Stripping the Front Prop

Time to break down the front propshaft for cleanup. This is a prop I picked up off a RoverLanders member a while back; for some reason, I had just chucked both my front and rear into the garbage, many years ago during the strip down, when I assumed I would just 'buy new ones.' I guess at the time I did not know that these were rebuild-able. 

Anyway, the prop for sure needed to be rebuilt:

Not only was the gaiter mangled, suggesting that the sliding joint would need cleaning at least, but the flanges and u-joints needed to be redone for sure. 

First step, mark both sides of the sliding joint with a punch so you know how to reassemble it and have a faint hope that it'll be balanced:

Then, undo the... threaded cap, I guess, that holds on the sliding joint. Underneath is a small, thin washer that actually holds on the sliding joint. It's split, so you can use pliers and bend it off and over the splined section of the propshaft. 

Et voila. Once that clip is gone, you can get the threaded cap off over the splines. You now have two pieces of the propshaft, and you can note that huh, irritatingly, there's no cap in the yoke to hold in the grease you'll be adding later. I have no idea if these can be bought. I sure hope so. 

Find a way to get the little, frozen-in-place grease nipple out and then you can start working on removing the u-joint from the yoke & flange. If you're lucky, this process is easy! If you're unlucky, however, this becomes quite a process. First, you might break off one of the circlips leaving you... not much to work with.

To resolve this problem you will need some fine vice grips and several curse words. Eventually, however, it will come out. 

You will then need to use your shop press to push out the bearing caps. Sometimes, however, getting them to move proves to be... unpossible. 

You will need:

• Lots of penetrating oil

• More curse words

• Probably a bigger press than I have

• Much patience

Eventually, you will run out of both the usual curse words and ways you can hammer and press the u-joint bearing caps. From that point on, you will need to resort to more primitive means. 

Fire. You'll need to use fire.

Specifically, the heat from a MAPP torch, aka. the Land Rover Restorer's Third Bestest Friend, After a Really Big Hammer and A Zip Disc on a Grinder. 

You can't see in the picture above, as the camera didn't pick it up, but there will be Much Smoke created. Don't breathe that shit in, kids, it's bad for you. 

Eventually though, just as you're about to run out of really inventive curses and you're also about out of ideas, it'll shift with a big bang. Once it does, you've won!

And look! You end up with some oily, greasy, rusty parts. 😕

That you then have to clean up. Sigh.