Re-Gearing my Perkins

Morning!

my "new" s2a 109 has a perkins diesel and overdrive, it seems to have the standard gearing too, as it tops out at about 55mph (making one hell of a noise!)

Am i correct in saying that the best option (cheapest) is to swap out the 2 diffs for the 3.51 diffs, and if so, how much work is it to do both diffs swaps (a guesstimate in number of hours) for me a reasonably skilled car guy

The second question is, can i swap the rear diff and then drive it somewhere to have the front one done by my landy garage (seems like the front is a load more work) not sure if you can do this or not in high range 2wd?

Thirdly, it seems like the stronger salisbury rear axle is a better option with the torque of the perkins, i guess it can strip the halfshalfs on the standard axle, so how do i check that i dont have the stronger axle already, is it easy to identify?
And are all the Salisbury's the same, that is would one advertised as "Salisbury rear axle from a 109" LWB Series 3 military" be ok and have the 3.51 ratio, and go straight in my s2a?

Finally, if i kept with the standard setup (assuming it has standard) and the rear half shafts did break at some point, can you drive home still in 4wd low range?

yes try rear first,and dont engage 4wd ,if you break half shaft remove prop or other half shaft to stop diff spinning alright short distance

jamesmartin said:

yes try rear first,and dont engage 4wd ,if you break half shaft remove prop or other half shaft to stop diff spinning alright short distance

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is that a yes, if you break a rear half shaft you can drive home in 4wd mode ok but you need to remove a half shaft first?

yes as diff would still turn even though not wheels but diff center best not spin unduly