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Salsbery Front axle into a SII


De Ranged

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Gidday

Got a SII 88" that I'm doing up for a mate, part of his wish list is disk brake front axle

After talking to the certifier (dude, who does the legal stuff to allow mods for road running) he has shot down all my cheap options which leaves me with Axle swop options

One option is a Coil sprung salsbry disk brake front axle, catch is it has been yrs since I've seen one and I can't remember if the tie rod will work with leaf springs

Any guru's who can shed some light, bear in mind ackerman must stay original, so no swopping swivel housings

Is this axle an option?

Cheers Reece

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Why a Salisbury? Any coiler front axle can be used and easier to get, especially spares! It is possible to get the steering rods and everything to clear, check out NicksLandRover by our very own Snagger. Depends how much work you want to do and what's legal over there. You could also purchase a commercial kit which has all the bits needed to convert a leaf axle, or just rebuild the drum brakes and adjust them correctly. I'm after a disc conversion, but just because I'm starting to have difficulties getting under the 88 every few weeks and it's much easier to change pads. The drums brakes work just fine.

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Salisbury front ends are really a waste of time because of the standard size CV joints that can't be uprated to anything larger, although you can buy stronger RCV or Ashcroft joints in the same size for $$$. The trackrod can be made to work with leaf springs if you are prepared to space the spring saddles about 1.5" lower on the axle tubes and fit parabolics to maintain reasonable ground clearance under the springs.

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Hmmm might have to look at this.... don't know about coiler axles fitting, I measured up a RRC axle and the tie rod conflicts with the leaf springs

catch is the moment I start modifing the steering the dramas involved skyrocket lol I don't mind doing this sort of thing for my own toys the challange of getting it pass'd is part of the fun.... but when its a mates toy there has to be limits

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Salisbury front ends are really a waste of time because of the standard size CV joints that can't be uprated to anything larger, although you can buy stronger RCV or Ashcroft joints in the same size for $$$. The trackrod can be made to work with leaf springs if you are prepared to space the spring saddles about 1.5" lower on the axle tubes and fit parabolics to maintain reasonable ground clearance under the springs.

I think Nick did it with less than 1.5"

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Not sure I follow this, if it's a Series-type front axle (be it Rover or Salisbury) I thought they were always on drums. If it's a Defender/RR/Disco front axle, Rover or Salisbury, it will have discs but you'll have the hassle of sorting the track rod.

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Here you can see how tall my spring saddles were in the days I was still running RR axles. I was running military lenght shackles too. The diff nose points up a fair bit making for funky ujoint angles. The u-bolt that sits on the diff side on the right hand side bows en bends out to be able to fit, but it would really need another solution. Also, look how little room there is between axle and bumpstop...

I would rather look into leaf sprung LandCruiser axles, like 40series.

PICT0608.jpg

PICT0571.jpg

PICT0577.jpg

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I have 40 series axles under my Stage One v8,and I'd assume in NZ that they would be also readily available. When fitting to a part time 4WD leafer they in most cases come with very strong Aisen brand free wheel hubs, and have the advantage of tucking the trackrod up out of harms way, unlike the evil Rover item. They are a little wider than leaf sprung Rover axles, allowing larger tyres to be fitted without fouling on the chassis/springs on full lock. Of course there is the superior diff strength too, although CV joints are really no stronger. The only disadvantage, aside from a small loss of diff ground clearance, is that the swivel balls are not replaceable. My swivels have deep grooves worn into them so I will very soon require a complete replacement front axle housing.

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Right first off, I may have an answer to my original idea so disk brake improvement maybe happening on the original axles, will post up in the original thread

And Bill a little tip for you to "restore" the balls on your cruiser axle POR15 strip down your housing prep the balls, paint a couple of layers with the brush, your filling the holes so thick is good let it cure a few days then sand it smooth, you'll need to get serious, I use flap disks smooth up your ball and then prep and paint a couple of smooth layers on and you have better than new

Next trick is one I use on the hilux felt seals, put them in a cake tin lid with a handfull of grease and heat it gently till the grease melts into the seal this helps water proof the seal

edit

looks like I didn't have a thread up here about disk conversion, well that was the whole goal of the axle swop but a mate has just put me onto the Mazda RX7 calipers a 4 piston caliper that from my CAD will fit under a 15" rim with near on 300mm dia 22 wide vented disk and the only funky bit it will need is the caliper backing plate

