Bobbed and caged RRC called The "JWH"

[Soren Frimodt]

Well yes and no. Sure Salisbury's are great axles, or actually the diff is really really great. But as much as I would like a Sal's front, they are really not that great (when, not if) you break a shaft. But of course you know all this The problem is that when I go wheeling with this thing it is often for weeks at a time, so no matter how good or strong you make it, you will always break something, and being handicapped because you cannot find parts is the worst that could ever happen! I'd rather fill the housing with 10 spline stuff and drive like a pussy, than sitting on my arse watching the others have fun!

And then there's the price of lockers... I actually bought brand new Ashcroft airlocker and shafts for the front, for much less than a Sal's locker would've cost me.

No the only ways you could temp me into a complete Sal's setup was with a set of 101's... Mmmmm those are nice!

[schneide]

Hello Soren . your rrc looks nice. and it is some nice wheels

[Soren Frimodt]

Been a busy weekend!

Yesterday I drove some 90 miles to collect a 110 drumbraked Sal's, and seeing as my Jag is my only roadgoing vehicle in the winter, I had to take it home in that, and so it came to pass:

Amazingly large boot in that XJ One of the guys at the place where I collected it could barely stand to see it, he thought it was a joke when I told him if he'd help me lift it in there

Back home today I set to get it out of there. Not having three strong men, I decided to use the crane on the 80", this worked a treat and my dad got the honors of holding the boot-lid open:

Came out no problems.

Actually my plan wasn't to work much on it today, but the weather was absolutely mint, so would be foolish not to take advantage of that. Started by make the the brakelines and removing all the old ends of the trailing arms and and the A-arm which had all been chopped with an Acetylene torch.

Then i did a quick shave of the bottom removing most of the drainplug as per my other Sal's thread:

And a little extra bolt to keep the oil in:

And about an hour ago it was all mounted up and brakes connected. Only thing missing is shortening the prop and finding and fitting some sort of locker to the diff:

[bill van snorkle]

Well yes and no. Sure Salisbury's are great axles, or actually the diff is really really great. But as much as I would like a Sal's front, they are really not that great (when, not if) you break a shaft. But of course you know all this The problem is that when I go wheeling with this thing it is often for weeks at a time, so no matter how good or strong you make it, you will always break something, and being handicapped because you cannot find parts is the worst that could ever happen! I'd rather fill the housing with 10 spline stuff and drive like a pussy, than sitting on my arse watching the others have fun!

And then there's the price of lockers... I actually bought brand new Ashcroft airlocker and shafts for the front, for much less than a Sal's locker would've cost me.

No the only ways you could temp me into a complete Sal's setup was with a set of 101's... Mmmmm those are nice!

Agree about Salisburies. Ran them fr/rr on WildFing many years ago. Unless you run 101 CV's they are overkill with normal Rover swivel assemblies hanging off the ends. And even when shaved to the limit, the bottom of the diff presents a large surface area to get stuck or hung up on. For straight non portal axles there are better options out there these days.

[Soren Frimodt]

Yeah Bill we quite agree. But for this specific application you cannot beat the price VS performance of the Sal's. So easy to fit in the back and no exotic special parts to leave you stranded. If I do break a halfshaft, there are plenty around. And I doubt I'll ever be able to break the Diff

Don't get much done during the weekdays as the darkness kinda puts a halt to my motivation. Did however get a sudden boost of the aforementioned, so decided to shorten the prop the 5cm's that was required. Didn't take much more than half an hour, did it all in the lathe so she runs as straight as a straight thing, so well chuffed on an else-vise boring, rainy wednesday.

Only little annoying thing is that I now have a custom part in my driveline, meaning I'll have to make a new one if I ever bent it on a rock or stump or whatever. Can't just pull one off of an old Rangie.. But hey haven't destroyed that many props in my life, so I think I'll survive

[Soren Frimodt]

Another small update:

Gathering a list of parts I will need so I can make an order tonight. Therefore I decided to take a look at the brakes in the rear to get a clue as to what condition they were in.

I knew before-hand that the LHS drum was dragging quite a bit. And this side proved to be the worst to take apart as well! One bolt for the driveflange was so corroded in the flange itself that it snapped, and getting the drum off of the shoes, and then off the hub was a right nightmare:

But got there, and managed to reuse all the brake components in there as well after a good clean and lubrication exorcise.

And actuially the other side, which was considerably easier to dissasemble proved to have a very seized piston in the wheel cylinder. Got it moving again though.

