Universal joints advice needed

I got very concerned when I read about the problems with universal joints in the following link;

What to look for when buying a Land Rover Discovery - Land Rover Forums - Land Rover Enthusiast Forum

I have looked at the universal joints under my Discovery. I am not a mechanic and not really that up to speed on cars but I love to try. I found 3 joints!!!! How many universal joints are there on a Discovery? I checked to see if they had grease nipples and thankfully they do.

My questions are;

What type of grease gun do I need?

What type of grease do I need?

How often should I grease the joints?

If anybody can advise I would be very grateful.

Regards

(I added the attached pic after some research and the advice from other members)

there shud be a UJ at each end of each prop shaft. Yu need any grease gun and MS (can yu still get that) grease - or any grease is better than no grease - and grease em regularly.

oh - and changing a UJ is about an hour and a halfs job - **** easy

if thats all yu gotta worry about, yu have a very good Disco

Hi, if its a 200 tdi then i think there are four ujs, If its a300tdi there are 3 and a rubber doughnut on the rear diff to prop shaft. look at busters photos for a guidline on changing a uj.the best type of grease gun for the diy is the type with a side pumping arm they cost about 20 quid,the grease you require is called LM grease a small tin is about 8 quid.

Can I assume that the fitting at the injection point on a grease gun varies in size to fit its application. If so what size do I require. I am off to the shop tomorrow and its going to be a bugger explaining this in my poor Swedish especially when I am not sure what I need in English.........

Does the universal joint nipple have a specific size?

Thanks

they are universal I think...what you need to look out for is a grease gun with a flexi pipe bewtween the body and the bit that fits on the nipple

grease nipples are a standard size.

Thanks for the advice everybody.

I checked RAVE and Multipurpose Lithium based grease with an NGLI consistancy 2 is recommended.

I also found these links that may be helpful;

U-joint Grease

2004 Discovery front sliding joint grease nipple - Land Rovers Only - Land Rover Forum

http://www.landroverforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29302

On the second link they describe the "slip shaft" or "sliding joint". Apparently on the Disco 2 03 and 04 there are 3 universal joints and 2 "sliding joints" can somebody in the know confirm this. Can you buy a standard grease nipple to fit into the "sliding joint" if so is it not better just to leave it in there after you have greased the joint?

What other points on the Disco need regular greasing? Maybe a lame question to you seasoned practioners but I would prefer to ask stupid questions rather than damage my car.

Once again thanks for the advice.

If its got a nipple grease it

buy a gun that takes the cartridges. IF you buy a normal gun and have to load it from a tub it can get very messy and you end up wasting grease.

buy a pack of LM2 grease carts. They last ages and can be used for other things to.

G

I picked up the gun and grease today with the extension flexi hose. See the pic I added at the top.

The grease is Castrol LMX a lithium based grease that is NLGI 2 so it fits in with the recommendations of pressure, temperature and water resistance. I need to buy another nozzle for the end of the flexi hose as I cannot transfer the nozzle from the gun although the thread is the correct size (theres always something). (It all cost about 40 pound...Sweden is not cheap).

Does anybody have any advice regarding the sliding joint and the allen key fitting that exists instead of an grease nipple????????????

I will grease the UJ's during the week.

I have also read about rebuilding the universal joints. Is this only when the UJ breaks or is there a periodic clean and rebuild that is recommended?????

Regards

hi, irish. i feel sure you can tranfer the nozzle from the fixed pipe to the flexi. I did it on my new gun a few weeks ago. if your prop is fitted with an alun screw just remove it and fit a nipple. if the uj's are worn then just replace them. They cost about 10quid each, regards, elt.

Dear All,

I greased all three u-joints and one slip joint. I pumped in as much as I could until the new grease pushed out all the old grease so that you could see the new grease extruding from the joints. I still have the second sliding joint to complete and I just bought a packet of nipples today to replace the allen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_key) key plug.

Questions:
1. Is there a reason that one sliding joint has a nipple and the other has not?

2. Can I leave the nipple in instead of the allen key plug or am I running some sort of risk that I am unaware of?

3. Is there any recommendation on when the universal joints should be replaced? Should this be at say an interval of every 50 or 100km for example? I do some regular motorway driving with my young son and I dont want them to bugger up at 120km.........

Thanks

joints only need reapir when theres perceptable slop between the two ends of the uj . dont fix things that aint broke.
biggest bugbear with grease nipples is that half of them will be blocked and the grease comes out between the gun fitting and the nipple as you pump.

tiz easy to check - just remove grease nipple, clean a pump a bit of clean grease through it, refit and everythink is hunky dory .

Nothing like religiously greasing everything and finding out they are all dry when one fails .

checking propshafts is not an easy job under the car.

i regularly grease, but every so often just remove them (20 minute job) and then check them out on the bench.

you can then check for looseness, tightness etc etc.

probably worth doing if it's your first time lubing...

cheers.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Good suggestion to remove and test propshafts and grease nipples.

Another job to plan.......

Regards

it just makes them a lot easier to inspect mate. personally i find it less hassle to remove than to roll the car back and forth to get a good look around the shaft...

i agree, thought both of my props were fine but i took them off and had a good check 'just incase'.

turns out on the front prop 3 of arms on the 2 uj's had no roller pins in them and grease wasnt getting to 1.

all shiney and new now tho with BIG nipples!!

Have to confess this is something I have heared on a forum (but it sounds legit) don't pump the slip joint FULL of grease or the shaft will have nowhere to go and will cause undue forces on the UJs.
"Changing UJs is a piece of ****" And so is knocking 3 needle bearings into the bottom of the cup as you push it home with the vice. BU66ER.

i snapped my vice doing it! if u swap the uj's out then dont do it in anything smaller than a 6" vice

and use busters tips, fill the caps with grease to hold the pins in place as u vice it up