Salisbury rear axle and LSD

I'd like to install an LSD to my '98 Defender 110 300tdi to give it a little more traction in the winter (I've love TC/ABS also but hey ho). I've heard Salisburys are a pig to work with (I've seen a few videos on american dana axles which would suggest this). Has anyone done it? Or can recommend a workshop? I'm fairly competent mechanically but haven't done much with gears/axles.

Heres a little background, I live in Norway and have a private road to my house, although I clear it in the winter it can become impassible with snow (though if driven daily the Defender can plow through). It's steep and has a hairpin, so lockers aren't practical. Getting hold of a later 110 axle might be feasible but that would involve shipping it from the UK which probably costs as much as the axle.

Also cars cost pretty much double the UK prices, so switching to a Disco 3/4 would cost £20-30k minimum which I can't afford at the moment. Plus I love my Defender

Have a look at Ashcroft transmissions, lots of info.
The main problem with working on Salisbury axles is having to " spread" the casing to get the diff out. However many have made their own spreader from basic steel bits. Check the search bar .

Thanks, I had already contacted Ashcrofts but they weren't able to help with fitting details for a salisbury, I'd like to buy the LSD from them however. I've seen some videos for fitting to a standard axle. I've seen someone on youtube using a spreader on a dana axle, which doesn't look so bad and found a post mentioned that in a pinch you can use a highlift (!).

Also I've tried the search but wanted some feed back from people that have done it.

My concern is mostly about whether one needs to set the backlash again which requires some tools I don't presently have (being in Norway Defenders are somewhat of a rarity so its much easier to do the work myself. Not to mention that mechanics are £100+ tax per hour).

I've not got Salisbury axles but a few years ago I fitted Ashcroft's own brand limited slips in my rover type axles. I have been very pleased at how well I can now zoom up snowy slopes, past the skid marks where everyone else has spun their wheels and into the virgin snow at the summit. I can carry on past the point at which vehicles with much more aggressive tyres have given up.
Resetting the gears isn't too bad unless you are changing the pinion at the same time. As I was leaving the pinion in place, I just bolted my existing crown wheel to the Ashcroft unit, tapped the inner races of new roller bearings onto it and used the adjusters in the diff housing to take up any slack and to get the best feel as the gears were turned. I believe you've got shims in the Salisbury rather than the rotating adjusters found in the Rover axle, so I had this easy. I know people are often very particular about measuring everything in terms of preload and backlash but I much prefer adjusting bearings and gears by feel. It's five and a half years, and many tens of thousands of miles later and they're still running fine so I can't have been that far out! If you keep the pinion in the same position, or at least use the same shims on the pinion shaft, it's just a matter of optimising the side to side position of the crown wheel.

I think with the Salisbury, maybe the best way is to offer it up without the crown wheel attached and shim it to take any slack out of the bearings. Put the shims in so that the crown wheel (if it was fitted) would be as far away from the pinion as possible. Then try it with the crown wheel in, and the gears will probably be quite loose. Then you can move the shims from one side to the other one at a time until you get the best tooth engagement.

Thanks, I had hoped to give this a go this summer but as we've just had our first child born my free time has vanished, so this will have to wait until the spring when he's a little older.
If anyone else is interested in doing something like this, check out Mikes at Britannica Restoration videos on Youtube, he recently did a tear down of a Salisbury diff.