bill van snorkle

most Landrovers built up to 1971 had diffs with the 6 bolts.

Yes, I have a hybrid undedrive made by combining the input shaft and output gear from a fairey overdrive with the High/Low range planetary reduction box from a Jeep Quadratrac transfercase. bolted behind a series 2 Landy transfercase and Warner T98 truck 4 speed.

I couldn't work that out either.Especially when O'Teunico mentions axle number 4 ! the 3 axles interlink appears to be how I understood the Berliet 6x6 suspension to be laid out, but certainly couldn't be applied to Sam (TD Man's) project plans.

Yes, the vehicles themselves will fetch good money, but the spares are auctioned separately and usually are quite reasonable. The only real problem I foresee with using the PTO position to drive the 3rd axle is that it won't be possible to fit an underdrive also, and personally I don't consider the overall gear ratio of a standard 110 at 48:1 to be anything like low enough for a serious cross country 6x6 with difflocks and 37" tyres. Hard to believe, but there has been the odd occasion when I thought the 270:1 low low low ratio of my 4x4 LandRover on 36" tyres could have been a tad slower.

The Australian Army are replacing their 6x6 Perentie Landrovers with 6x6 G wagons.so eventually spare transmissions and components, including the high/Low range PTO will appear at military surplus auctions. Failing that it wouldn't be too difficult for a fitter and turner to make one from a second rear output housing and scrap centre differential. The Perentie PTO has a dog clutch to disconnect drive to the third axle, as does my old drive splitter drop box, but in practice, due to the relatively light weight spread over 4 large tyres, transmission wind up and tyre wear was never an issue so I kept both rear axles permanently engaged. Defender style body mountings are fairly easy to make to fit the Disco/RangeRover chassis, and seeing as they already have the desired wheelbase, IMO one of these would be easier to deal with than shortening a 110 chassis, where it may be difficult to find 2 points 10" apart where the depth of the box section is the same. The shallower depth of the disco/RRC chassis may offer slight ground clearance advantages also.

The Ackernan angle may not change enough to be noticeable with the right hand drive swivel housing fitted. With standard 5.5 " 109 rims fitted the draglink balljoint clears the rim by roughly the same distance as on a leafer axle.

It's been a while since I have seen one, but I think the spitfire's transverse spring was centrally clamped as opposed to pivoted.

Ashcroft and Sandringham weld the flanges on to the pinion housing to bolt their throughdrives onto. As per previous post,for anything over 90" wheelbase the LT95 method would be easiest and most efficient with less frictional losses.Those old pinion housings are 10 a penny wherever Landrovers were sold in any quantities. I would agree with Jamie and John about just buying a 6x6 Volvo, except that Sam is in New Zealand, and if it's anything like Aus, importing and registering a left hand drive vehicle with no previous registration history here is fraught with legal headaches. Best just try to source the axles and fit them to a Landrover.

Sam, pinion mounted throughdrives or drop boxes are a bit more difficult to do with Salisbury diffs, because the axle tubes really need to be removed so that the diff casting can be fitted in a lathe to face back the pinion bearing nose, weld a mounting flange to it, and machine true. Also due to the extra bulk of the Salisbury, larger diameter gears are required so that the output shaft to the rear diff will clear the Salisbury diff casting. The drop box pictured above uses transfercase gears from Series vehicles. To get the offset required to clear a Salisbury, I determined that mixing and matching gears from an LT95 transfercase would work. Morse Silent chain would also work, but tend to overheat and stretch over time. Considering that you plan a 100" primary wheelbase, probably the easiest way of getting twin rear output shafts would be to use an LT95 transmission with the special pto for powered trailers that is also fitted to the Australian army 6x6's.

I have a Stage One V8 fitted with 45 series LandCruiser axles and the steering compared to standard is very imprecise. Plugging the draglink into the trackrod places offcentre loads on the trackrod, causing it to rotate around the tie rod end ball joint axis before the wheels begin to turn. Conversely. this lost motion manifests itself by the wheels following contours on uneven patchwork repaired road surfaces, of which we have many, so that I am always 'chasing' the front wheels with the steering wheel and it is sometimes a real handful on narrow broken roads with 2 way traffic. I am going to try to limit the articulation of the trackrod ball joints as the rod doesn't need to roll very much from lock to lock.

