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p38/D2 axles


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im just wondering if the beam axles from p38 or 98-> disco have been fitted to a defender before and if not is there anything major stopping it?

cheers

yeah the diff's are on the wrong side of the p38. Plus suspension arms and mounts are all different so need changing.

Cheers

Steve

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I know of a 90 with D2 axles and suspension components fitted, although why you would restrict yourself to radius arms and a watts linkage for an E truck is beyond me

Simon Buck is of the opinion that D2 CV's are fantastically strong but a while ago Tony C (white90) posted some data from Ashcrofts that showed that they were weaker than AUE2522, IIRC

AFAIK D2 axles are popular with compers, the sealed wheel bearings dont appeal to me though

If you are going to the effort of an axle swap with all new bracketry being fabricated then there are far better axles that you could use IMHO

Lewis :)

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AFAIK D2 axles are popular with compers, the sealed wheel bearings dont appeal to me though

They didn't appeal to me either but I have to say we see a fair number of D2s at work including high mileage police vehicles and to the best of my knowledge we have never, ever replaced a wheel bearing on a D2....

How they would stand up to regular deep wading etc, I don't know.

The Watts linkage is supposed to lower the roll centre or something, to improve handling, so if you wanted a mainly roadgoing vehicle I guess that would be a benefit.

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They didn't appeal to me either but I have to say we see a fair number of D2s at work including high mileage police vehicles and to the best of my knowledge we have never, ever replaced a wheel bearing on a D2....

How they would stand up to regular deep wading etc, I don't know.

The Watts linkage is supposed to lower the roll centre or something, to improve handling, so if you wanted a mainly roadgoing vehicle I guess that would be a benefit.

...plus you get a wider track. I think the problem the racers identified was with the bushes wearing out. For a road car, though, I think they'd be a good option.

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Bushes will last longer than normal ones. Bushes in any vehicle are a wearing part here - 20k miles out of a set of Defender/D1 radius arm bushes in fairly normal use here is about normal. I know of a lot of D2s here that have never had a bush touched at much higher mileages, my own one has 35k on it now and has had nothing touched in the suspension since new. IMHO the D2 bushes are far, far superior to standard Defender in terms of durability.

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cheers for all the advice so far, it would be a mainly roadgoing truck so it could be an idea also gives the smaller hubs for wider alloys choice

reason i ask is i'd already be looking to change the rear for a disk braked item so it was another option to look at.

isnt the defender rear already watts linkage equipped ?

also articulation etc could be kept by fitting the defender aframe etc? welding three axle brackets is likely to be easier that welding new mounts to the chassis!

cheers

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