GW8IZR Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 My 1984 90 has a disc rear axle, when I fitted it in about 1995 I am sure the axle came from a RR. The unions are imperial - time has come to replace the calipers and I've found a few suppliers but I'm wondering - (hoping really) that later defender calipers may fit with metric unions. Anyone know what the compatibility is here. TIA Regards Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmgemini Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Yes later Defender callipers are Metric. Now I think you'll find you have 7/16" bolts hold your callipers to the axle, do you ? Then the later callipes which are Metric won't fit because of the small special to Land Rover bolt head fitted. Unless somebody knows differently. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GW8IZR Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 Hi Mike, thats correct the 7/16th fastners on the eary axle. Hmm, I could probably ream the holes out but then its a mess every time I need to do this so might as well stay standard. As it happens my local LR place had a caliper so I now have a pair of good imperial units so the axle rebuild can continue. I might look for a discovery axle next time round to make the job simpler. Thanks for the pointer Regards Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Mike is correct, the 7/16" caliper bolts will be a loose fit in the metric calipers, which use M12 bolts. If you wanted to go to the later metric calipers, the solution would be to re-tap the axle casing to M12. I'm not sure it's worth it though, if your axle casing is in good nick then stick with that and just get a new set of imperial calipers. There's no advantage to the later ones, other than thread commonality with the rest of the vehicle. But if you are capable of remembering that the rest of the car is M10x1mm and the rear calipers are 3/8"-24 UNF then you should be OK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zardos Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 There is a small advantage to going with metric callipers, they are slightly cheaper than the imperial version even though the only difference is about 1mm in the mounting bolt hole placing and the size of the hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GW8IZR Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 Thanks all, the decision was made a little easier as the n/s calliper was in good condition so I got a single replacement for the o/s. Next time I'll use a Discovery axle but back when I built the vehicle they weren't as easily available as RR bits. Of course chopping up RR and S1's to make CCV's and trialers doesn't seem as sensible today as it did back then..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GW8IZR Posted May 16, 2012 Author Share Posted May 16, 2012 I'm not sure it's worth it though, if your axle casing is in good nick then stick with that and just get a new set of imperial calipers. Hmm.. casing in good nick, well its better now I've made a new spring seat bracket and turned the shock mount the right way round, just an oil filler to fit now. As an excersise fair enough but not really good use of my time ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 If you do decide to change be aware that early Disco axles were much the same as Range Rover axles (in that they used imperial brakes/hubs etc.). Later (late 200Tdi and 300Tdi) axles were metric. A later metric Disco axle is near-as-makes-no-difference the same thing as a 300Tdi Defender 90 rear axle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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