Jump to content

Upgrade LR Axles or Replace?


Warthog

Recommended Posts

Just priced up Diffs, Arbs Shafts CV's for LR Axles (Ashcroft) :blink: 3K later and i am thinking, is it cost effective? Mog axles, Dana or Toyota.......? An option under 3K, that lets me run 35's allday would br ideal :)

Cheers

One more thing....Anyone used Ashcrofts Cushdrives?....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just priced up Diffs, Arbs Shafts CV's for LR Axles (Ashcroft) :blink: 3K later and i am thinking, is it cost effective? Mog axles, Dana or Toyota.......? An option under 3K, that lets me run 35's allday would br ideal :)

Cheers

One more thing....Anyone used Ashcrofts Cushdrives?....

Buy a set of Toyo axles. Strong enough to run 36 inch simex locked. And available for under 600 quid. Only some adapting to do. But that isn't that difficult!

Cheers Bowy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

or just spend £3k and find someone who can fit some mog axles- then you can use 300bhp and 42" and not worry.

upgrading LR axles to that level jjust doesn't make any sense- at the worst you could just bolt cruiser axles on (oh ok with a little fab), or go with Danas!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

or just spend £3k and find someone who can fit some mog axles- then you can use 300bhp and 42" and not worry.

upgrading LR axles to that level jjust doesn't make any sense- at the worst you could just bolt cruiser axles on (oh ok with a little fab), or go with Danas!

D44's (in stock form) aren't really any stronger than rover stuff.

And D60 fronts are like hens teeth over here.

You could use a salisbury front and use D60 internals,

Or a set of 101 axles would be man enough, lockers are a pain though.

Allthough Rakeway are about to offer a locker and shaft combo for 101's priced at £2000ish (D60 35spline arbs and 300M shafts) :D:D:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Buy a set of Toyo axles. Strong enough to run 36 inch simex locked. And available for under 600 quid. Only some adapting to do. But that isn't that difficult!

Cheers Bowy

If i were to look for Toyo axle's, what would i be looking for? Are there rear axles disc braked? What type of locker have they got, or am i looking at installing ARB's on top of Axle costs? Would i be able to run upto 36's without re-gearing as standard?

Fab isnt a problem to a degree, but im no guru...

I guess the fab work would intail Radius arm mounts, shock location mounts....Steering adjustments??

Loadsa questions....

If i were to go Mogs, what budget realistically would i be looking at...with me doing the fab work?

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I plan to fit a set of G wagen axles for no other reason than I happen to have a set. Will have to get under and have a good look and see what problems lie ahead but if anyone has any past experience they would like to share please let me know. Having seen a mate blow 2 diffs in 2 outings since fitting 35s to a standard 90, I am pretty sure rover axles are not the way to go withou BIG investment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If i were to go Mogs, what budget realistically would i be looking at...with me doing the fab work?

Cheers

For unimog 404's

£400-1400 to buy them,

£100-£1200 to rebuild them,

£150ish pinion converted,

£300ish for a new front halfshaft,

£1500 disc conversion, or your stuck with 20" tyres

Plus a new stronger steering box, shortened props, sump demons on the 300tdi and a re-think on the suspension to deal with the extra torque twist.

Plus a million and one other litttle money saping tweaks :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I plan to fit a set of G wagen axles for no other reason than I happen to have a set. Will have to get under and have a good look and see what problems lie ahead but if anyone has any past experience they would like to share please let me know. Having seen a mate blow 2 diffs in 2 outings since fitting 35s to a standard 90, I am pretty sure rover axles are not the way to go withou BIG investment.

G axles aren't all plain sailing.

Front diff turns backwards for a start.

Over 100K and the c/v's will be dead,

Front axle case is too narrow to get the front spring seats on without interfering with the swivels.

Theres nowhere to directly mount the A-frame ball joint.

Rear drums,

Very narrow track,

Poor choice of wheels,

Very do-able though :D

Bombproof back axles, stronger than D60 IMHO.

As for the fronts, only time will tell what the goodies from the states will do for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or just buy a whole Toyota LandCruiser. I just sold one for £4.5k which was in absolutely superb condition but there are lots cheaper. When you consider that uprated LR axles cost £3k you could get a gorgeous 4.2 litre Turbodiesel and unburstable Auto box to boot. You would also get a whole chassis and and bodywork thrown in for free!

You could of course throw away the chassis/bodywork and stick the axles, engine and box in a 90 and have an awesome 4.2 litre Auto diesel 90 with bombproof axles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could of course throw away the chassis/bodywork and stick the axles, engine and box in a 90 and have an awesome 4.2 litre Auto diesel 90 with bombproof axles.

There was talk a while back of an Ibex being built with LandCruiser running gear.

I'm a bit biased, but that would be hard to beat IMHO.

For me it would be the LWB - 280 (aka 110), setup somewhere between full expedition rig, and daily driver.

But back on topic.

Mog axles will give you many sleepless nights fitting them, then pure uninterrupted sleep once its done :D

LandCruiser axles - as a generic statement tend to have lockers for a UK vehicle, grey imports dont tend to have them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Page John/Bush65 as I'm sure he's fitted 80 series housings front and rear on his Rangie. Or just fit 80 series centre into the Rover housing + uprated axles and then you can fit Longfields, or truly bulletproof are Nissan Patrol diffs, about the same size as a D60, but the stub is a bit small on the CV, but just look at the thrashing the vehicles get on the OBC, and GQ and GU Patrols are the vehicles of choice there. Unfortunately the rear diff is centred.

