crossmember

Hi all does anybody know a step by step guide on how to replace the crossmember on defender 90 as mine is rusty but for the sake of it gna replace the whole thing am looking to do it myself but trying to find a decent guide or sumit to follow.

leave the body on and use axle stands under the remaining chassis, cut the old one off and slip on the new one,tac it in situ then do up the bolts that hold the tub to the crossmember ,have a look to make sure its straight the adjust as needed and weld up mate. took us half a day to do quarter chassis on mrPdudes 90 as it really was that simple.

Ok thats kind of what i was thinking. how much of a overlap is needed for the new one to slide on?

as much as you can give it mate whilst keeping good metal ,but when doing seans 90 we found 5-6 inch was all we could find that was guaranteed good steel, new chassis quarters usually have slots on the corners to accomodate the spread of slipping on so i'd say at least as much as the slot however much that is .

Other way is to plate it with at least 2mm steel if you cant get a decent slipover. Cut the crossmember to butt fit the chassis rails and weld some locating plates on the INSIDE of the rails. Line everything up and then seam weld the structural plates on the outside. That way you can make the plates as long as you like and it looks a lot neater than merely slipping the crossmember extensions.

When Pressbrake did mine he used a plasma cutter to make the plates from 4mm steel and then after bolting the crossmember to the tub and tow bar cross bracing for alignment he welded the whole thing up. That baby is never coming off. I also took the tub floor out to make welding and cutting easier. On a TD5 it also makes getting the tank in/out a doddle.

You need to make sure that the tub does not drop and that all gaps line up before welding. Take your time and double check as you'll kick yourself otherwise.

grant1985 said:

Hi all does anybody know a step by step guide on how to replace the crossmember on defender 90 as mine is rusty but for the sake of it gna replace the whole thing am looking to do it myself but trying to find a decent guide or sumit to follow.

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When you say rusty do you mean it has holes in it? If there are no holes then I would go for a flap wheel/ wire brush to clean it up and re paint it. If it ain't broke don't fix it!!!