Jack the axle up to the height it would be normally, it will pivot up at the rear of the jockey stick arms and then the mounts should flatten off and line up.
I took both my front hockey sticks off and dampers and the whole lot shunts out of place and looks wrong, it will likely pull up straight.
my he photo of your axle doesn’t look like it’s near where it would air with wheels and spring and weight on it.
I don’t know if I have explained that right but does that make any sense?
None whatsoever flat, except that by 'hockey sticks' I presume you mean 'the radius arms'?
Having pulled my 1988 land rover 90 to bits, there was quite a bit of slop with those components, as the bushes were totally worn out. But even with everything firmed up with the new polybushes packing everything out, and without to the bolts tightened, there is no where near enough movement to get the upper and lower spring seats to face each other. I can show more photos but it looks just like in the links posted by Retroanaconda above. It just isn't right. Everyone is saying get some weight on it, but it won't go together satisfactorily on the first place, and that's not right. As I say, the original radius arms are slightly shorter, and I'm convinced the mounts are attached in a slightly further forward position. This makes sense to me, as I am also convinced the disco chassis is slightly different, but I don't want to contradict experienced guys on here that tell me they were all made the same.
I just think there may be an anomaly in the manufacturing or design at that time, that was never really flagged up? I dare say its probably rare unique to my build, which is also a conversion, using a new chassis for a defender and the axle off an early (1994 300tdi disco...
If you guys could physically see how much of a misalignment this is, you might concur that it is different, and not at all what we want.
It occurs to me that, unlike the rear axle, where the trailing arms can pivot where they connect to the axle, and therefore there can be straighter up and down movement in service, the front axle is suspended more or less captive at the front end of the radius arms, so the front axle is definitively moving in an arc (hence the term 'radius').
So, logically there will be a range of positions and angles through which the spring mount pads will be travelling, but I suspect this is minimal, not as much as 20mm which is what we are looking at here.
Anyway, I appreciate all your help and thoughts on the matter, I'll probably make a decision on what to do when I've heard back from BritRest Mike in Canada.
Best wishes to all you land rover brethren