A couple of blokes have fitted them to Rangies here. apparently the whole front axle + radius arms is almost a bolt in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

on a defender 37's are about as big as you can go as the bulkhead out rigger is in the way.

101's look appealing.

But I've spent out on Rover gear so thats the way it stays.

a bit of cash shopping should see you in for less than 3k though.

shows and personal vists to suppliers may well bear fruit?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was reading a piece about the Icelandic monster trucks running 44" ttyres on LRs. They apparently move the back axle back several cms and the front one forward in order to fit them!!! I was thinking about central diffs and running props at an offset. This is happening all the time in the vertical plane anyway so a bit of lateral offset would not make any difference provided, as DD says, you have wide yokes. I was thinking about the HD PTO shafts we use in agricultural applications. Some of the bigger machines have really huge strength and range of movement built in to the dirive shafts. Surely something like this would be a good thing to mod up as a prop shaft. Maybe not on a fast road vehicle, but on a hard core challenge truck??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone has their opinion on axles. I use Rover but with everything replaced and uprated. On 35s they seem to be fine. I'm about to move up to 37s and I'll see how it goes. As Tony says 37s are the real limit before you get into front axle relocation shenanigans. Diffs (pegged 3.54s) are IMHO the strongest you can be using Rover stuff but I still think that'll be the weak link. If it breaks its Toyota or Nissan centre time.

FYI my shafts are Maxi Drive and CVs are Ashcroft. I've thought about crush drives for the front and may well go that way just to take the shock out when the wheels lift off and come back down on hill climbs; that's when I've broken most of my drivetrain bits.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

D44's (in stock form) aren't really any stronger than rover stuff.

And D60 fronts are like hens teeth over here.

You could use a salisbury front and use D60 internals,

Or a set of 101 axles would be man enough, lockers are a pain though.

Allthough Rakeway are about to offer a locker and shaft combo for 101's priced at £2000ish (D60 35spline arbs and 300M shafts) :D:D:D

They'll be my axles at rakeway :D ... but I wish you wouldn't total up the figure like that, gives me palpatations.

Bathtub uses 101 axles to good effect, he runs standard shafts with ARB's, these are from GBR in the states, Bill at GBR gets ARB to make his 101 side gears and then builds them into 110 salisbury centres.

The Dana60 diff centres fit the salisbury axles as they are basically identicle. However it stops there no other D60 parts will fit a 101 front axle, D60 are all external UJ front axles. You would need to have new drive flanges and bore out the spindles to fit D60 1.5" 35 spline shafts in the rear axle. Not all D60 axles come with large shafts some have 1.31" shafts.

I went with 101 axles because of large CV's this was before Ashcrofts had released their CV's, I had also bought the 2 Zeus disc kits as well so there was no going back, I was initially going to go with GBR ARB's with the standard shafts but Bill at GBR was unsure when he'd receive the next batch of side gears.....so I got in touch with Rakeway initially to see if they could make the side gears and it went from there.:blink:

The shafts Rakeway are making for me are just the same size as standard but with D60 35 spline inners, the outer spline root diameter is the limiting factor, they will be better engineered, wasted etc.

The reason I went for the D60 ARB's was availability, almost any make of locker or diff can then be fitted and spares will never be a problem, I believe GBR now has the side gears in.

I think if Rakeway do a disc conversion at a lot less than the Zeus conversion the that would better.

If I started now with all that is available currently then I'd have to think long and hard before going down the 101 axle route. There are some good alternatives out there.

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The shafts Rakeway are making for me are just the same size as standard but with D60 35 spline inners, the outer spline root diameter is the limiting factor, they will be better engineered, wasted etc.

I thought rakeway were boreing out your spindles to accept a bigger shaft?

Damned nice those 35 spline D60's though, they've all but convinced me to build mog60's next not mogG's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, in France, for people who like modification, the Nissan Patrol GR axle is a "very" popular choice. (lots of them around).

Slighty wider track than LR ones, rock solid, lockers and adapt very easily to land rover

They are 50mm wider than land rover.

GQ are better as a bit more heavy duty CV's but GR and GU are ok and will do

But the rear Nissan alxe is not floating like land rover. So 80 seris toyota is better as it is floating and has the 4.1 diffs as well as the 30 spline half shafts. And they are the same track as the Nissan

Why not toyota fronts. well they are harder to fit and the nissans are alot easy to fit to the front. Straight forward copy of land ones

Been following this the above thread on D44 Forum and i am looking into this option?

Nissan GQ Front

80 Series Toyota Rear

Any comments....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought rakeway were boreing out your spindles to accept a bigger shaft?

Damned nice those 35 spline D60's though, they've all but convinced me to build mog60's next not mogG's.

Yes, you are right they are boring out the spindles, but only to get the inner spline through.

D60 shafts are 38mm, standard 101 shafts are 36.6mm, I hope the material grade will compensate for the 1.5mm difference :).

Mog60's eh..........drool :)

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience. By using our website you agree to our Cookie Policy