Prop shaft advice.

So just asking for some advice from anyone running a 2 inch lift or similar. Landys been running great (200tdi 90") and I'm doing a few more work miles in it than I used to.

The defenders been lifted two inch at some point, when it was rebuilt it was fitted with the correct radius and trailing arms new lift springs and dampers and such like.

The problem I'm finding is I'm throwing UJ's like nobody's business, as soon as I put one right two weeks later another will fail, I've just bought 5 more UJ's to keep in stock, and I have a spare prop on hand most of the time. One thing is that I'm replacing the joints one at a time; so it could just be that one UJ would be new and the other one could be 30 years old for all I know, but I keep all regularly greased anyhow

I've got a load of UJ's on order and I'm going to renew all of them, and those on my spare and see how long it takes for one to fail again, this is probably the third UJ to go in 6 month ( and I don't do a lot of miles!)

In the meantime I was wanting to rack your brains, on double cardans and wide angle props, I wouldn't say my transmition was overly noisy by defender standards it's usually good until you throw the next UJ is a wide angle prop going to make any difference? If so what can I fit? Why are the 200tdi ones about £100 more than the 300tdi ones?
Does anyone have a double cardan fitted? Did you fit a disco one? Where did you get an adator from?

thanks gents

I've just got a new front prop for mine at a grand cost of under £70.00!
Mine is a standard FRC 8390, although I'm not sure how much longer it would need to be to compensate for your lift.
Is it the front shaft that is constantly destroying yout UJ's, and is it the same UJ every time?
What grease are you using, and do you do any wading?
Do you keep the propshaft spline well greased?

On a similar vein. My rear front prop UJ on its way out. I do a lot of off road driving (mainly across rocky / sandy terrain) and jet wash the underside every time but they still fail with regularity. I’ve been greasing them every couple of months. What do people recommend as the best UJ’s to use?

The front of gearbox one needs changing every 15 / 18 months on my everyday farm 90,[standard suspension ] [ mix of road/off road ] Regular greasing helps but as soon as grease stops going to one of the caps, journals life is limited. The front gearbox is the joint that moves the most and so wears fastest I recon.
Wide angle will not help with joint wear, it's for maxing axle movement without the joint contacting.
My neighbour ignored the tweeting rattle of a failing UJ on his 2009 90. Joint totally failed and the shaft thrashed around smashed the main gearbox housing. Very expensive when all that was needed was a £10 part. Mind you I don't think the garage who do his servicing know what a grease gun is.
I like GKN joints. A TIP, if replacement joints have been in storage some time the grease inside goes hard so I push it out with a rod so fresh can feed through to the caps when fitted. Every little helps as some say.

tottot said:

The front of gearbox one needs changing every 15 / 18 months on my everyday farm 90,[standard suspension ] [ mix of road/off road ] Regular greasing helps but as soon as grease stops going to one of the caps, journals life is limited. The front gearbox is the joint that moves the most and so wears fastest I recon.
Wide angle will not help with joint wear, it's for maxing axle movement without the joint contacting.
My neighbour ignored the tweeting rattle of a failing UJ on his 2009 90. Joint totally failed and the shaft thrashed around smashed the main gearbox housing. Very expensive when all that was needed was a £10 part. Mind you I don't think the garage who do his servicing know what a grease gun is.
I like GKN joints. A TIP, if replacement joints have been in storage some time the grease inside goes hard so I push it out with a rod so fresh can feed through to the caps when fitted. Every little helps as some say.

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Thats the same for mine, Life span of about 12-18 months regardless of how regularly they are maintained, I also use GKN greaseable joints. The advantage is because they have not been in that long I can change one over in about half an hour including removing and refitting the shaft to the vheicle!

90deftdi said:

In the meantime I was wanting to rack your brains, on double cardans and wide angle props, I wouldn't say my transmition was overly noisy by defender standards it's usually good until you throw the next UJ is a wide angle prop going to make any difference? If so what can I fit? Why are the 200tdi ones about £100 more than the 300tdi ones?
Does anyone have a double cardan fitted? Did you fit a disco one? Where did you get an adator from?

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A 2" lift should not require a wide angle prop-shaft for general use, but it will possible help. I fitted a double cardan wide angle shaft when I had a 4" lift and dis-locators on my 110 before I returned it to stock. I ordered from Bailey Morris (link), and told them what I had and measure the distance flange to flange. I dont know what current prices are this was about 10 years ago, but was very happy with it at the time, and it lasted well until i swapped back to standard.