The suffix D box was revised to address the earlier problems of jumping out of gear by having coffin shaped dog clutch teeth so that they actually tend to pull into gear. If your box is definitely a full Suffix D then I would first suspect that the mainshaft nut has worked loose allowing the shaft to move forward. Less likely but possible is that the 1st/2nd selector fork pinch bolt has loosened and finally from me , a small stone or similar may have become lodged between the selector shaft and the gearbox top preventing full engagement of 1st gear.

All the holes were my pointless attempt at lightening the box, so I came to my senses eventually and stopped drilling them. The gear on the pinion shaft was bored out and the pinion flange was turned in a lathe to press in and welded to the gear. Series diffs have a bolt on pinion seal housing fasted by 6 5/16'' bolts I drilled and retapped the bolt holes out to 3/8" to bolt the dropbox on but there is an additional brace welded to the diff casting that bolts to the drop box for extra support. If I were to re use the box I would space the taper roller bearings further apart on the intermediate gear because the thrust loads are greater than I originally imagined.

If anyone compare my measurements to their own and says I got it wrong. My diffs have been turned upside down because of the portals,so the bottom stub is off set to the other side.

Don't have a leafer handy,but measuring a coiler axle from the swivel housing mounting flange to the bottom differential stud right and left gives a reading of 33cm and 75 cm. By my maths that means the differential is 21cm off centre.

I need an implement like that to make more garage space on my hillside.

Or one could go even further and take a leaf out of Scammells book and go the a centrally pivoted transverse leaf spring suspension located by a One Link Wishbone. A lapsed member from here, 'Night Train' built a 6x6 Landrover with a Scammell Constuctor type front end.

I think the spring rate is doubled. If you cantilever mount the spring by clamping the centre to a pivot point on the chassis like on a tandem drive truck bogie, but shackle the other end of the spring to the chassis you should get good wheel travel plus a smooth ride. I think Deranged on here has done that with his SWB.

There is a message there O'Teunico, in the word 'DO' !

I was going to comment on ToyRover Landers rear articulation, but it is really a comment on any vehicle with widely spaced springs. I have mentioned on some other threads that a solid axle suspension can be likened to a see saw or balance beam with two off centre fulcrums.The further apart the fulcrums are spaced and the closer they are to the wheels, the less weight that the stuffed wheel can transfer to the drooped wheel during articulation. Once a spring on the drooped side reaches its free camber state, it is only the weight of the tyre and part of the axle assembly, plus the weight transfer from the offcentre see saw fulcrum that is providing the drooped wheel with any traction. Drooping beyond free camber, the spring changes from being a compression spring to a tension spring, and if all leaves are firmly clamped together it has the same rate in tension as in compression.So a typical clamped LR rear spring with say a spring rate of 300lbs per inch will likely only droop a further 1.5" before the tension in the spring has overcome all the weight of the drooped wheel and axle, and that doesn't even factor in the torsional resistance of the spring on the stuffed wheel side. Tricks like mounting widely spaced springs to the axle on laterally rocking saddles remove spring torsion from the equation, and if an antiwrap bar is fitted, the leaf clamps can be loosened or eliminated. Over slung springs also generally gives a higher roll centre, which tends to give less body roll and higher articulation resistance, that also could be addressed if one wants to get a bit more radical by moving the springs closer together like on SWB LR's.

I am still a multiple LandRover owner. But I took my blinkers off many years ago ! I suspect that the LandCruisers you repaired over here were either high mileage fleet units or vehicles subjected to harder work and/or much more abuse than the average LandRover owner would be prepared to inflict on their pride and sorrow. The fact of the matter is that Toyotas are able to survive well in fleet and hire use where unfamiliar, un mechanically sympathetic or disinterested drivers thrash the daylights out of them. Doubt you will find any firms in Oz any more that hire out LandRovers. the last such firm I knew about, started by former LR enthusiasts in the Stage One V8 days, was sent broke due to the cost of keeping their LR's in serviceable condition.They refinanced and re started, Hiring Cruisers and Hiluxes.

