P38A Swap whole front axle?

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S

stevelup

Member
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42
Location
Swindon, Wiltshire
Hi

I need to change all the swivel hub bearings which is a beast of a job and I really didn't enjoy it last time. It was a real struggle and that was with expert help as well.

The dilemma is that I have a donor vehicle which has brand new discs/pads/calipers/swivel hub bearings/CV joints+boots. All the nuts and bolts were replaced at the time too. It only did 500 miles after all this work was done.

It strikes me that swapping the whole axle would be easier than redoing just the bearings.

Any thoughts?
 
No brainer, your fooling yourself thinking that's the easy route just swapping them out. I'll help you make that problematic decision and take those recon units away and you'll be able to think clearer about the job in hand. Therefore your work will be spiritually up-lifting!
Well......


That's my thoughts on it..:p
 
I shall photograph the proceedings! I hope I’ve not missed anything but it really does look massively more straightforward - an order of magnitude perhaps - than doing the individual repairs.

Anyone know roughly what a complete front axle weighs?
 
stevelup said:
I shall photograph the proceedings! I hope I’ve not missed anything but it really does look massively more straightforward - an order of magnitude perhaps - than doing the individual repairs.

Anyone know roughly what a complete front axle weighs?
Click to expand...

A feckin' lot.

My advice, leave the wheels on the good one so you can manouvre it about easily. I'd also undo or at least splash a shed-load of Plus-Gas/WD40 whatever, around the steering threads and joint, you will likely need to redo the tracking anyway.
 
Just thought of a negative...

The donor vehicle has 258000 miles on it and the target vehicle only 88000. So I’d be transferring over a potentially knackered diff / driveshafts...
 
stevelup said:
Just thought of a negative...

The donor vehicle has 258000 miles on it and the target vehicle only 88000. So I’d be transferring over a potentially knackered diff / driveshafts...
Click to expand...

So change the axle and halfway between vehicles, change the diffs etc ... Very easy to do especially when the axle is off the vehicle, if a little messy if you forget to drain diff oil!
 
Hi

I'll need harder stuff than brews to do this I think. I'm not particularly mechanically inclined as may be obvious from my dumb questions!

I'd reached the grand old age of 42 before I took a spanner to a vehicle. I do like working on the RR because everything is massive - there aren't that many fiddly jobs and most can be achieved using brute force and a very big hammer if all else fails.

On the original 258k mile one, I did discs, pads, callipers, pistons all round. Replaced upper and lower swivel bearings, and all the rest of the steering components (drag link assy, etc.). Apart from the swivel bearings, the worst job I ever did on that one (it was a diesel) was replace the serpentine belt without removing the fan and with a completely seized tensioner. Much, much, much swearing ensued during that process.

Two things then happened - it failed its MOT spectacularly on some structural stuff, and I became aware of the 'new' one which was in immaculate condition, had less than 90k miles on it and a full service history. It even has an intact roof lining apart from the sunroof shade. It passed the MOT last year without even any advisories.

So far on the new one (which is a 4.6), I've done the airbags all round, replaced the AC condenser, and done the heater matrix O-rings. That last job sucked but I did it using the method where you drill a couple of holes in the right place and use a long screwdriver. Could have been worse.

The plan was to gradually move all the good bits I'd put on the old one over to the new one, then break the old one. The MOT failure has suddenly made this more urgent.

I've spent more on tools over the past three years than the purchase price of the second vehicle!

I am twittering on now... I'll document the process I'm about to undertake - got a friend from work coming over to help.

Just going through RAVE now to determine which of the nuts+bolts I'll be removing are single use. So far I -think- it's only the prop-shaft to diff nuts.

Thanks for your comments so far.

Steve
 
stevelup said:
Just going through RAVE now to determine which of the nuts+bolts I'll be removing are single use. So far I -think- it's only the prop-shaft to diff nuts.
Click to expand...

I've got away with reusing them in the past. Do not, I repeat, do not get Britpart propshaft nuts and bolts. I've got bags of them in the shed now so you can guess why. Anything to do with suspension or steering is likely to be nyloc and single use.

If you get in the cacky stuff then @martyuk is just up the road from you. I am sure he'd pop over with advice if required and if he is in the country should you really get stuck.
 
Finally got round to doing this. Got both axles off today. That was fun!

There's a lot more gear lash on the old diff than the new one so I think I'll swap them before refitting. On the 'bad' one, you can turn the flange about 6mm either way before either wheel hub moves. On the 'good' one, it's about 2mm. I don't know what is deemed acceptable?

The nuts/bolts on the end of the propshaft were a real pain in the behind - they were bigger than 14mm and smaller than 15mm. Just couldn't get a satisfactory purchase on them and ended up grinding a couple of them off. I've measured them with callipers and they measure 14.3mm! ???

In the photo, the 80k axle is on the left and the 260k axle (and four years older) is on the right. Surprisingly, there's little to differentiate them.

gOoYJ2x.jpg
 
The process I used in case anyone is interested was as follows:-

Raised the vehicles up and propped under the side members.
Axle stands under the axle
Disconnected everything that needed disconnecting except the propshaft
Used two trolley jacks under the axle, then removed the axle stands
Lowered the trolley jacks whilst wiggling the axle side to side
Once on the ground undid the propshaft bolts

Each one took approx 2 hrs.
 
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