A first installment in a series.
Firstly, a bit of background.
Land-Rover, after determining that an increase in axle strength would be a
good thing, decided to start equipping some models of Land-Rover with a
clone of the Dana 60 axle, and called it the Salisbury axle for reasons that
I am too tired to explain. The resulting axle is a piece that is very
similar to the north american Dana 60 found in all kinds of vehicles,
arguably the most widely used axle ever built.
There exist some differences between the D60 casting and the Rover one.
Firstly, the casting from rover is stronger. It has thicker webbing around
the pinion and more material in some critical areas. The drain plug I
believe is on the bottom in the diff casting, and on the NA 60 it's a
question of removing the pan.
The rover Dana 60 is not the strongest 60 axle ever built. These axles were
available in multiple versions, from 1.24" shafts to a full 1.5" shaft in
the Dana 60HD. Splines range from scary low counts (16?) to 30. All full
floater rear Dana 60's were 8 bolt hubs and are usually equipped with
massive drum brakes and and very wide. Most of these axles are centered,
meaning not offset to the right in typical rover fashion.
In comes the magic of the Dodge Tradesman/Ford Econoline. In order to clear
the optional gargantuum fuel tank that was placed between the frame rails,
running longitudinally, the rear diff on these babies was offset roughly 5"
from mid seventies to early eighties, perhaps longer. After this Ford
switched to a Ford rear axle, and Dodge supposedly (I haven't verified this
yet) scrapped the offset idea.
Also, the bolt pattern that is commonly used on these vehicles is an 8 on
6.5. Rover uses a 5 on 6.5.
In order to "roverize" a Dana diff, it must be modified. Firstly, the right
gear ratio must be obtained (in my case, 3.54 which is easy to find, 4.7 is
not available and a rover Sal. ring gear would have to be used) and the
wheel width must be narrowed (to 62" hub face to hub face for a coiler, 58"
for a series) and finally, the brakes and wheel stud pattern must be
addressed. Let us deal with these issues in the sequence in which they are
listed.
- The ring gear is the easy part for me. I just need to find the right rear
end with the right gears, at the right price. I hope this actually does
happen as the price of new Spicer gears is eye opening, even at dealer cost.
- Narrowing the housing is a problem. Dana 60's have both axle tubes pressed
in and welded to the center casting. Because the rover rear end is already
offset and the van rear end is only offset slightly, I can get away with
narrowing the short side only ( I hope). The van width is usually 65 to 67".
If I narrow one tube that gives me roughly 8 to 10" offset. More than
factory, but still bearable. I'm either going to drill out the welds and
pull the shaft out, cut it and press it back in, or cut the tubes down the
middle with a chop saw and chuck eveything up in a lathe before I start
welding (BIG lathe). I'll likely try to pull the tubes, if that doesn't work
I'll try the other method.
- Brakes and wheel stud pattern is another problem. Since the bolt pattern
from the 8 to 5 have the same bolt circle, one stud hole may be reused. I'll
have to weld up the other seven holes on both hubs and machine them down
smooth. Then, I'll have to build a jig (likely an old rover drum made to
center on a machined lip in the wheel hub) and start drilling out the 4
remaining holes. That allows rover wheels to bolt on. The brakes I will deal
with when I can measure up the hubs, either adapter plates or simply
redrilling the hubs for the rotor, and a spacer ring.
- Finally, the shortened (hopefully only one) axleshaft. Machine shops can
shorten an axleshaft easily, it's not cheap though. I hope to be able to do
it myself. Depending on what I find as a junkyard donor, I might be stuck
with weak axles that are not 30 spline (the 1.5" 30 spline shafts are rare).
If this is the case, I'll upgrade to custom alloy shafts in the future, when
going to a locker in the rear.
The search for a donor axle continues (in front wheel drive)
J-L
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