Thatched Roof garage has complete Salisbury's brake drum to brake drum for
$800 I believe.....might not be as much fun, but certainly easier. J
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean-Leon Morin" <offroaddesign@softhome.net>
To: <lro@koan.team.net>; "Keith Tanner" <keith@miata.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2003 12:35 AM
Subject: [lro] Project Salisburly
>
> 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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