Bankz's Defender TD5 90

Got off early from work so cracked on. Went over the passenger side stub axle with some high grit wet & dry to remove the dirt etc... Came up a treat.

Heres the bucket of broken parts that came off, probably make up the remains of the wheel bearing!


Rest of the wheel bearing seized onto the stub axle, may make this into a lamp!


Seized caliper , new one should arrive Weds/Thurs


Rebuilt the passenger side hub as well, plenty of copper slip on mating faces helped me, well, hammer it on... Was careful not to damage the disc.


Hub back on! Little difficult to do on your own but possible. Just be careful of the brake pipe! Half shaft was reinserted and new paper gasket used.



Spacer going back on, loads of copper slip used, make it a little easier to remove next time!

Nothing has been torqued up yet just in case it has to come off when the rest of the parts arrive for any reason.

L/H Caliper is on!



However the brake union bolt was very tough to remove and only just un did before it rounded so that will have to be replaced.

Plus the DPD driver ignored my instructions and buggered off with my stub axle!!

I am not looking forward to loosening the bleed nips...

Work continues!

New stub axle fitted


Was much more difficult to fit the hub onto this side. The Timken bearing just did not want to go on to the hub! Ended up having to fit the hub seal to the stub axle then softly drift the bearing on with a hammer, then sliding the hub on, then drifting the outer bearing into place. Slightly nervous that the seal hadsnt seated properly on the back but theres no way to tell.

But it is on and spinning happily -


Remarkably the bleed nipple wasnt too tight, however the location seems ridiculous. Can't use a union spanner on it and a socket only goes on about half way! Though its un-done ready to go.

Bought a new brake union and me and a mate shall be repairing the brake pipe on Saturday, then the arduous task of bleeding the brakes...

That hub seal will probably be pushed right up against the back of the stub axle and therefore will likely fail very quickly I am afraid. They need to be inserted so the outermost lip is just below flush with the edge of the hub, so they don't rub on the back of the stub.

If the bearing didn't go on nicely then there was a problem somewhere, as you say you've got a Timken bearing I suspect the stub axle is out of spec. in terms of size. Was it a Land Rover one or aftermarket?

Retroanaconda said:

That hub seal will probably be pushed right up against the back of the stub axle and therefore will likely fail very quickly I am afraid. They need to be inserted so the outermost lip is just below flush with the edge of the hub, so they don't rub on the back of the stub.

If the bearing didn't go on nicely then there was a problem somewhere, as you say you've got a Timken bearing I suspect the stub axle is out of spec. in terms of size. Was it a Land Rover one or aftermarket?

Click to expand...

it is a poor way of fitting and i would remove and refit properly but lip of seal is supposed to rub on stub axle
you hold hub square with outer bearing missing and tap hub on with a soft faced hammer

Sorry, poor choice of words.

The lip of the seal obviously runs on the machined seal land on the stub axle, however if the seal is fitted in the manner described by bankz above then the rear face of it will be pushed up against the face of the stub axle.

I always use the RTC3511 dual-lipped seals which have another lip at the rear so it is even more important to fit to the correct depth as that extra lip is even more prone to wearing on the rear of the stub axle. A single-lipped seal is simpler as it has a flat rear face so you just have to ensure that it is at least flush with the back of the hub, then it can't rub on anything. Bankz' seal won't be flush.

I'll take it off tomorrow then.... Cheers. Nothings torqued up yet so should be pretty simple to remove everything again

Aftermarket stub, think its Bearmach, bought new genuine seals to go on.

Mates coming to help tomorrow so should be much easier

Everythings off again. Checking the stub a second time there was a slight machining mark on the sub. Sanded it smooth with some wet n dry, bearing slides on happily now but no play in it.

Any luck should have it done today....

Everything is back on! After carefully sanding off the machining mark the bearing slid on happily, much easier with some help.

Re-flared the brake pipe, that was a bloody pita! Eventually got it sorted and zero leaks.

Bled the brakes, wheels back on, went for a drive to test and everything is as it should be.

Rather pleased and not something I really want to do again!

Retroanaconda said:

Sorry, poor choice of words.

The lip of the seal obviously runs on the machined seal land on the stub axle, however if the seal is fitted in the manner described by bankz above then the rear face of it will be pushed up against the face of the stub axle.

I always use the RTC3511 dual-lipped seals which have another lip at the rear so it is even more important to fit to the correct depth as that extra lip is even more prone to wearing on the rear of the stub axle. A single-lipped seal is simpler as it has a flat rear face so you just have to ensure that it is at least flush with the back of the hub, then it can't rub on anything. Bankz' seal won't be flush.

Click to expand...

rtc3511 is a an oil seal and a better seal altogether

bankz5152 said:

Everything is back on! After carefully sanding off the machining mark the bearing slid on happily, much easier with some help.

