S884s Defender 90 Full Galvanised Rebuild

Al2O3 said:

New shiny parts are always a good thing to see. Reminds me, I've not got my bump stops yet!

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Haha easy things to forget, especially when we never took any off of ours in the first place!

You would have passed by the bottom of my road if you went to paddocks, was it Bob who served you ?

XRIZLAX said:

You would have passed by the bottom of my road if you went to paddocks, was it Bob who served you ?

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It was Bob yes, very nice bloke

XRIZLAX said:

You would have passed by the bottom of my road if you went to paddocks, was it Bob who served you ?

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That's very handy!

Al2O3 said:

That's very handy!

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Its even handier when I get the missus to pick bits up for me

So decided we would carry on with the axles today and see how much we could get tackled, started off the morning by replacing the rear axle diff pan with a new one too stop any more of those leaks, spoken too soon maybe?

First off we removed the diff, nice easy job to start the day



Second was to remove the old holey diff pan, we then used this to set the welder up for welding the set thickness of steel



We then started cleaning up the mating surfaces prior to welding



Used an 'R-tech I-MIG450' welder for any one who may be wondering



Both surfaces now fully cleaned up and ready for joining



Diff pan now welded in, not the best welding ever but its done the job and we didn't want to spend forever finding the welders 'sweet spot' so to speak



Cleaned up the edges with the flapper wheel on the grinder, very pleased with the results, cant tell on this picture very well



However once the blasting of the axle casing was finished off the results of the welding and grinding were quite impressive, almost better than from the factory



So next was to move on to the front axle, bit more work involved with the hubs etc. but we got there in the end none the less

Right so now the front axle, this ones a very long post I must add, but a good start for anyone else wanting to attempt their own axle rebuild.

Before starting this axle most people said it was best to scrap it, debated this myself to be fair, it was rotten too hell, the callipers looked like they'd never come off, and one of the spring mounts had collapsed which is shown later on, however when I decided to restore the land rover I planned on actually restoring parts, not replacing them, suppose that's just making things hard for myself but oh well

Figure I might as well add this, I'm 17 years old, studying A-levels, Mechanical knowledge is mainly self taught, and my mechanical experiences stretches to a 50cc learner legal I rebuilt when I was 15/16.this build is also being done on a budget as obviously being 17, don't exactly have much income at the moment :bolt:

So the axle rebuild begins..



First was to remove the Drive flange by undoing the 5 bolts and cir-clip



Now we were left with this



Next is to hit down the retaining nut be folding it back down



Now the 52mm socket returns to remove the first retainer ring nut



Now the retaining ring nuts are out the disc brake and hub assembly can be removed along with the wheel bearing



And you should now be left with this assortment



These bolts come out next, didn't put up much of a struggle either



We will be replacing these, any one know if they're actually necessary as they don't seem to do much, also would any one know a part number for these, don't even know what to call them

So now you will be left with the stub axles to remove



Removed the stub axle and what do we find? axle oil! pretty sure there is normally a seal between the half shaft and swivel so that grease in the swivel stays separate to oil in the axle casing



The half shaft can now be removed



This is the part on the half shaft that I believe seals on the seal found on the back of the swivel



Now removed the 'kingpin' so to speak that Allows the hub to orientate around the swivel which has shims behind it, would be done for if we lost those





So now had to remove the swivel sweeper seal, this looked like it was going to be a struggle



Gave them a tap with the hammer, then tapped on a 7mm socket (should be 8mm but they're pretty corroded)



And out they came as easy as that, the swivel was now prised from the hub and the retainer was cut with the angle grinder

The hub is now completely removed



Then took the hub to the parts cleaner to clean the oil out, these are yet another part that will be cleaned up and sent for galvanising



Now its time to remove the swivel, this was a bit more reluctant so resulted to chopping the heads down and chiselling the ends off



this worked quite nicely and off popped the swivels



The studs were then undone with a nice pair of stillsons



The other side swivel was also full of oil, I know that the older swivels on older axles were filled with oil, but I was convinced they are now full of grease, any comments on this?



And that is the axle casing stripped down, bar the diff anyway, but we left this in for blasting, here is the picture of the collapsed spring mount as promised, bought new spring mounts from bob at paddocks as part of the £800+ binge spend on new parts



But look now, the axle casing is blasted and ready for galvanising, looks like that axle that might as well be 'scrapped' turned out good in the end



So that's pretty much it for todays very long update, been at this for 2 hours now, just hope that this will help at least one person, well it'll at least help us when we come to rebuild the axles anyway

Looking good ralph, and nice informative posts for those that need it
What blast pot are you using out of interest? Thinking it'd make life a damn sight easier if I could get one.

aaronmorris said:

Looking good ralph, and nice informative posts for those that need it
What blast pot are you using out of interest? Thinking it'd make life a damn sight easier if I could get one.

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Thanks for the comment Blast pot is just a cheap Chinese one I believe, roughly £80 off flea bay, however have found that to get decent results its all about the compressor you couple it up too, hope this helps

Your post write ups are as good as your work. Kin hate all these youngsters coming on ere and making us olduns look useless. Good to see though. Is your old man a mechanic by any chance or have you got access to a fully equipped garage?

seeing those swivel bolts is giving me nightmare flashbacks. Mine were a right pain to get off.
Superb detail, mate. I reckon you're going to win the shiniest LR competition with all those galv parts. Until you get it covered in mud that is

mick the builder said:

Your post write ups are as good as your work. Kin hate all these youngsters coming on ere and making us olduns look useless. Good to see though. Is your old man a mechanic by any chance or have you got access to a fully equipped garage?

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Dads an electrician who is mainly self taught so he helps a lot, uncle owns his own business as a lorry mechanic so we're just using his garage for space really

Al2O3 said:

seeing those swivel bolts is giving me nightmare flashbacks. Mine were a right pain to get off.
Superb detail, mate. I reckon you're going to win the shiniest LR competition with all those galv parts. Until you get it covered in mud that is

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Thanks for the positive comments! Have to say the swivel bolts were a pain at first but as soon as the grinder and chisel came off they were no problem at all to be honest, defineyly a recommended way of removing them, getting it covered in mud will be the best bit, luckily have access to ramps so I'll easily be able to pressure wash it underneath

That metal plate you asked if it was necessary, I couldn't decide what it was for either so left it off in the end. Hasn't caused any problems so far and still don't know what it was for!

james6546 said:

That metal plate you asked if it was necessary, I couldn't decide what it was for either so left it off in the end. Hasn't caused any problems so far and still don't know what it was for!

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Haha quite to say I was quite confused by it, thanks for getting back to me about it though

Just wanted to add, the county station wagon sides that were bought will no longer be used, decided to keep the vehicle as a genuine pick up, figured I might save them for a later build or conversion however at this moment in time I would much rather free up some funds and sell them on, they are from a td5, and were originally van sides with the windows placed in afterwards, if anyone is interested get in touch, they are in metallic green and are in good condition, can send more photos to anyone interested

Hi pm me a price I might be interested do you also have a rear door

Looks good so far
Although im still shocked by the amount of rust
It must have been parked on the beach every night