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Axle brackets,coil to leaf


4.6v8lwt

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Before i start hacking and grinding, am in the process of putting a pair of defender/disco axles under my lightweight but keeping the parabolics. My mate reckons i can buy the necessasary brackets ready made ,but i dont remember seeing them advertised. He swears blind he has seen them, has anyone any ideas or point me in the right direction. All that will happen otherwise is i will have to put up with months of I TOLD YOU SO.

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Just for an idea of the width difference

CopyofDSCF0029.jpg

And the trimming

DSCF0026.jpg

I made my own. Mainly because i made extended blocks for the front.

However these are soon to be removed as ive sorted the track rod clearance issue a another way, so i can fit standard height or even reduced height brackets.

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I made my own too, unless you are very patient and careful cutting an old pair off for re-use seems like a lot of effort. I tried but got bored with that idea :rolleyes:

Meccano shows you the benefit of completely stripping an axle back though, it looks much better than leaving all the old brackets on. In fact you should probably take a good look at his posts as he has posted some excellent pictures & tech on this conversion.

You want a decent welder to glue the brackets on with too, not a hobby-mig.

(Meccano, a cheque will be fine :P )

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Thanks very much for all your replies. Looks like i will be making them up myself. Meccano if its not a state secret how have you overcome the trackrod problem? There was an article in one of the mags and the chap had used a TD5 swivel on one side. Anyone else know about this?

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I assume the td5 offside swivell must have a forward facing draglink lobe which is there for lhd vehicles.

You put the trackrod in front of the axle and join the the drag link onto the trackrod as some jeeps do.

Equally you could use the starboard side swivell off any lhd LR axle,which will have the required forward facing lobe.

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Been and had a look thro the mags,Novembers LRO Series 2a Tdi. Its a bit confusing as it says that they used the stub axle off a Td5 on the front drivers,but it also says it was the steering arm. You can not really tell from the pictures what is what. It was built by two brothers who run Tillee's Land Rover Centre,Thornby,Cleveland. It might be worth a call to try and get some more info and see if it is the way to go.

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Been and had a look thro the mags,Novembers LRO Series 2a Tdi. Its a bit confusing as it says that they used the stub axle off a Td5 on the front drivers,but it also says it was the steering arm. You can not really tell from the pictures what is what. It was built by two brothers who run Tillee's Land Rover Centre,Thornby,Cleveland. It might be worth a call to try and get some more info and see if it is the way to go.

As has been mentioned on previous threads, this gives what is called reverse Ackerman steering angles. True Ackerman steering, which is what standard LandRovers and most other vehicles are designed with, determins that the inside wheel turns sharper than the outside wheel when cornering. Reverse Ackerman steering does the opposite in that the outside wheel turns sharper than the inside wheel. I personally have no problem with Reverse Ackerman linkage. In fact I have set my Landrovers up that way for over ten years and wouldn't consider going back to the standard system, but never the less you should be aware that this is what will happen.

Bill.

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does this setup increase front tyre wear by a large amount then Bill? It sure sounds like it would to me :huh:

No, I'd say if anything tyre life has improved slightly. Steering response feels quicker and more positive. Turning circle on loose surfaces is appreciably tighter. My vehicles are series 2a's with bolt on steering arms which made the conversion easy .

Bill.

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I assume the td5 offside swivell must have a forward facing draglink lobe which is there for lhd vehicles.

You put the trackrod in front of the axle and join the the drag link onto the trackrod as some jeeps do.

Equally you could use the starboard side swivell off any lhd LR axle,which will have the required forward facing lobe.

Just a thought, but instead of buying LHD or late Defender swivel housings, has anyone tried swapping the normal outer swivel housings left to right and vice versa ? This would also place both the trackrod steering arms out front. I appreciate that they mount the trackrod a bit low when in the standard location behind the axle but due to the castor angle the trackrod should end up an inch and a half or so higher when mounted up front, and because the radius arms are no longer in the way a custom trackrod could be made and shaped to optimise ground clearance.

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(Meccano, a cheque will be fine :P )

Cheers Fridge :D

No i didnt narrow my axles. Instead i opted for some "bling tastic" wheel arch spats

at frist i though the wider axles to be detrimental to the "asthetics" of the truck, but the wider track makes it handle alot better on the road, and you can swing into parking bays in one go.

No the track rod isnt a secret.. its just not cheap. ( one track rod end is +£90- but they are rebuildable)

i took a 101 track rod and had it professional shorted ( so that it wasnt weakened during machining )

The 101 track rod is made up of a straight centre section, but the ends ( 8 inches long) are angled, giving the centre section a clearance of around 20mm ( if i remeber correctly).

However after i had gone to the effort of getting the track rod shortened, i discovered that td5 track rods do a similar thing.

post-1095-1198156809_thumb.jpg

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Fabricate the 'perches' yourself.

I put some bought ones on a 9inch ford for someone, I usually fabricated

them myself. I think the ones I put on were bought from Direct Connection[yank sturf].

If you want to look for them look up "spring perches". I would have though all yank speed shops sell them..

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