Land Rover Boise to the Rescue!!!

[roverbuild]

Long story short, my brother in law (Andrew Stempel) and I were wheeling my LR3 in Moab, UT this past week with Bill Burke, we encountered a rear driveshaft failure on Behind the Rocks! Britparts driveshaft literally sheared into two pieces! This was at 3:30 pm on Wednesday the 30th. Spoke to my local Land Rover Dealership guys back home in Cary, NC (Ben Farmer) and he went to work researching the closet dealership with a replacement shaft, Boise Idaho (8hrs away) Called the dealership in Boise and spoke to Kevin Shumway who was very awesome to deal with! Not only did he match what my local dealer charges me for this part, but gave me a sweet deal on overnighting the part to Moab, UT. Left the truck on the trails and jumped in with Bill B! Had an awesome time shotgun on the rest of the trails and made it into town to have some good food at the Blu Pig!!!! Woke up the next morning kind of in a panic realizing if the part got delayed for any reason it could be the next week before I could have a part because of the holiday! So I tracked the part and it had landed in Grand Junction and so I put a hold request and we set off to pick up the shaft in Grand Junction. Got the part and hit the trails later that day! Replaced the part and got off the trails right at sunset and the temp was -2 degrees! Later that night we set out on a long night ride to end up on top of one of the mesas. Had an amazing view and a really big fire to bring in the New Year! All that said to really give credit to the guys at Land Rover. Normally we have nothing but ********** to say about LRNA, but this time they came to the rescue! So they are not all bad!!

 

[dsm02c]

Any idea why the britpart shaft snapped? No traction to quick grip scenario? Or it just failed? Good rover dealers are harder to come by!

 

[unseenone]

Nice outcome...

 

[roverbuild]

Yeah this looks like product falure!

 

[Blueboy]

Great to hear all worked out in the end although feeling it was more the specific dealer than LRNA.

 

[DiscoNels]

Exact same thing happened to me last August at the National LR Rally in Grand Junction. We were wheeling with Bill Burke who was spotting me up a small ledge when my 5 month old drive shaft sheared and ended my trek. I bought my driveshaft from a reputable supplier here in the USA, but not sure who the manufacturer is, probably the same as yours which would make sense as a supplier. Stay away from that junk. I went back to LR OEM driveshaft.

In this case Bill Burke saved the trip by loaning me his RRC for a couple of days. Love that guy!!

 

[antiacus]

Looks like a good time was had by all!

 

[jymmiejamz]

Normally we have nothing but ********** to say about LRNA, but this time they came to the rescue! So they are not all bad!!

LRNA had nothing to do with this. The good outcome is thanks to the parts department of your dealer in Cary and the parts department in Boise. I'm glad to hear that they could help you out! What prompted the replacement of the drive shaft in the first place?

 

[roverbuild]

The driveshaft was orginally replaced due to a center support bearing starting to fail.

 

[mowerman]

Good for them.

 

[zelatore]

Well now you're scaring me. I recently recently replaced my driveshaft with an aftermarket part since I too had a failed center support. My theory for going with the aftermarket was that the driveshaft doesn't see any real articulation on this rig so it shouldn't be under too much stress. It's only been out on one wheeling run so far but I'm getting worried!

Time to order up a center bushing and rebuild the stocker I think!

Just as an FYI, what exactly broke on your new aftermarket part? I can't tell which end it is from the pic. I'm guessing the forward/CV end?

 

[roverbuild]

Yeah I would highly recommend sticking with the factory oem material on this part! For some reason the aftermarket versions are failing completely, my guess would be poor material, because when you measure the diameters and all the deminsions they are identical! This particular falure occured on the tcase side and the shaft sheared off inside the cv!

 

[zelatore]

Guess I shouldn't be surprised. I tried a generic 'duralast' front half shaft and killed it in the first 20 trail miles.

 

[A.J.M]

Britpart are known in the UK as "****part" and for a GOOD reason!!

The "quality" of their stuff is terrible, I've had bad experiences with them and I wouldn't fit anything bar a brake disc from them.

Someone spoke of the centre bearing, if that's on the rear propshaft, it's generally not a rebuilding item, I've not read of many people having success of splitting the shaft and then rebuilding it.
Mine went, while bearing had gone so I bought a new propshaft.

 

[mowerman]

Sadly Britpart suffers a reputation gained years ago, which they have rectified as well as they can. Their aftermarket stuff is no better or worse than other aftermarket stuff, indeed if you buy an 'OE' replacement part these days it will be Britpart supplying the parts.