Hi..I have fitted a discovery axle into a 1985 Classic but from my experience note the following.

1, The front radius arm ( hockey stick) brackets welded to the axle casing are wider apart on the disco axle than the original range rover so either

(a)have the later bushes pressed into your original radius arms or (better)

(b) get a set of later radius arms which are wider. If you want to use polybushes you will have to go for (b)

2. Alternativley you can keep your original axle casing in situ and fit the disco diff (you will have to change some of the studs) and complete disco swivel assembly's to either end of your original casing. The only problem with this is the swivel flange bolt holes don't line up with the axle flanges so you will have to drill one hole dead centre between the the two bottom fixing bolts on the flange This is quite easy just use a new gasket as a template. I had to go down this route as the axle I bought was actually bent and p****d oil out...after I had painted it a sourced a couple of later radius arms of course...!

3. You may find the calipers on the disco axle are the wrong type..mine has one brake hose fitting each side but the calipers on the disco axle had two ! I had to drill out the rangie brake caliper fixing holes as the disco has slightly larger diameter fixing bolts..probably metric.

I did this 'conversion' 2 years ago and had no problems. since...good luck!
 
Hi mekon, i have fitted an axle off a k reg discovery and there have been no problems at all so i am not too sure what your on about:confused: . i had to swap the whole axle because something inside the old one came lose and got dragged round and forced itself out of the diff casing:eek: i have kept the the original calipers to save bleeding the brakes again.
 
Hi mekon, i have fitted an axle off a k reg discovery and there have been no problems at all so i am not too sure what your on about:confused: . i had to swap the whole axle because something inside the old one came lose and got dragged round and forced itself out of the diff casing:eek: i have kept the the original calipers to save bleeding the brakes again.

I think Mekon's problems were more down to the respective ages of the vehicles, rather than the differences between RR & Discovery.
 
Yep..I started my reply with 'from my experience' as I have done this axle swap on 2 range rovers both 1985.

The later range rover i.e a 'K' reg, I believe, had the wider radius arm brackets so it should be a straight swop.

The original question was regarding a 1985 rangie
 

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