Changing axles, any tips/advice?

I'm picking up my disco 24 spline axles today or tomorrow and planning on fitting them to my 1989 90 in a few weeks. (got to wait for extended springs/shocks, castor correction arms etc) Are there any jobs I should do at the same time? Planning on checking bearings and brakes/replacing if needed, stripping and painting axles, new set of bushes, new a-frame ball joint, extended brake hoses, new bolts all round and oil change. Anybody got any more ideas on jobs to do/tips for fitting the axles. Done a few back ones but never a front one before.

Also I'm, stripping them with a wire brush then red oxide and hammerite over the top, would shotblasting and powdercoating be harderwearing? Or is there some paint thats better than hammerite?

Thanks in advance guys, Harry

lashings of wd40 on all the nuts n bolts the night before removal will help..
you might have to change the output flanges on the diffs

Cheers WLM, got to do the back but front is 4bolt standard, Is it a case of undoing the rubber doughnut, big nut off and a puller then old one back on?

Going to rip off the standard damper setup and swap the hd steering arms off me disco as they have damper relocation brackets too. And I'm now thinking of painting it with the stuff we paint the loadbeds of grain trailers with..cheap and long lasting

Boris113 said:

Cheers WLM, got to do the back but front is 4bolt standard, Is it a case of undoing the rubber doughnut, big nut off and a puller then old one back on?

Going to rip off the standard damper setup and swap the hd steering arms off me disco as they have damper relocation brackets too. And I'm now thinking of painting it with the stuff we paint the loadbeds of grain trailers with..cheap and long lasting

Click to expand...

yep..straighforward job

I stripped off all the old shocks, springs, antirollbars and steering/radius and trailing arms today and after plenty of wd40 everything bar the anti roll bars came off nicely -few mins with the grinder and they were off too . Then I took the rubber doughnut off but am stuck now. There is no big nut on the output flange like the 4 bolt ones have and i don't understand how to get the flange off, surely it wouldn't just pull out because it could do the same thing if your just driving along? Anyone know how to take it off or am i having a brain fart here?
Thanks, Harry

Hi harry, managed to swap the two axles over yet? Thing is im just about to start to do the exact same. take front and rear axles off a 2.5 td 90 and replace them with a pair off a TD5 Discovery. I was aware that all the brackets have to be removed and replaced, but the bloke i got them off said that i also had to make something ( which could take all day) but there is a seller selling them straight off the shelf. Thing is i cant for the life in me remember what he was talking about or the shop which sold said item(s). Maybe as you are undertaking the same project, you might have more of an idea...

Cheers Bing.

Hi Bing, I havn't fitted them yet, one still needs painting and i need to order new suspension but other than that all is ready. I don't know about a disco 2, mine came off a late disco 1. With mine, i have to use later trailing arms/radius arms from a 300tdi disco/defender because the brackets on my old axles are thinner. I also had the change the output flange on the rear axle, The standard one has a rubber doughnut with 3 holes that bolts between the actual flange and the prop, i bought a part for £30 that enabled me to remove all of it and fit a standard 4 bolt output flange so my prop still fits. I think this flange was the bit he was refering to.

have just done the same thing. the front axel is very hard to pull out i used a winch from friends defender. or you could use tow rope and give it a tough but before you do that double check that every thing is dis-connected ie breather hoses or it might pull it off the axel stands.

Make sure you have all tools for job before you start there is nothing more annoying.