Then I tore out the diff carrier to install a Detroit locker which is also on my order list today. Took a couple of pictures to show some mates that hasn't really seen the sheer size of all the components inside a Sal's, its just massive!

So thought some of you would like to see them as well..

Here is the pinion next to your standard rattle can lid:

And here you can see the diff was designed for something much bigger than a Rover 24 spline axle:

And finally a pic of the carrier next to a Rover version, huge difference in size! (and weight!)

[Soren Frimodt]

Seeing as I am without a job as of today, I am cracking on with this Rangie. I have all these things I would like to do to it that takes a lot of time, but doesn't really cost any money, so no time is better suited, than now!

Started the day by finishing the brakes.

Then I went on to taking the center diff apart. Some time ago when the vacuum unit decided to fail, the previous owner locked it into 4wd. A good dolution on an offroader. But I wanted more than that I would really like to be able to select between RWD and Full 4WD, just as on my Series. There are many advantages to this, especially when you go offroad where you can 'slide' the rearend around by disengaging the front axle. And not to forget you can decrease your turning radius quite a bit.

And best of all, you can do Donuts!!

So I emptied the lower part of the housing:

Then I welded up the center diff:

And I then removed the splines from the front output shaft:

Reason I did this was to still get proper bearing support on the output flange. If I were to just cut it in half (which would've given the same 2WD effect) There would only be one bearing supporting the front output, this would then probably fail very quickly and destroy the seal, loosing all the oil. This way it is still supported inside the center diff, although there is no drive:

Another reason for doing it this way is that I really don't like the size of the teeth that the collar engages too on the front output, they look quite weak to me.. So if they fail, even if I destroy the collar, I can just slide in a stock front output shaft and I'll have Full 4WD.

Got it all assembled as well so next up is making a manual lever for 2WD/4WD selection.

[bill van snorkle]

I very much doubt that you would have any problems shearing the dog clutch teeth off Soren. It would be far more likely to break the end off where the shaft enters the centre diff gear or the front diff pinion shaft itself. Despite my doubts, you also proved that the even smaller, more fragile looking LT 230 PTO dog clutch is capable of driving your warp speed winch in anger.

[Soren Frimodt]

Hehe, yeah Bill you are most likely right, but you know how it is, your always a bit wary when you mod mechanical things, no matter how thought through things are, a weakness can easily be hidden until sudden failure. I guess that's why so much time is spend on testing? But us 4x4 guys, we test in the field

Today was not as busy, as I didn't get in the workshop until around 1 o'clock. Had some shopping to attend to in the morning

But I did get some stuff made though.

Started by making the lever mechanism for the 2WD/4WD operation. For some reason (probably impatience) I forgot to take pictures along the way, so you can't really see all the weird bits of scrap that went into this piece What I can tell though, is that two gudgeon-pins were used in the making of this I always save these whenever I change pistons as they make great strong bushings for various applications. So one is off of a Puch Maxi and the other one is off some Honda motorbike I think

Anywho, the end result looks like this:

Worked out okay I think, very little slack for how fast it was made..

And while the paint dried I did a bit of Redneck PCD drilling of a brake disc off of some Citroen to use for hydraulic parking brake.

Here's how it went down:

Fits perfectly:

[discomark10]

Soren! I'm planning to do the exact same thing next month by using this, as it has the same center hole size.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331042282198?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

What caliper are you going to use? Citroen as well?

[Soren Frimodt]

Hey Mark, okay, well that's even better then, I have no centering on this disc, but I'm not that concerned about that seeing as this is only an offroad toy. But on my 80" I used an X-eng disc.

I only chose this because it had a usable size and it was the cheapest one I could get at the parts store. Then I'm willing to do a bit of work to make it fit

Nope, going to use one of the calipers I already have, either an RRC rear caliper or alternatively one off a motorbike, have various versions kicking about. You should check out my 80" where I used a 4 pistion Brembo caliper, for inspiration

[discomark10]

Brembo! well that's just showing off

I'm just going to scavenge a estate cable/hydro rear caliper from a breakers yard to use with the disc as you need cable hand brake over here for the mot

[Soren Frimodt]

Yeah that makes sense did consider such a caliper myself for the 80", although it would probably use one off of an ATV because of the size. But this would mean you'd have to have two levers for the handbrake. Didn't really wan't that so settled with full hydraulic

[discomark10]

What do you mean by 2 levers?

[Soren Frimodt]

Well if you are to use both the hydraulic part of the caliper aswell as the mechanical it would require two levers right? 'cos if your only going to use the manual side I don't see why you wont just fit an X-eng kit? I could of course have misunderstood you completely!

