>As some of you may know, I have been looking into the possibility of
>changing over to late model Dana axles, modified to fit the series rover's
>width.
Which I thought was strange because Salisbury axle assemblies are Dana
60s. Salisbury became the Dana division. And of course the Salisbury
assemblies already fit Land Rovers.
>Most conversions I have heard of are running a salisbury differential in the
>rear. This appears to be a very tough diff, perfectly capable of handling a
>stout V8 or, in my case, a large 6 cylinder.
Yes the Dana 60 (AKA Salisbury) is well regarded.
> This is common knowledge. If I
>do stick with rover axles, I'll be going to a salisbury at the rear, and a
>rover at the front.
Your basic options are:
- Salisbury (AKA Dana 60) front and rear
- Rover axle front & Dana 60 rear
- Rover axles front & rear but with 4 or more pin carrier, beefier ring &
pinion & larger axles inside the LR housing.
The rear handles all the stress in 2WD and more than 50% in 4WD. SO it
HAS to be stronger than the standard Rover axle.
The fronts? I think it depends upon what your power plant is, the terrain
you are on and how you drive.
>
>What I'm worried about is the front diff. How is this end of the equation
>holding up? Lonn and TeriAnn are using bone stock front axles,and I haven't
>heard of any breakages... yet.
I'm running stock Rover in the front except for a six pin automatic
torque biasing diff.
With the four cylinder engine I broke the front right axle at the inside
splines in foot plus foot snow.
I broke a ring & pinion up front. But the vehicle was bouncing up a
steep hill and the body got high enough that a 'U' joint on the front
prop shaft binded and the yolk yanked the pinion nut right off the pinion
shaft. Before things were said and done the front yolk of the diff was
separated from the diff and hanging on the loose front end of the front
prop shaft and the pinion gear got pushed through the ring gears. My
immediate cure was to tilt the front of the front diff upwards 2 degrees.
We'll see if it helps.
While everything was apart it was noticed that there was a slight twist
on the inner spline of the front left axle. I probably should have
replaced both front axles while I was at it.
I consider 40 years to be an acceptable axle life.
Other than that I've had no problems with my Rover front axle assembly.
I think that since I'm running a detuned 302 I'm probably easier on my
drive train than these gonzo guys and their hot rod 350s.
So I'll be leaving the front axles alone unless I break something or I
trip over a real cheap Salisbury front axle assembly. The other option
is a beefier ring & pinion and hitting GB Rovers up for a set of beefy
front axles.
For the rears, I figure even though the stock Salisbury axles are pretty
strong, mine are probably around 28 years old. I may swap them out just
for the fun of it on the grounds that they may be getting fatigued after
all those years of use.
I haven't decided between big custom axles & bigger Dana spider gears or
strengthened axles from Great Basin Rovers. But then I haven't looked
into either yet.
>Well, here goes. Is it safe to assume that the front axleshafts are capable
>of handling a fair amount of abuse?
They seem to. The Fonts usually receive a little less than 50 % of the
power in 4WD and they seem to be quite a bit stonger or more resiliant
than the stock rear axles.
>Timm Cooper's rock crawling rig has a stock rover axle
He just went to a Salisbury up front. But he might have bent the weaker
LR axle housing from doing flaps up landings off the runway. Timm makes
almost every gonzo LR pilot I have seen seem tame. So yes the front
Salisbury is beefier than the front LR axle assembly. The question is do
you really need it? I can't tell you.
>I've heard of broken half shafts up front, but they seem to be a little less
>common than rear axleshaft breakage.
I've broken one front & put a slight twist in the other front. I broke
six rear axles.
> Maybe the front carnage can be
>attributed to ? years of hard use, and simply failed. Opinions on this?
Well, there was 38 years of use for the front axle I broke. But I just
putter around from place to place and take the easiest track through any
obsticals I might find. So golly, it could be just fatigue over time, or
that powerful 2-1/4L engine.
TeriAnn Wakeman Marigold Ltd.
Santa Cruz, California Web design, site updating, testing
webmaster@overlander.net search engine optimization, graphics
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