Some of the points you touch upon Jamie reflect the reality that leaf spring suspension is a whole bag of compromises for an on road/offroad vehicle, when the spring is expected to locate the axles for/aft and laterally,resist axle wrap, in addition to providing for cross articulation and a degree of ride comfort for the occupants as well as having some capacity to carry some payload. My own experience with leaf front re climbing abrupt obstacles is actually opposite to your own. I actually find landrovers quite hopeless in those situations compared to leaf Toyotas, Jeeps etc with shackles up front.The only way I could make a stage one reasonably competent and behave itself offroad was after fitting a tramp rod similar to Sorens but centrally mounted to the axle and running forward and inline with the spring hangers, in addition to removing a couple of leaves and fitting longer military dampers. Most of my 4 wheeling friends are 40 series LandCruiser owners, and some of them have done front shackle reversals. some claim an improvement in medium speed ride quality over rough roads, but get examples of both shackle layouts on my knarly gulley tracks and it becomes very clear which is the better setup at keeping the wheels hooked up. On a long wheelbase vehicle such as the ToyRovLander, where rear overhang is significant, longer rear springs are not going to hurt departure angle whether SUA or SOA, but it is up front where my previos comment on approach angle applies. True that with a 6" chassis lift the approach angle is not really affected, but I would personally prefer the advantage of SOA such as reduction in snag point under the axles, higher roll centre and better articulation without raising the chassis that much, and a lower LandRover with longer springs is going to have a poor approach angle. I would like to comment on ToyRovLanders rear articulation but I must leave for work now so maybe later on.

Slightly off topic, but I have just noticed that the drag link steering arm on a coiler axle is around 20mm shorter than a leafer one if my eyes are not deceiving me. It was quite dark when I measured and both types of axles are caked in thick mud. Anyway. 20mm doesn't sound like much but it does make a significant difference to the heaviness of the steering without P Steer

It's not so much the lack of constant velocity that is the problem with universally jointed front axles Jamie,it's their lack of strength. The 2 15/16" U joints are smaller than the 1310 3 3/16" u joints in most LandRover propshafts, but have to cope with a 4.7:1 torque multiplication of the diffs. Take a look at a Dana 44 front axle uni for example. much larger journals and caps. Front axle tramp on leafers, aside from reducing traction,can be severe enough to bust propshafts, springs, and smash the body of shock absorbers against the swivel ball flange, so don't agree that spring wrap cushions the blows. Shackle reversal with front of spring angled up, in combination with an anti wrap bar would IMO give the best front axle performance. This basically converts the spring into a short, albeit flexible radius arm, which negates the lifting effect on steep climbs that the standard rear displaced front shackles on LR's display. Toyota Landcruisers, as an example generally have lighter front springs than the equivalent LandRover, but tramp far less and generally climb better. The problem with fitting longer springs to gain more travel,is that it screws up approach angle.I've seen a few occasions where a LandRover will easily cross an innocent looking gulley that brings LandCruisers to an abrupt halt as the front of the spring dig into the ground. To achieve lots of articulation with cambered springs will require that the axle no longer stays perpendicular to the chassis. Because the axle is firmly clamped to the springs via the U bolts,The axle cant pivot around the centre bolt. so this angular displacement of the axle must be due to laterally twisting the springs which they were not really designed to do. Starting off with flat springs on a SOA set up allows far more easier articulation with less lateral spring distortion and less rear axle steer IMO. I don't understand the comment you attribute to Ashcrofts, O'teunico. If pegging works with 3.54 diffs then it will work with 4.7's, but that doesn't mean a pegged 4.7 will be as strong as an unpegged or pegged 3.54.

The "extra divorced transfer case with an LT230 behind the Series case" I think we discussed that before on the 6x6 thread. Too difficult to package and would result in both front and rear diffs being offset to the left hand side instead of the right. The so called 'doublers' that the Americans use, are made from cut down transfercases,designed with the rear output shaft concentric with the gearbox mainshaft, and need to be fitted between the main gearbox and original transfercase. It would probably be easier and less expensive to adapt a Hi Lux reduction box to the LandRover gearbox, and then run the output from the Toy reduction box to the divorced or adapted LT 230. .

I have been impressed by the ability of later traction control systems on D4 on short trials courses, but agree with Jamie that they burn themselves out on longer distance extreme terrain. I'm not sure I like the principal of TC either. A differential when one wheel is braked suddenly becomes a 200% overdrive powering the other wheel at half the available torque it could receive if the differential was locked. The sudden increase in wheel speed could be enough to break traction, or the 50% reduction in wheel torque could be enough to stall the engine on a manual transmission vehicle under certain circumstances where diagonally opposed wheels are off the ground.