That plus the hilux double diaphram booster and master and I think i'm going to meet the brake upgrade lol

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Right first off, I may have an answer to my original idea so disk brake improvement maybe happening on the original axles, will post up in the original thread

And Bill a little tip for you to "restore" the balls on your cruiser axle POR15 strip down your housing prep the balls, paint a couple of layers with the brush, your filling the holes so thick is good let it cure a few days then sand it smooth, you'll need to get serious, I use flap disks smooth up your ball and then prep and paint a couple of smooth layers on and you have better than new

Next trick is one I use on the hilux felt seals, put them in a cake tin lid with a handfull of grease and heat it gently till the grease melts into the seal this helps water proof the seal

edit

looks like I didn't have a thread up here about disk conversion, well that was the whole goal of the axle swop but a mate has just put me onto the Mazda RX7 calipers a 4 piston caliper that from my CAD will fit under a 15" rim with near on 300mm dia 22 wide vented disk and the only funky bit it will need is the caliper backing plate

That plus the hilux double diaphram booster and master and I think i'm going to meet the brake upgrade lol

Thanks for the swivel refurbish tip, I'll file that away for the future and I hope others may find it useful. I have a mate who wrecks/breaks Land Cruisers and he has offered me a good axle minus diff for free, and I might go for a slightly wider 60 series unit this time.

The relatively larger diameter of the series outer swivel housing always presents a problem of mounting a brake caliper snugly enough to clear the standard deep well LandRover 16" rims, although some 15" aftermarket rims and Discovery steels have shallower wells and slightly larger inside diameter. I assume that like here in OZ, any wheel spacers thicker than the original brake drums are not permitted ?

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We are aloud spacers 5mm bolt through so long as the wheel nut has 6+ full turns other wise we may have bolt on spacers up to 27mm, but in both cases you require certification to prove safe, but due to the other mods planed we are both up for cert anyway so not a biggie to add to the list

In my case I will put spacers on as I don't mind a bit of guard cutting and the extra wheel track will improve handling but the other truck I'm doing for my mate he wants the original look

Argh just a note on the swop to 60 series axle, if your diff is early 40 series, some had course splined side gears and inner axles that means the diff head may not swop into the finner splined 60 series axles, the coarse splines were common on our 45 (flat deck ute ) model for some reason but I have heard of them on the 40

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We are aloud spacers 5mm bolt through so long as the wheel nut has 6+ full turns other wise we may have bolt on spacers up to 27mm, but in both cases you require certification to prove safe, but due to the other mods planed we are both up for cert anyway so not a biggie to add to the list

In my case I will put spacers on as I don't mind a bit of guard cutting and the extra wheel track will improve handling but the other truck I'm doing for my mate he wants the original look

Argh just a note on the swop to 60 series axle, if your diff is early 40 series, some had course splined side gears and inner axles that means the diff head may not swop into the finner splined 60 series axles, the coarse splines were common on our 45 (flat deck ute ) model for some reason but I have heard of them on the 40

I think Aussie spec LandCruisers varied somewhat to the rest of the world, in as much as we got full floating rear axles and lower ratio 4 speed gearboxes long before most other markets. All our full floaters, and most of the non floaters I've seen over here had 30 spline diffs. Some 3 speeders with non floaters had 30 spline inner shafts and coarse spline front outers, still with Birfield joints, whilst a few of the very early 3 speeders with Tracta style joints had course spline inner and outers.

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Sorry - what Landrover had a disk braked salsbury front end?

I thought they were all rover diffs and the only salsbury were the 101 and one tonner but these were drums.

Garry

Disc brake coiled Salisbury front ends have been available through LandRover Special projects dept for armoured police vehicles and riot wagons in Northern Ireland etc. They retained the standard early 110 Defender swivel housing assemblies with their AEU 2522 cv joints and 5 stud hubs though, not the larger 101 size equipment. There were complete coiler Salisbury axle sets advertised very cheaply on some British LR magazines a couple of years ago. I'm surprised LandRover Australia didn't fit the front Salisburys on the Perentie 6x6's instead of the specially cast housing with Allicon (sp) crownwheel and pinion sets in Rover diffs.

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Disc brake coiled Salisbury front ends have been available through LandRover Special projects dept for armoured police vehicles and riot wagons in Northern Ireland etc. They retained the standard early 110 Defender swivel housing assemblies with their AEU 2522 cv joints and 5 stud hubs though, not the larger 101 size equipment. There were complete coiler Salisbury axle sets advertised very cheaply on some British LR magazines a couple of years ago. I'm surprised LandRover Australia didn't fit the front Salisburys on the Perentie 6x6's instead of the specially cast housing with Allicon (sp) crownwheel and pinion sets in Rover diffs.