Time for todays update!

Started out by finishing the 2WD lever install, using an old LT77 gaiter I was able to seal out the worst water I might splash through:

Don't care what they say, welding on an old RangeRover body is never fun!

A look from below:

Then with that sorted I refiled the transfer with oil and went on to the disc brake. Had to make a spacer as the disc was much thinner than the drum. Then with the aid of the good old plasma cutter and some cardboard I made a bracket for the RRC rear caliper which became my choice as it actually fits the bill quite perfectly!

Got about 90% done with the bracket, this is how it looks:

[discomark10]

well, £15 to make over £150 or what ever it is

[Soren Frimodt]

Haha yeah money talks as they say! Now I get your drift But still, it is actually quite time consuming, especially making all the bracketry. I'd say it'll take you full weekend to do. If your up to the challenge then by all means do it. But if it were me I think I'd wait and find a used x-eng kit. Looks so much better than something you (or atleast I can) knock up in your shed, and that's gotta be a bit more pleasing to the MOT guy..

[discomark10]

I'd rather spend the time to make it myself than go to work to earn the money to buy one

I'll have to see what I can come up with.

[Soren Frimodt]

Hehe fair point, sort of the same thing I'm doing with all this right now Be sure to show us how you progress when you get there

[Soren Frimodt]

Time for your daily dose..

Christmas came early as the box of goodies arrived from Paddocks! An eaton locker arrived with a happy surprise to me

Thought it would be a complete carrier housing as that is the way it is depicted on Paddocks homepage. so I had taken the crownwheel and bearings+shims of the old carrier to install the new locker. But to my very pleasant surprise it was the same version as Ashcroft supplies, which is just the internals. so even though I had wasted some time taken bearings and CW off, this still made the install much easier as I din't have to mess with the shimming, I could just put everything back together and throw it in the housing again.

having never had an 'auto' locker of any sort before, I of course had do dissect it to find out how it works! Man was it a PITA to reassemble!

Out with the old:

In with the new:

[Soren Frimodt]

After the locker install I finished the caliper mounting, the bleed screw is at the very top so should be easy to bleed:

Then i fitted the lever/master combo in the cabin, boy do I have some levers in here now!

So only the plumbing and finding a suitable reservoir is left on that job now

[Nigelw]

I wonder where you find the energy to keep so busy with your projects, great stuff, and I always find this thread an inspiration to get back out and get on with my own

[Soren Frimodt]

Wow, thank you Nigel That is exactly what I hope to accomplish by spending so much time taking pictures and writing text, which although it doesn't seem to be that much actually does take quite some time when English isn't your native language. I suppose it has a lot to do with how much it fired me up when I started, some years ago, with all these great build threads from dozens of users on various fora which all seem to have disappeared now.. Well except for Dirty Diesel and our returned hero Bill van snorkle.

In a way I'm still rolling on this high that was started back then, I choose my projects very carefully with relation to the time and money that I have to put into them. Assuring that I always have fun doing it. And as you know when something is fun, you go back there!

[Nigelw]

You know, when I started my own current project over a year ago I had one simple aim, get it on the road asap and enjoy it, only I kind of hadn't bargained on finding so much wrong other than the obvious fire damage and a few spots of rust that needed taken care of, a year on and it really is a different beast with a lot of time and effort along with attention to detail having gone into it.

I have used my project as a means of testing myself and educating others as to how good their own repairs can be. After this initial re-build wil come a whole raft of modifications that will enhance this truck and bring it much further into the 21st century too.

Hope to see a play report from the locking diff as I am still unsure of auto or air locker to begin with....

[Soren Frimodt]

Will make sure to give a report when the new season starts

Haven't touched this project all weekend, do to various events I've been at. And today I didn't get to the workshop before 3:30pm or so..

We've had the horrid Hurricane 'Bodil' over us last week, leaving devastating marks:

Haha No really, we never get any proper natural disasters in Denmark, its almost boring.. But hey, I don't think we should complain

So after a bit of work me and my dad had loaded this:

Then some friends came around on a visit, so that was most of that day spent!

BUT, I did get some stuff done though.

Finished up the disc-handbrake conversion, made a copper line between the master and caliper. Usually I would do this in braided steel, but on this project the budget didn't allow this. I hope it'll last without cracking now that I've made a couple of loops to give a 'spring' effect. Have actually considered solid mounting the engine and trans, because being strictly an offroader I don't really need rubber mounts.. But we'll see

In the cabin:

It was very easy to bleed because the fluid just ran through all by itself pushing out the air