Prop shaft joint, defender

Yes, its a fairly simple thing to do yourself (in principle). You need to take off the offending prop, then knock the old UJ out (an old socket or wheel nut works well as a drift), and then knock the new one in (theres usually some circlips to remove from the ends first too)

Be careful when your putting the new ones in not to mess up the roller bearings in the caps else you'll be doing it all again!

Theres a lot of old threads about it, which may give you some hints. like this one:

Sounds simple, but they hardly ever come out easily, and you will probably end up swearing a lot and hitting things with big hammers lots, so reserve a few hours for the job just in case!

good luck

we try! :)

It's a simple enough job to do made easier if you have access to a decent bench vice. You may find the old UJ caps are very tight in the joint though and can take some serious punishment with a hammer before they come out. Forget the cr@p in the Haynes 'Book of Lies' about tapping it with a hammer and they'll pop out.

You might find it a better proposal though to pickup a second hand propshaft from a breaker or someone (about 20ukp) and fit that whilst you're refurbishing the old one as that way you're not going to be off the road whilst doing it.

Cheers Gary

Where the haynes says 'tap', it means 'repeatedly hit it with the largest hammer you own while swearing at it loudly. Try not to miss too many times as you may break things'.

Having done it, it's worth getting a propshaft tool (wine glass shaped socket) for undoing the nuts on the propshaft flanges. Removal took 3 days and ended up with extensions, socket, an impact driver, and club hammer - of course it was only one nut that was difficult! If you get stuck I was told you can always engage difflock and leave the shaft out.

Thanks all for helpful comment (including Austin, the second attempt came direct to me too!). Fortunately today I have access to a second vehicle so the propshaft is off and the joint out (worryingly easily, very little brute force and ignorance required, presumably it's saving something really nasty for reassembly) now all I've got to do is get the new one on...

Thanks

Alistair

On or around Mon, 05 Jul 2004 09:37:12 +0100, Alistair Bell enlightened us thusly:

must've been a bad day. or you've got the follow-up set oddly...