For sure - but not something that a New Zulander will find in his local wrecker in New Zealand.

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You can have a look at my disc conversion, i run 15" rims and used rover items for the parts availability, non vented. Vented would have been nice, but solid discs seem to work pretty well in my case.

G

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You can have a look at my disc conversion, i run 15" rims and used rover items for the parts availability, non vented. Vented would have been nice, but solid discs seem to work pretty well in my case.

G

Part of our road worthy-ness test (cert) is a road brake test where the truck has to stop hard 3 times in quick sucesesion from 100km+ with no brake fad and conditions, this test is very hard to pass with bigger (35") wheels on heavy trucks

Now I'm not planing on 35"s but I am going to 33"s and adding alot of camping mods and my motor/box is at least twice the weight lol so I want vented disks and 4 pot front calipers

I'm not certian what they are out of but there is a military disk salsbery here that is available if you search catch is they are dear to get your hands on lol

Don't know much otherwise, if it helps its a chunky cast housing with a square profile and the calipers looked like a double system like the Rangie and I think they were a solid disk.... and it has been a few yrs since I last seen one, was 10yrs ago when I had my RRC and was playing with rover stuff lol

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An Aussie Army 101 doing brake tests. These have 9.00x16 tyres (a tad under 35") and the same drum brakes as a series 3 lwb. So there is maybe not a real need to go disks. Some 101s have aftermarket disk brakes - the disks do not stop better than the drums but do tend to stop straighter and require less maintenance.

101b.jpg

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About 12 years ago, I fitted a set of Volvo Portal axles to a V8 110 LandRover Station Wagon. Volvo axle have virtually identical drum brakes to 101/ Stage One and 6 cyl LandRovers. This vehicle passed the engineering certification braking test of 10 crash stops from 60 kph plus one crash stop from 100kph without problems and was certified even though the standard 110 has disc front brakes.

From memory,the Aus/Brit military brake evaluation complaints were mainly due to brake lining contamination due to persistently leaking hub seals. The 101 hubs are a bit large to have oil catcher rings fitted to the stub axles, but on my Landrover, fitted with Stage One/110 hubs and oil catchers, the incidence of pulling one way or the other during heavy braking has been greatly reduced.

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I've never had any problems with my 109 with the post rationalisation axles, except when the hub seal failed.

The brakes are quite capable of stopping a laden 109, plus double axle trailer with 3 tonne of bricks onboard.

G.

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Part of our road worthy-ness test (cert) is a road brake test where the truck has to stop hard 3 times in quick sucesesion from 100km+ with no brake fad and conditions, this test is very hard to pass with bigger (35") wheels on heavy trucks

Now I'm not planing on 35"s but I am going to 33"s and adding alot of camping mods and my motor/box is at least twice the weight lol so I want vented disks and 4 pot front calipers

I'm not certian what they are out of but there is a military disk salsbery here that is available if you search catch is they are dear to get your hands on lol

Don't know much otherwise, if it helps its a chunky cast housing with a square profile and the calipers looked like a double system like the Rangie and I think they were a solid disk.... and it has been a few yrs since I last seen one, was 10yrs ago when I had my RRC and was playing with rover stuff lol

I'm pretty sure the reason NZ Stage One V8s had those nasty restrictors behind the carburettors was that was the only way they would pass that braking test - by not having enough power to accelerate up to 100km/h before the brakes cooled off a bit!

Brakes are the worst thing about my Stage One. The only time they are any good is twice a year when I go over them for a warrant. Within an amazingly short time, they start scaring me again. If you find a good cheap way of fitting disks I'll be very interested...

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when i did my disk conversion i had my brakes tested (MOT and then Re Test) before and after.

i cant remember the exact figures, although they are in my disk brake thread. but a set of standard 88" drums all fully adjusted were roughly 5-10%??? more efficient than the set of standard defender front disks that replaced them (on greenstuff pads which i think dont work so well on a light vehicle, next time im going back to mintex or apec)

so a decent set of drums is definately as good as a set of disks (designed for similar vehicle weights and constructions 90 vs. 88) however like mentioned above, its the getting under it and adjusting the drums every 5 minutes that really gets annoying!

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