Re-flared the brake pipe, that was a bloody pita! Eventually got it sorted and zero leaks.

Bled the brakes, wheels back on, went for a drive to test and everything is as it should be.

Rather pleased and not something I really want to do again!

Click to expand...

next time it would easier, you should be proud of a job well done

Thanks im happy to have the ole bastard back on the road!

Had to bleed the brakes again yesterday afternoon, pedal was still a bit spongy. Though all perfect now very pleased indeed. Cheers for the help chaps!

Gave the leather interior a nice clean and a rub down with some Auto Glym leather balm, much better! All shiny and smells good

Not much left to do now -

- Upgrade the 10AS alarm so it works with my central lock off the fob. Should be easy enough to do.
Got the bits to do it, just need to remove the 10AS and wire it up! Will be nice to have one less fob on my keys!

- Wire remote control unit into the rear lights.
Got a little remote control wiring harness that came with my roof light bar, thought it would be good for the rear lights. Going to wire it up so that the rear lights still work off the dash switch but so they also work off the RC fob. Very useful when camping

- Fit L/H 3 point inertia seat belt + bracket
This is a little tough to do as the brackets where originally designed for the Puma, so modification to the TD5 CSW trim is need. Not overly difficult just time consuming and precise to look good and look OEM.

- Some very very minor play in the front prop UJs, they will likely hold up for some time yet.

Then apart from routine maintenance and tidying up the paint work a bit I am near enough done.

Went to Elham Off Road on Sunday, pretty good though on the way down there the Landy didnt feel right. 15 minutes away my brakes where spongy as all hell but no fluid loss and no leaks anywhere. Pumped the pedal a little and turned the wheel brakes came back... Very odd. Also noticed a slight grinding noise which I put down to some stones or something on the brake disc, turned out to be much worse.

Spent the rest of the day pretty much fine just with hit and miss brakes, half the time perfect, half the time pedal hits the floor.

Driving home was all of 20 minutes away when suddenly I lost all drive and it started revving up, no bangs or horrible noises either! Immediately backed off and pull over, no drive unless the diff was locked.

Got home and something looked a little odd.....



Pretty sure it shouldnt be that wonky! Jacked it up and pulled the wheel off and discovered this



Broken drive shaft! Proper broken! Along with some fine black powder/dust something has failed pretty badly!



Hub nut wont come off, just spins round. Drill ran out of battery so I shall drill/chisel it off tonight and inspect the rest of the damage



The hub does not spin freely and grinds as it goes round so I expect the wheel bearings/roller bearing has failed as well, plus im pretty sure the stub axle is damaged as well. Luckily I have a spare set of front drive shafts! Little bit of surface rust on em but they are fine over all.

Quite strange how it broke as well, driven 60 odd miles with no problems, felt a little 'lumpy' but thats it, then suddenly without warning or any noises at all. No drive!

What is most unusual is that I was driving around on Saturday, mix of motorway, urban and some beaten tracks probs at least 100 miles in all. Didnt notice anything odd with me Landy, no grinding, no odd noises, no difficulty with driving or the brakes!

Just wondering if I could have done damage to the diff as well and if theres a simple-ish way to check?

Has your stub axle actually snapped???

Not sure it may well have! Going to try and get it off tonight! It's not as though I was doing anything remotely extreme, it was hardly muddy mainly dry.

Looking at the pics I'm guessing it has along with the nut just spinning and it was running on the half shaft until it broke that.

Got off work early so cracked on...

Stub was not broken, but is badly damaged and can't be reused as the bearings have melded onto it!



All the boats came out of the stub axle with ease so at least something went well...



What I don't get is how can a bearing fail so badly without me even noticing!




Checked the hub for any internal damage, it appears to be alright but there is some scoring inside. This is alright to re-use?


Thought I would check the other side just incase. Everything appears fine, bearings look intact but the grease looks a lot like copper slip?

So does it look like hub seized solid which then snapped the half shaft?

Thats my guess yes. Bought new parts should arrive by Friday

BOLT DRIVE FLANGE - BX110095M
FTC861 - Defender Bearing Stub Axle
GREASE SACHET SWIVEL - STC3435
STC4382G - Defender hub bearing
HUB CAP - FTC5414
LOCK NUT STUB AXLE DEFENDER - RFD100000
LOCK WASHER - FRC80027
CIRCLIP AXLE SHAFT - 549473
LOCKNUT - FRC8700
LOCK WASHER STUB AXLE - FTC3179
Stub Axle - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320956289427
(Bought a genuine roller bearing to go in)
Got the larger stub to hub oil seals left over from doing the rears

Think thats everything I need!

Just went back out to check the hub again, flipped it over and I think its too bad to reuse. It is very badly scored inside.