Full reconditioning of the front axle

Well to celebrate my landy passing it's MOT I've decided to build a new front axle. My swivel housings are very lightly pitted in a few places, my discs have a little rust right at the edge and there is a dent in the diff bowl. Nothing that would fail the MOT and the axle would still be good for a few years

I've managed to get a nearly new axle casing, nearly new panhard rod, a pair of used hockey sticks, pair of hubs and pair of swivel pin housings for £60. So just need to remove the diff, front drive shafts and universal joints from the scrap disco on my drive then its the following new bits:

Pair VENTED discs
Pair of callipers
Pair of stub axles
Axle set of pads
Axle set of callipers pins/retainers
2 x New Swivel kits inc OEM seals, Timken bearings for swivel etc
4 x New bearings (TIMKEN)
New nuts, lock washers etc

Plus new bushes for the hockey sticks and panhard rod.

I'll be cleaning up the axle case, panhard rod, hockey sticks, hubs and swivel pin housings plus the outer part of the diff then painting them then re-building with the new parts.

The total cost is about £550 (about £160 for the brakes, £210 for the swivel kits with OEM bearings/seals etc and about £170-200 for the stub axles, nuts, seals, bearings, oil, paints etc)

It sounds a lot but I will end up with a basically new axle with new brakes.

Plan it to first remove the parts from the disco and then check and clean them up.
Brake down the second hand parts and check them
Clean everything and prep it
Paint all the parts that need it
Fully rebuild the axle with hockey sticks, discs etc.
Drop the old axle from the 90 with RTC steering damper, hockey sticks, dampers and springs still attached and then remove the steering damper and suspension then fit those to the recon axle and fit that back to the car.
Replace the callipers and bleed

I'm doing it like that so that the old axle with callipers can be sold as a job lot. Its still a decent enough working axle with a working diff so has to be worth something.

Will be happy to hear any suggestions, hints, tips and advice and will post pictures etc as I do it. Once I've done the front axle I'm going to do the rear but that already has new brakes etc so mainly new casing (slight leak) and new bearings etc.

Be prepared for the short brake pipes (caliper to flexy) to break, twist, round off.

I went for something like the link below. worked fine for me.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Defender-...703405?hash=item1a14d5c42d:g:GXAAAOSwxH1T~zdL

mikescuba said:

I went for something like the link below. worked fine for me.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Defender-...703405?hash=item1a14d5c42d:g:GXAAAOSwxH1T~zdL

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The standard axle is better than the Salisbury for a road car though as far as I am aware and that is more than the total cost of building the axle up with the better brakes and I will have either a spare or one to sell at the end.

Flossie said:

Be prepared for the short brake pipes (caliper to flexy) to break, twist, round off.

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To be honest I wouldn't expect them NOT to break. I will be replacing all the copper brake pipes as a matter of course. The tools only cost about £30 to make the pipes yourself and the kit comes with some ends and pipe. I'm going to replace the flex pipe with a 2" longer new one as well due to the raised suspension. A very good friend of mine works at a company that makes all manner of hydraulic flex pipes so hopefully they will be silly cheap

I replaced all my lines with copper during the rechassis 12 yrs ago and when I recently rebuilt the calipers (again) all the pipes twisted and knackered up.
I made new pipes with a flaring tool which did the most perfect single and double flares . Think it was 35 quid ish.
I can dig it out and give you the details if you like?
It can be used in situ too.

Flossie said:

I replaced all my lines with copper during the rechassis 12 yrs ago and when I recently rebuilt the calipers (again) all the pipes twisted and knackered up.
I made new pipes with a flaring tool which did the most perfect single and double flares . Think it was 35 quid ish.
I can dig it out and give you the details if you like?
It can be used in situ too.

Click to expand...

Personal recommendations on tools are always good. I'd be interested to see. I borrowed one off my neighbour recently to do a pipe for my daughter's car.

Okeydokey, I'll put something up.

I also need to find the right paint to paint the axle casing etc. Spray Hammerite?

cowasaki said:

I also need to find the right paint to paint the axle casing etc. Spray Hammerite?

