 months.

The OEM (the company not LR) have a 2 year warranty and the rest have a single year.
Bah. I'll be the guinea pig and report back. Hopefully not in 25 months!

I'm going with the grease nipple ones. My thinking is that The Duchess isn't seeing any extreme offroad use so ultimate strength should be less of a factor than wear and tear. Also, my Jeep recently had UJs with grease nipples fitted (the garage just did it) so I'm going to get a grease gun anyway.

On the other hand, your original ones have lasted nearly 20 years without grease nipples...

I generally pit the awkwardness of a job, the time it takes, and the possible collateral damage should it fail, against the cost of the parts.

If the only options were £7 for bearmach and £90 for genuine landrover, well i'd be taking the cheap ones.

But the difference between £7 for aftermarket and £12 for the hardy spicer joints is basically nothing. Certainly not worth risking it failing, either catastrophically, or even just getting noisey and having the hassle of another weekend spent bashing at the underside of a P38!

I've never seen UJs without grease nipples, in fact on the service schedule, they should be greased every 24,000 miles which would be a bit difficult if they didn't have nipples.

yeh fair enough, TBH i havent actually looked! Most car propshaft UJ's dont have grease nipples.

But it isn't a car, it's a Land Rover.......

I've seen water come out of them on the TD5 disco that a friend of my mate was working on when he greased them, We suspect the servicing on that has been minimal for some time, so its definitely worth doing to keep them working for longer. As you say, not a car its designed to be able to run through water etc!

i best find my grease gun then!

Not a bad idea, there should be some to grease on the propshafts themselves as well as the joints. You may find one of them is blanked off with a allen key bolt, if so you can unscrew one of the others and use that to apply the grease, then put the plug back where it came from.

I remember the good ole days, when everything had a grease nipple, was part of a service , days when things were made properly.

You should see the owners manual for an Austin 7 - weekly grease checks!

Aragorn wrote:

On the other hand, your original ones have lasted nearly 20 years without grease nipples...

I generally pit the awkwardness of a job, the time it takes, and the possible collateral damage should it fail, against the cost of the parts.

If the only options were £7 for bearmach and £90 for genuine landrover, well i'd be taking the cheap ones.

But the difference between £7 for aftermarket and £12 for the hardy spicer joints is basically nothing. Certainly not worth risking it failing, either catastrophically, or even just getting noisey and having the hassle of another weekend spent bashing at the underside of a P38!

I'm with you. The OEM are actually a couple of quid more than Hardy Spicer in the greasable version and have 2 years vs 1 year warranty. Strangely, the non greasable Hary Spicer are more expensive than the OEM make. I know Spicer are good - the Jeep community fit nothing else but I went with the warranty this time.

Also out of interest... I did the whole "I'll just replace the prop shaft" thing awhile ago.

Britpart was all I could get at the time, but figure it would at least last a few thousand miles so I could use it to eliminate as a source of vibration... I found out not so long ago as vibration once again got worse that the britpart shaft wasn't phased the same as the LR original one... And one of its UJs was on the way out, so I put the LR one back on (which I'd done UJs on awhile ago)

But something worth looking out for if you do go the new propshaft route....

I'm going with just UJs, and I've bought one of those paint marker pens so I can mark up the prop to keep it in the original alignment. I'm hoping that I'll get them sorted and the thing back on its wheels in one weekend :)

Its not particularly difficult to get the propshaft off providing you have tools to fit the bolts ok, and once its off you can work on replacing the joints without being under the car, so it shouldn't take you too long with any luck.