Ed Poore

Just got back in touch with the seller and the axle came off a 2003 110 so looks like it's the later LR018026 discs. I'm going to pop down to the parts guy in the local MD at lunch to have a chat - he's pretty knowledgeable. Last time he managed to pull out a dimensioned CAD drawing of the calipers for my TDV8 do determine which was the correct one...

I'd be inclined to drain the oil first. Check for sparkles indicating metal shavings. You then have the option of dropping the bottom plate off now there's no oil. That'll give you complete access to the high / low gears. You can then prod and poke to see if there's any play. Equally you can also put the gearbox in neutral and disconnect the props so you can rotate them by hand and feel for roughness. Something that might be useful is a piece of pipe you can put to your ear and poke around with the other end to localise noises. Helped me narrow down a squealing capacitor at work. Naturally chock all wheels suitably as you'll have no handbrake at this point! One possibility is to wedge the clutch down so you disengage the engine as well and you can probably spin the gears from the transfer box. Take things slowly and work through all combinations of gears etc and then hopefully we can narrow down the problem before you have to drop the box. Most of the above would need to be done anyway to drop it.

An alternative way is dropping it out the bottom with a trolley jack. Useful to have someone to steady it but not essential. I managed to do it on my own dropping both R380 and LT230 but having someone else would have been hugely beneficial.

I've taken the Salisbury off to fit the diff that Nige built up for me. I thought the new tubes came from a Td5 110 but appear to have narrower discs than certainly the Salisbury. The discs that came with it fit with the calipers from the Salisbury, the hubs are the same thickness (albeit one twin nut setup and one single stake nut setup). It is just the discs that are different, same thickness of braking area but the flange that bolts it to the hub is shorter.

Sounds pretty bad - have you had a look inside the transfer box at all?

Thanks Ralph - I think I need to find out exactly what the axle came off - I know it was a Td5 era 110. I've found some measurements for the flange height but even the same LR part number appears to have different heights.

I thought fourth would eliminate the layshaft - i.e. it's straight through from input of gearbox to output of gearbox / input of transfer box.

Anyone know the correct part numbers for a Td5 era axle's brake discs (for a 110)? Reason I ask is I recently, finally, (sorry Nige) built up a short-nose diff with one of Nige's ultra diffs (pegged P38/Wolf Ashlocker). I thought the brake discs were the same size but comparing old and new the hubs are the same thickness but the discs' flange that mounts to the hub is shorter in the new (Td5 era) axle meaning the old discs hit the integrated brake caliper mounting lugs. I temporarily fitted the discs that came off the donor axle to my hubs (they had good bearings in and saved me some work and are the twin nut setup) but would like to replace them with some decent ones relatively soon. To clarify the discs I need have a narrower central flange (narrower left-to-right when viewed from the front or back of the vehicle) than the standard 300Tdi Salisbury discs. Cheers

Shortly after picking up my nice shiny, and turns out rather special, diff from Nige a revolutionary new form of diff guard was fitted on the short drive home. Cracked him up so I thought I'd share.

If you're really stuck and willing to cover the difference then I'm heading down to Wales the last weekend of the month. I could hire a trailer (might be able to borrow a flat bed / car trailer from a mate if he's willing). Head up late Friday / early Saturday morning before heading west, drop off stuff with you and then carry onto SW Wales. Basically would be fuel from Surrey to Suffolk and then say M4 down to Somerset and back, possibly trailer hire for weekend.

I'm 99% sure that is the case. You can try to overcome this with cadence braking but the same is true of an open diff.

Whenever I've had stuff galvanised I've used Chris @ CLH Trailers as he always galvanises his trailers. Based off weight of parts. Not local but I think the company he uses is in South East Wales or Bristol area. Might be worth a call, always very helpful might be worth mentioning my name.

Bit more left to do and tidy up

3mm sheet. I cheated on these and had to run a slit down the bend and weld on the inside. Clamped the sheet between two 3/4" plates in the press frame because it was handy (on a bench would have done just as well) and then used another thick bar of steel and brute force to start the bend. Once that was stated I could put a pair of bar clamps onto the bar to continue the bend. Made two L shapes, one for bottom and inside edge and one for outer and top so that we could get at the inside to weld to all edges. The first slit I did freehand with a grinder the second I actually used my chop saw (Evolution Rage 3s) which did a much neater job. The slit was about half way through the sheet so still quite a lot of meat left and then obviously it got a nice big fillet weld done. Luckily the bottom brackets for the jacking points were substantial so Andrew could weld them into those and the cross member was decent too. It had just rusted out where water pools at the front.

Well little bit of DIY bending and my mate did some good welding. Bit dark to take photos but bit of a teaser with the bends, reasonably pleased with them.