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satin black hammerite with its own thinners makes a nice job

The af2003 is Franklin tools part number. I got it off Amazon.

jamesmartin said:

satin black hammerite with its own thinners makes a nice job

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I've got that Will that work well on the suspension castings too i.e. Hockey sticks

Flossie said:

The af2003 is Franklin tools part number. I got it off Amazon.View attachment 101972

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Yes, I'm seen that. Thanks.

eBay is cheaper £33, but I had a £25 free Amazon voucher to offload.

cowasaki said:

I've got that Will that work well on the suspension castings too i.e. Hockey sticks

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anything

Is there any quick way to know how many splines the front axle shafts will have? Just looking at the price of new ones rather than taking the old ones from the scrap disco. What part numbers?

That's the sort of brake pipe flaring tool I've got. Compact and easy to use, doesn't chew up the surface of the pipes like the cheap ones and makes the most perfect little pips that look like they've come straight from the factory.

When I did mine at the end of 2014 I bought new bolts for as many places as I could, and new gaskets for everything, such as swivel ball to axle casing, diff to axle casing, stub axle to swivel casing etc. A smear of sealant on either side of each gasket has ensured an oil tight fit - no leaks a year and a half later. Oh, that reminds me, you might as well replace as many seals as you can whilst everything is apart, including the propshaft seal, the little seals that go in the inner sides of the swivel ball and bear against the halfshaft, as well as the obvious ones on the hubs.

One thing that I hadn't anticipated was how difficult the studs and nuts that hold the diff to the axle casing would be. They were so rusty that many of the nuts stripped rather than unscrewed. The studs were OK after I cleaned them up with a 3/8" UNF die (they're made of something really tough) but you might want to lay in stocks of 3/8" UNF nuts just in case.

When I did mine, I also fitted new bearings on the diff itself. Only £20 for branded items, and then at least you know they're brand new, rather than re-using the old ones.

Yep, brilliant little tool, using the supplied grease on the die ensures a nice job, wish I'd got one sooner.

Brown said:

That's the sort of brake pipe flaring tool I've got. Compact and easy to use, doesn't chew up the surface of the pipes like the cheap ones and makes the most perfect little pips that look like they've come straight from the factory.

When I did mine at the end of 2014 I bought new bolts for as many places as I could, and new gaskets for everything, such as swivel ball to axle casing, diff to axle casing, stub axle to swivel casing etc. A smear of sealant on either side of each gasket has ensured an oil tight fit - no leaks a year and a half later. Oh, that reminds me, you might as well replace as many seals as you can whilst everything is apart, including the propshaft seal, the little seals that go in the inner sides of the swivel ball and bear against the halfshaft, as well as the obvious ones on the hubs.

One thing that I hadn't anticipated was how difficult the studs and nuts that hold the diff to the axle casing would be. They were so rusty that many of the nuts stripped rather than unscrewed. The studs were OK after I cleaned them up with a 3/8" UNF die (they're made of something really tough) but you might want to lay in stocks of 3/8" UNF nuts just in case.

When I did mine, I also fitted new bearings on the diff itself. Only £20 for branded items, and then at least you know they're brand new, rather than re-using the old ones.

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Thanks.

The "new" casing doesn't have a diff on it so it's just the current diff. I'll probably take the diff off the disco and clean it up then use that on the new axle so that I can drop the current axle off as a complete unit i.e. disconnect front prop, brake line, suspension at top, panhard rod, hockey sticks at body end, steering rods etc and just drop it. I've got/ordered/buying everything I need to build an axle with new brakes etc so I can take my time and get it perfect then just install it. The kits I'm buying include every gasket, seal and bearing new and I will be replacing all the bolts plus new half shafts, CV joints, swivels and stub axles. I want this to look like it's just come out of the factory

Once it's fitted I will do the rear axle too.... I replaced the brake discs, callipers and pads last year so will re-use those plus I have already ordered Timken bearings for all four wheels but need a new casing as the current one has a leak which I've fixed with chemical metal

This is one i am using at the moment. Can be used in place and dosent need a spanner to tighten down dye on the pipe. Very pleased with it. Its a sealy.