dr pepper

The weld on mount is only a few mil above the axle tube, and the bracket is 6mm steel, the spring mounts on the chassis are going to fail way before the mounts on the rear axle. Anyways its circumstantial for the moment, the landy has taken enough time and money, the old girl is going into storage until I decide what to do.

Its actually not as bad as it looks, I have taken it apart again and cleaned everything up. That said it is worse for wear. I have to disagree with the comments of easy though, this is a lwb, as far as I can tell a lwb rear x isnt available, the ones I've seen done use a swb which has different depth chassis rails, so you have to rejig everything about and weld in a section over the top to get things to fit well. The tub floor unbolts so that makes things easy. I had no intention of hiding things from the mot man, and mine knows landys well so would probably see it anyways. The old fuel was petrol so that wouldnt be good with sparks made by the tank contacting the road, the new fuel is diesel, still dangerous but this time to the vehicles behind esp on a corner.

You were right about the rear cross member its seen better days, a lot of that has been covered up by the fuel tank, which is now back on. I'm gonna just see what the mot man writes on the ticket when it goes. New crossmembers are not expensive, however whilst writhing about on the ground struggling with the tank I was thinking, this is gonna be hard to replace, anyone done this?

2 axles came at the right price. I have the option to fit disco discs on the rear whenever I want having the disco axle, another reason. I wanted the wider track from the start also.

Well the backun fits:

Couple of things there, the vehicle doesnt spend long periods in 4wd yes, however the front prop will be turning all the time, I spose if there no load then vibration isnt going to be an issue, I am also considering fitting a r380 so the diff nose angle then would be more important, if I fit the r380 then I'll make the diff nose angle the same as the series. About the plating yes I was wondering about that, however if you look at the 40mm lift brackets I have that are commercial items for the disco, they are only 6 mil and open front and rear, and on the disco they take the whole weight of the vehicle, obviously they were deemed good enough my the maker. I'm not going to reinforce the rears, as the assy looks plenty strong enough, and the saddle mount is inbetween the spring and the axle so theres little up/down force, only sideways and most of that will be held by the U bolts. The front is simlar pretty much, however for the front some extra work is probably good as forces are greater and the rear axle comming loose would be bad but the front would be a disaster. Interesting comment about the prop shaft calculations, going to look into that, sort of thing I'm into, I suspect however the chaps at the shop you mentioned probably go off a wall chart and experience, the latter being the hard to get and expensive bit.

I take it you dont have the prop anymore then, if you do then I'm prepared to exchange beer tokens. The old piece of rust looks better for a bit of oxide, you cant tell where I've been bashing.

Interesting story Nick and nice page. How did you go about correcting the diff nose angle, or are you leaving it as is. Spring perches for the disco are available from dare I say britpart, with 40mm lift, I got a pair of these with the vision of adapting them for the series mounts, time saver. Phil. are you aware that I have a 109?, does the 2a 109 have a rover diff?, if so then thats a good idea. I have been welding bits on the rear axle, its nearly ready to go in, new disco coil spring mounts with a 17mm hole drilled in the middle have been welded on for the spring perches, and the shocker mounts of the salisbury have been ground off and welded on. Heres some more piccies:

I'm sure there are others that have done this, however I've been working on fitting coiler axles to my series, heres some progress. Since I took these photos I have just about completed the rear axle, and it will be going on over the next couple of days, I have some other pics of bashing and welding the axle, I'll post these when I get a lead for mi new fone, seems nokia have changed usb connectors again, and you dont get one in the box. With mi new inclinometer gizmo I've been measuring up the series salisbury rear axle, with the spring mounts level, the diff nose is 2 degrees up (the spring must cause the diff to point nose down, as this would compensate for 'windup'), the shocker mounts are at 36 degrees forward, I've ground these off carefully and I'm gonna weld them on the disco axle, the spring centres are 35 1/4", and the shocker centres are 35 1/2", the diff drive flange on the disco axle is 1 3/4" further back than the salisbury so I'll need a longer prop, or a spacer-eek!. I have new !part spring mounts for the disco, as said I'm gonna drill a 16.5mm hole for the leaf locater and weld them on upside down for the spring mounts. Think that'll sort out the rear, dunno if I'm gonna need arches yet or not. Heres some pics of bashings and measuring with the salisbury:

Put your old diff on ebay too, tall ratio ones have a demand from series owners.

Oops didnt want to step on anyones toes, and you obviously have more experince than me on the issue. Not direct experience no, however I have seen issues on race and rally cars that have had the rears jacked up, causing uj failiures (rwd). land rover made the disco front diff flange 12 degrees for a reason (poss due to the leading link geometry) having said that in your application it works, I have read that folks have had failiures with the diff nose up, spose it depends on the applcation. In the disco and deffy, as far as I know the prop shaft has diffo centres, ie the output on the box is I suspect higher up, also the series has in effect trailing arm suspension, where as the disco has in effect leading arm, suspension compression will make the diff nose a worse sharper angle on the series and will straighten it out on a disco. Good to see in your apllication that it works, at the very least I wont need to be so accurate with setting the diff angle. I have to complete the rear axle before I get to the front, meantime research is interesting, seems quite a few have done this and there are many mixed opinions.

I have a 300tdi on disco axles. The 300 tdi fits onto the series box with its original bellhousing, I drilled and tapped 2 of the holes in the engine flywheel case, the case had moldings there allreasy, and I drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the series box. Point being if both the 300tdi and 200tdi flywheel cases fit the series box, theres a good chance that you'll be able to get the r380 off a 300tdi to fit a 200tdi engine.

200 tdi with the turbo. Probably do better than the volvo petrol. A few have done this and I have not heard anything about a 'box failing. You could also fit a lt77, or r380 'box as well as the motor, if its a 88 then you'll need a deffy 'box as the bellhousing is shorter on the deffy than the disco, and with the lt77 and r380 being 100mm longer you'll have to shorten the prop shaft or move the motor/box forwrads, if you shorten the shaft you'll need wide angle uj's, if you tried to fit a disco 'box to an 88 I think you'd have problems with the 'box and bellhousing the two flanges would be well close.

A late post I know, this fault sounds like a shorted regulator diode. If its a lucas alty or similar then there are 6 large rectifier diodes on a square heatsink within the rear casing, above this part of the same assy there are 3 small diodes usually marked 1n4004, one or more of these could be shorted, you can get them from maplin and resolder them in. If you can get to the alty warning light with a meter then measure the voltage to it, if the polarity is back to front when the lights on and the ign off, ie what should be the ground is + then this backs up the above diagnosis.

There is someinteresting info here. I was looking for this info as I'm adapting a disco front axle for my series, allthough now I might not need wide angle props. Hey tuko int yours a 300tdi, I am doing mine at the moment, with disco axles.