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Rear crossmember replacement


Tony Carter

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Hi:

I have recently removed the rear crossmember on my 1988 3.5 EFI, and managed to put the new crossmember back in "loosely" however: I have noticed the new one apears to sit higher. (ie the metalwork on the body panels doesnt line up with the edges of the crossmember anymore) Is it posible the body has droped whilst the old one was fitted ? (it certainly didnt apear to move whilst taking it out) or is it normal to have to jig the body panels up a bit, before welding them back on to the crossmember ? Anyone have any ideas ?

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Hi, I did mine a while ago and I seem to recall having to jack up the rear inner wings to get them to fit. Not much, maybe 3 - 4 mm.

Did you take any measurements before you removed the old one? I had a real struggle removing mine and I doubt I'd have noticed any movement in the rear wings at the time.

Bob

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Hi, I did mine a while ago and I seem to recall having to jack up the rear inner wings to get them to fit. Not much, maybe 3 - 4 mm.

Did you take any measurements before you removed the old one? I had a real struggle removing mine and I doubt I'd have noticed any movement in the rear wings at the time.

Bob

Thanks Bob:

Mine is the same 3 or 4mm drop. Sadly I didnt take any measurments, as I wasnt able to see anything obvious to use as a reference point (I wish I had looked harder now!).

Did you raise the rear wings by sliding a section under the outter sides of the rear floorpan and jacking it up? I cant see anywhere other than this at the moment.

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We had to jack the floor up to get the cross member in on Orange's rangie too. I think it sagged when we took the old cross member out (in small pieces). We put a large piece of wood under the floor behind the wheel arch and jacked that...

it was only a few mm as has been suggested.

Cheers

Mark

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I had similar problems too!

One thing I would suggest is that once the X member is tacked in position, carefully re fit the tailgates ( use a bolt through the hinges as it is easier, and make sure that they line up and close properly.

I didn't, and it seems as though the lower tailgate is - you guessed it - 3 - 4mm too high, and sometimes the upper tailgte springs on one side.

The fix, when I get around to it, is to cut off the lower hinges and re weld them a wee bit lower I think.

HTH

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As said else where - a few mm only, but IIRC, I actually jacked the cross member once it was tacked in, then fitted the rubbers. I then welded small (1") runs symm opp in an attempt to keep distortion to a minimum, and all fitted back together ok. I reasoned (incorrectly it seems ;) ) that there was enough adjustment in the hinge and catch mountings to allow for any distortion and I got away with it (or maybe I was just lucky?). In fact the fit and shut of the upper and lower tailgates is now better than ever!

TwoSheds

Oh, BTW - while you are in there and have the tank out - check the lower sides of the chassis in that area - I think that mine had had some goo poured in that reduced the corrosion along the bottom of the chassis tube (where you would normally check it) but allowed the sides about 10mm up from that to rot to tissue paper! Glad I spotted that before I tried any recovery operations! I had to replace about 10"" of lower chassis rail at this point - and it's nicely curved which makes it an 'interesting' job. :rolleyes:

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I've done my rear body cross member recently, thought I'd add my £0.02.

First off I worked on the replacement cross member. It wasn't fully welded along it's seams, and was open at both ends. So I finished the welding and welded 2mm plate over the open ends to keep the cack out. I primed and painted it, leaving the areas to be welded with a light coat of weld through primer.

I too had to jack the body slightly to get the cross member in, but was able to lower it again once the cross member and it's mountings were in place. The lower tailgate went back on in one go and shuts perfectly. Once the cross member was welded I injected it with waxoyle, primed, painted the welds and undersealed the whole lot.

Aside from chassis main rail rot, check the CHASSIS rear cross member, where the petrol tank mount is. On my '90 the whole tank mount had rotted, taking most of the front side of the cross member with it. This was easily repaired with some 3mm plate, although the welding was tricky, due to having my head where the petrol tank sits.

I was then left with no petrol tank mount, I'd priced up a complete cross member, it's only available from Land Rover, aboout £120. Having toyed with the idea of recreating the original rot trap tank mount, I came up with a simple solution. A length of suitable rolled angle, I think I used 30x30x3 IIRC, any road, I cut it to fit between the rails, drilled and tapped two holes for the rear tank mount bolts, then with the aid of a mate and a trolley jack, positioned it with the tank cradle as a guide. Tacked up and then welded to the mains rails at either side. A quick easy fix, and it won't trap muck and rot like the original.

Of course, it's then I discover that all this has disturbed the layer of mud that was holding the tank together.....

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