Only use genuine Hardy Spicer couplings, which will probably set you back around £15 each.
I won't fit anythging else, and mine have never let me down, including a lot of off-road and motorway driving.
"Buy cheap and replace often"

Oldseadog said:

Only use genuine Hardy Spicer couplings, which will probably set you back around £15 each.
I won't fit anythging else, and mine have never let me down, including a lot of off-road and motorway driving.
"Buy cheap and replace often"

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I get mine from paddocks: link

For mine I use RTC3346GKN which are advertised as GKN OEM. Later UJ's on paddocks are advertised as GKN Hardy Spicer OEM. I thought GKN and Hardy spicer were amalgamated and the same company?

@dag019 Hardy established a contact with Spicer Manufacturing Corporation of Toledo, Ohio. Spicer took a share of Ed. J Hardy Limited in exchange for British patent rights and all engineering data of the Spicer mechanical joint and in 1926 the name of Ed. J Hardy & Co was changed to Hardy, Spicer and Co Limited
In 1939 Hardy-Spicer joined with Laycock Engineering both becoming subsidiaries of a new holding company named Birfield Industries Limited
In 1966 Guest Keen & Nettlefold seeing advantage in amalgamating with its local competition and wanting to pre-empt an expected bid from USA's TRW Inc. bought Birfield the sole UK supplier of CVJ
However, genuine Hardy Spicer 'cruciform coulpings' carry a manufacturers warranry of between 12 and 24 months, whereas standard GKN and other makes tend not to.

Oldseadog said:

@dag019 Hardy established a contact with Spicer Manufacturing Corporation of Toledo, Ohio. Spicer took a share of Ed. J Hardy Limited in exchange for British patent rights and all engineering data of the Spicer mechanical joint and in 1926 the name of Ed. J Hardy & Co was changed to Hardy, Spicer and Co Limited
In 1939 Hardy-Spicer joined with Laycock Engineering both becoming subsidiaries of a new holding company named Birfield Industries Limited
In 1966 Guest Keen & Nettlefold seeing advantage in amalgamating with its local competition and wanting to pre-empt an expected bid from USA's TRW Inc. bought Birfield the sole UK supplier of CVJ
However, genuine Hardy Spicer 'cruciform coulpings' carry a manufacturers warranry of between 12 and 24 months, whereas standard GKN and other makes tend not to.

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Very informative.

I thought that the standard setup was ok for up to 2" lifts.

mick the builder said:

I thought that the standard setup was ok for up to 2" lifts.

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Pretty much is unless you do severe off roading.

I run 4” lift with double carden prop, I grease the uj’s after every off road session and there still good after 4 years of extreme stuff.
I’d imagine a wide angle prop would suit your set up. Just grease it often.

I've yet to replace a UJ. Had the Landy 15 years. Grease the UJ's every 6k and occasionally other times I'm under there. Mainly road use, occasional green laning, occasional heavy towing. 198k on the clock.

Thanks for the informative replies all. Thought it was just mine eating UJ’s but apparently not!

Al2O3 said:

I've yet to replace a UJ. Had the Landy 15 years. Grease the UJ's every 6k and occasionally other times I'm under there. Mainly road use, occasional green laning, occasional heavy towing. 198k on the clock.

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I don't know how you have managed that you will have to tell me your secret! Mine have a life expectancy of 12-18 months (although that is about 40k miles) I have had new props fitted both ends, and they get greased regularly, other than high mileage my usage is the same as yours.

dag019 said:

I don't know how you have managed that you will have to tell me your secret! Mine have a life expectancy of 12-18 months (although that is about 40k miles) I have had new props fitted both ends, and they get greased regularly, other than high mileage my usage is the same as yours.

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I've absolutely no idea. I can't recall how many miles it had on it when I bought it. I think about 65K because I remember getting the timing belt changed and making sure it had the new style pulley on. So, I've probably put nearly 130K on it in that time. Once they start going I'll probably end up having to change them every 18 months like everyone else

Just a quick early moning thought, and that it to check the preload on the diff pinion, which should be between 1.6- 3.5 lb/ft (2.55-3.9Nm), as excessive pinion play could transmit through the propshaft ...
Just a thought