discomikey

I've driven this setup on a myriad of different roads, A roads, motorway, B roads, Dirt, etc and I can assure you the 120mm difference in length is negligible from assessment even when driven with a firmer suspension package, with Bilstein dampers and redeveloped anti roll bars. If it's good enough for JLR to sign off the works V8 like that with aforementioned suspension and 400BHP I wouldn't be too fussed about arguing the toss in all fairness. Yes they do, not by much though, a hair over 6mm from memory. Their tolerances on some of the suspension chassis brackets as manufactured new are as much as +-2.5mm too even on the last of the puma defenders.

On a vehicle with 14+in suspension travel you might start to notice bump steer at both extremes of the travel he extremes are where the issues start to show, The difference between the two steering box drop arms is almost exactly 120mm so good guess there. It's pretty rare that drag links and track rods are identical in length from factory and the differing arcs aren't too much of an issue. From plotting the suspension geometry in CAD using land rover's chassis measurement diagrams to confirm suspension points etc the panhard sweep gives around 12-15mm of lateral movement in total from one extreme to the other, So given that minimal lateral change from a fixed point the lateral change from two similar, but not identical arcs are almost negligible. If I were to design from scratch with no constraints, of course they would be identical in length, angel and would be as close to parallel to the ground at ride height without compromising the extremes of travel in either direction. But engineering is rarely so satisfing.

The majority of the reason our customers fit our P38 steering kit is for engine bay room when doing an engine conversion. The kits are pretty popular and there are a lot more out there than you may think. Converting to D2 steering box doesn't give you any space advantage over the standard defender steering boxes unfortunately. RE Pitman arm. The P38a gives less throw than the defender one but it is negligible, it will still hit the lock stops both ways on the axle As with the comments on lighter steering, you do get this so I always recommend a decent steering damper, and always set your swivels on the tighter end of the OEM spec - You shouldn't experience bump steer or shimmy though as with our kit at least the panhard rod locates in the factory position, Geometry is unaffected.

I think I joined the forum when I was the proud owner of a very knackered D1 200TDI field car. How many of those do you see on the road these days? There is another Discomikey or close variant of on I believe one of the other forums too. Interestingly (or rather boringly) I have never been referred to as Mikey in real life. IT's always been Michael, or Mike.

If you're serious about it you can go " a bit overkill" This one we made for a customer as a one off includes true 35 spline half shafts, and as a result, larger 300M stub axles, larger hub bearings and modified hubs. and of course the ford 9in diff. The A frame was also ditched in favour of Parallel 4 link and panhard rod If you're Weight conscious though I would highly recommend upgrading to Nissan Y61 patrol axles, they're not a great deal heavier than Rover banjo axles and are a damn sight stronger even in standard form.

definitely worth checking all bushes. L319 L320 platform, (D3, D4 and RRS) are particularly picky when it comes to wheel alignment. If the sensors don't see what they need to see the car will throw a fit, drop the suspension, thrown ABS/TC/HDC faults and if automatic limit the transmission to third gear. If it happens that can get in your head expecting an expensive fix but always check alignment and bushes first. Oh, and brake light bulbs..

With any vehicle you can get a lemon or a honey. These are no different. If you're not a home mechanic you can expect some relatively large (in comparison to old defender and disco) repair bills for items such as, for example; inlet manifolds etc. but realistically, if you're even a half decent home mechanic you can easily repair/maintain these vehicles. I've done a few of the jobs most complain about, and whether or not my mindset is more laid back, I still feel like a lot of folk make a massive fuss over jobs that are at worst, a bit fiddly, or require a degree of methodical thinking. We've had a D3, which was almost entirely faultless even at 280k miles with the exception of the clutch pedal bracket fatiguing to failure, and the parking sensors only working on hot days, something I never bothered to even look at diagnosing We've now got a D4 which I bought knowing it needed inlet manifolds doing, and is much nicer to be in and see. It occasionally goes into limp mode still but I'm 90% sure I know the cause to be a sticking crossover valve. not the end of the world. The air suspension isn't as complex and troublesome as you might think on them either.

Thank you all. It really was a great day, despite the 5am trip to A&E to get metal dug out of my eye on the morning of the wedding! I'll attach a few photo's as i can't seem to see the one Ross has uploaded. as you can tell it was a heavily LR/Motorsport based day!

That looks like an awful lot of fun. Always happy to help next time and we have since brought more of our own manufacturing and stock in-house so hopefully timescales will be less of an issue. Thanks again for the enquiry. I still haven't seen Fast X but it's on the list!

Just spotted the new forum. I think it'll be an excellent addition to the technical information found here. I have done a lot of "messing" with axle conversions, hybrid axles and even building housings from scratch etc. (LR based but also Nissan, Ford 9in, etc) If there's any information that might be of use to forum members I'm happy to help. It's just one of those areas that if I don't say something here poeple might not know to ask. Thanks, Mike

I believe there are a couple of professional fabricators lurking on here. I set up my own business based on off road motorsport back in Nov 2019, we predominantly manufacture in tube and Sheetmetal. It's something that we find in the business there are loads of companies "getting by" but they dont really get into the nitty gritty of sheetmetal work and the results show. Anyone can have parts CNC cut and folded etc, but there's much more to it than that and I firmly believe it starts with the basic design, whether you use a fag packet or 3d CAD etc. If anyone has any questions they would like to ask with regards to sheetmetal etc then i'm happy to help. Mods, if this is out of place please feel free to delete etc. I could have some images to share but I'm not 100% on the rules of posting as a business owner so for now I've left them out

The size of the cannon installed to the chassis of the 110 that they flipped in spectre was serious! Nearly 10" in diameter and about 18" long from memory! There's some fascinating engineering that goes into stunts!

A little late to the party but I'm happy to help you throw ideas about, I'd just like to add that the spectre cars had much less of a suspension lift than you may think! The arches and bodywork were what made it work more than simply adding height. Drop me a PM if you'd like

Hi Simon, I've dropped you a PM with my contact details, sorry I've missed this thread until now. I think we have exactly what you need in our EVO axles. I'm happy to discuss options, widths, drive ratios diff offset, and stud pattern are all open to your specification. And if you need something even more specific I'd be happy to work with you to come up with the right solution. Cheers, Mike