Front Axle Overhaul - Part One.

My how the time has flown by, but here I am again, back in the saddle, working on the Defender. This time around it’s the front axle - removal, strip, paint and rebuild, with newer better bits. Somewhat prompted by necessity, in that having recently loaned my friend the Defender to run an errand the “noisy” CV became the extremely broken CV. Should have known this would have happened, as this particular friend is known for breaking everything. Nevertheless it was broken, and not only did it loose drive to the front (later to be found, front right), it also lost the ability to turn right beyond 2 degrees. Which I’m told, made for an interesting drive.

So while it broke down, and it’s a pain, it does give me an excuse to get the spanners (and wallet) out to get things right. And I will be treating this repair as I have done with the whole build so far - good parts, and full overhaul. I’ve opted to fully complete the axle side of things while I’m at it, so that includes Ashcroft shafts and CV’s (those of you with more knowledge of Defenders may spot an obvious issue at this point, as it seems I’m very much lacking! But more on this later). Also, new radius arms, trailing arms, springs, X-deflex, diff guards, Panhard.

Within the above shopping list, there have been some changes - firstly the trailing arms.. Originally I’d fitted cranked arms, but after much reflection I have decided to fit the X-arms to compliment the X-deflex. And the other change is the springs, very early on I had brought Terrarfirma heavy duty springs, but holded off fitting them, as without the load they can pull the shocks apart, and make the ride really stiff. Reason for heavy duty is that when I first started I wanted to fit an external roll cage, but as I’ve got older, and perhaps more realistic? I’ve changed my mind, so I’ve now got some medium duty springs and will fit them during this. I went medium duty as a still plan on towing with it, and having a winch.

So first up is to get the old girl in the air, properly supported so I can work underneath without being crushed. This time, instead of using logs, and will use proper jacks - mmmm safety.

Then I messed around underneath trying to remove everything before I felt it was too tight at which point I took the wheels off. I hesitated initially as it would have been good to roll it all out in one lump. So out came the axle stands, and off with the wheels.



Once everything was removed I then, put the wheels back on with just a few nuts to roll it out. In hindsight I would have left the drag link in place, as this would have prevented both wheels from, “flopping” independently from one another. As this was a massive pain to move it around.

So the the axle was off and so I again took the wheels of, leaving the axle on stands. I then asked for some help to lift it on to a bench to work on - at this point I realised how much heavier the front axle is to the rear.

So it was destined to stay on the floor for the time being, I’d need to remove a few bits first. So I started with the stub axle nuts.

After the hubs with discs and then out swivel casings where removed to was much lighter and I was able to move it up on to the bench for the works to continue. At this point the half shafts were also removed, and the culprit was found….

 

I set all the parts out ready for cleaning and overhaul, as you’d expect from a vehicle this age, they weren’t great.

They did however look a lot better after a good clean. Degrease in the parts washer and wire brush.

I then set about cleaning up the axle, firstly degreasing, then wire brush, sanding, degreased again, and washed with water.

Then the painting begins, first coat to go on - rust converter for any bits that weren’t fully back to metal.

Then on to the undercoat.

 In between coats another job was to mask up, and get the other smaller parts ready for rust treatment. Some of the parts in this photo where treated with rust remover - see later post for details.Within these small parts where the D44 shock turrets I had previously installed. One issue with doing this work as I go, is that some of the new parts start to look slightly older. The turrets weren’t too bad, mostly just some splitting plaint at the edges. So while I had the spray gun out I gave these a blast.

 

Undercoat to small parts.

Brake calipers also got some paint.

And once painted, and while I’m waiting for other things to dry, I started tom refitt the calipers with seals and cups. This was a pain to do, I see why a special tool it required. Went through twice the amount of seals that should have been required, to the extent where I'm waiting for parts to finish! So the completion of these will be picked up in part two. Left to do, fit most the seals and cups, internal seals, bolt them back together, quick touch up, and change the bleed nipples.

In the theme of re-doing previous work, the rear cross member picked up some damage during use - raming a sankey trailer into wasn’t the best idea. So this was sanded, filled and painted - undercoat.

 

Top coat.

After a few days of spraying and drying time, this is the end result for the axle.

Ready to start to be rebuilt. From my earlier lesson on front axle weight, I won’t go too far with it until it's in place - clever.

With the inner swivels and the seals that required to go on first in place, it was time to fit the bearing races. To assist with this I heated the area little first.

I then assembled the disc and hub.

Something else I decided to do was to rust cost - Dinitrol the chassis where the shocks had been removed as they were looking scabby.

 Area cleaned, masked up and sprayed with rust convertor.

  I then sprayed it with Dinitrol. After a decent amount of drying time, for everything, it was time to start reassembly. First Shock turret and cone.

Then I shifted the axle into position under the front. 

Now it time to start refitting - shock mounted into turret.

Spring at plate loosely fitted.

Then all bolted up - another mistake by me at this point.

Radius arms ready to be assembled.

Bushes fitted.

At this point I realised the above error. When I took the axle off it was shocks and springs, then radius arms. It should have gone back like this as once the spring and shocks are on it was near impossible to move the axle to get the radius arms into the chassis. So athen spent the next few hours, undoing all the work I had just done, and then fitting the arms, and redoing the work. In the frustration I didn’t take photos. So with the magic of the internet - finished….

Panhard bar fitted. I will need to check this is correctly distanced once back on the road as there may be some adjustment required after movement. As it is it’s about 2mm off centre.

Diff guard fitted.

It was at this point the biggest mistake of the whole process was spotted, as noted at the start. Ashcroft shafts and CV’s only come in 24 spline. Now, I knew this, so I checked. But me being thick checked the shafts from the rear axle (that’s what was lying around at the time of order), of course the rear axle is the a later one, because I had already swapped it! The front axle was of course 10 spline.

So back on the net to get a new 24 spline diff. While I’m at it Diff locker, and pegging!  Which was going to happen at some point, now's a good a time as any I guess.

And lets start undoing some of my new works. Diff guard off.

And off with the diff so it can be swapped out when the new one arrives.

Casing left covered.

 And that’s as far as I’ve got for now. Hold tight for part 2, which will be fitting a front locker too!

The above work was carried out over a series of weeks, and due to errors ordering parts, and incorrect deliveries, there was a fair amount on non-productive time. During this time I ticked off some jobs that I had on the list but never found time to do. Also as part of these works I discovered (may have been around ages, who knew) a product that claims to be a rust remover, so I will post the results of this the other works on to separate posts.