discomania
Well-Known Member
- Posts
- 6,947
Got my new axle fitted on Monday night, ordered new SS flexi's which came yesterday and with the help of a friend I installed all of that, setup the steering, bled all the brakes and generally checked it all out before road testing last night.
Axle came fully built with Lockheed vented calipers, discs and Fedora pads, boy does it stop well.
I did it by leaving the shockers in place and just pushing them up to the compressed position.
Not a bad job for those considering it, the hardest part I think was the flexi 17mm nuts were rusted on, and that's not actually hard. Lots of patience as I was on my own to get the new axle under the land rover and line up the radius arms and things, but two small jacks (needed to get it low enough) 3 axle stands and in she went no bother, albeit a little exciting at times knowing that if the axle falls off a jack or something you've got 150kg of fully assembled axle tumbling down.
So first up, was to crack off the 19mm nuts on the bottom of the shockers.
Get it out the way.
Then it was steering, pan hard rod etc...
I undid the two nuts on the back of the radius arm (chassis end) and left them on a few threads. I also undid the brake lines, to speed things up I just cut the rigid pipes on the caliper and then used a socket to crack off the stuck unions. I then undid the locknut on the flexi and the breather and unbolted the prop too.
I jacked up the front from the chassis and removed the springs, then lowered the chassis onto two axle stands.
At this point I put the road wheels back on, I then undid the radius arm nuts at the back and rolled the axle forward so it pulled the radius arms out, if you get the levels all right there is no force and they will just roll out.
I then jacked it up and removed the road wheels and then lowered it down to the ground onto the discs where I just pulled it out rolling on the disc edge.
Now I just started to transfer over various bits and pieces like the tie rod guide on the diff housing and and prepare the new one to go in, which involved getting wheels onto it so I could get it off the pallet and over to where I wanted it, I also installed the tie bar and the new wider radius arms at this point - lots of copper slip.
I pushed the new axle in on two small jacks until the hubs cleared the wings and were more or less under the wheel arches, the radius arms just pushed along the floor. I then fitted the passenger side wheel and that freed up a jack which I put under the diff nose, and jacked it up, once the radius arms were sitting dead level to the holes on the chassis with newly painted backing plate and a bush installed I gently pushed the whole lot back until the arms slid into the chassis. I ran the nuts on finger tight and that was it "safe". I then pushed the whole lot back until they were more or less fully home, I then removed the nut, fitted the bush and washer and ran the nuts up tight but not fully (all these things should be tightened up fully with the wheels on the ground so the arms and bushes can sit naturally at rest).
The next thing was to get it off the stands so she would sit on her own so I jacked up the chassis and fitted the springs.
The rest was just a careful assembly of steering and suspension parts with copperslip, brake pipes and unions with of red rubber grease (never mineral grease on fittings) including a coating down on the dust seals to help protect them, new oils where needed including the swivels which although had been greased I topped up with EP to give splash lubrication to the top bearings.
All in all pretty pleased with it all.
More photos to follow, brake discs had surface rust from being damp in storage before I bought it it was just humidity rather than getting wet as you could almost remove rust with your finger, they cleaned up after about 5 brake applications, it was very light and you can now see the original machining on the face of the discs.
Axle came fully built with Lockheed vented calipers, discs and Fedora pads, boy does it stop well.
I did it by leaving the shockers in place and just pushing them up to the compressed position.
Not a bad job for those considering it, the hardest part I think was the flexi 17mm nuts were rusted on, and that's not actually hard. Lots of patience as I was on my own to get the new axle under the land rover and line up the radius arms and things, but two small jacks (needed to get it low enough) 3 axle stands and in she went no bother, albeit a little exciting at times knowing that if the axle falls off a jack or something you've got 150kg of fully assembled axle tumbling down.
So first up, was to crack off the 19mm nuts on the bottom of the shockers.
Get it out the way.
Then it was steering, pan hard rod etc...
I undid the two nuts on the back of the radius arm (chassis end) and left them on a few threads. I also undid the brake lines, to speed things up I just cut the rigid pipes on the caliper and then used a socket to crack off the stuck unions. I then undid the locknut on the flexi and the breather and unbolted the prop too.
I jacked up the front from the chassis and removed the springs, then lowered the chassis onto two axle stands.
At this point I put the road wheels back on, I then undid the radius arm nuts at the back and rolled the axle forward so it pulled the radius arms out, if you get the levels all right there is no force and they will just roll out.
I then jacked it up and removed the road wheels and then lowered it down to the ground onto the discs where I just pulled it out rolling on the disc edge.
Now I just started to transfer over various bits and pieces like the tie rod guide on the diff housing and and prepare the new one to go in, which involved getting wheels onto it so I could get it off the pallet and over to where I wanted it, I also installed the tie bar and the new wider radius arms at this point - lots of copper slip.
I pushed the new axle in on two small jacks until the hubs cleared the wings and were more or less under the wheel arches, the radius arms just pushed along the floor. I then fitted the passenger side wheel and that freed up a jack which I put under the diff nose, and jacked it up, once the radius arms were sitting dead level to the holes on the chassis with newly painted backing plate and a bush installed I gently pushed the whole lot back until the arms slid into the chassis. I ran the nuts on finger tight and that was it "safe". I then pushed the whole lot back until they were more or less fully home, I then removed the nut, fitted the bush and washer and ran the nuts up tight but not fully (all these things should be tightened up fully with the wheels on the ground so the arms and bushes can sit naturally at rest).
The next thing was to get it off the stands so she would sit on her own so I jacked up the chassis and fitted the springs.
The rest was just a careful assembly of steering and suspension parts with copperslip, brake pipes and unions with of red rubber grease (never mineral grease on fittings) including a coating down on the dust seals to help protect them, new oils where needed including the swivels which although had been greased I topped up with EP to give splash lubrication to the top bearings.
All in all pretty pleased with it all.
More photos to follow, brake discs had surface rust from being damp in storage before I bought it it was just humidity rather than getting wet as you could almost remove rust with your finger, they cleaned up after about 5 brake applications, it was very light and you can now see the original machining on the face of the discs.
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