Got a brand new Salisbury axle!

As my original rear axle had destroyed itself, and the car in the process, I required a new one. Mark gave me a new one. Good on him, I was very grateful and he didn’t want payment, only the halfshafts back for, for racing. Which is why he bought the spare axle in the first place.

Here’s a lesson though…. Never interfere with the differential of a Salisbury axle. All sorts of stuff is involved, way beyond what you are expecting, and to carry out adjustments requires axle stretchers, service tools, collapsible spacers and lots of dial gauge and depth micrometer stuff. So when someone with limited mechanical knowledge comes along, (such as whoever rebuilt my differential last), you can see why there is potential for it to fail. In spectacular style, locking one halfshaft and putting the drive through the other, making the car not the easiest thing to keep between the hedges. And entirely unexpectedly too, there was only acceptable play in the diff, which was checked regularly alond with the propshaft joints whenever greasing of the latter took place.

Anyway, I had my new rear axle with un-messed-up diff. I set about rebuilding the bits of the differential which are rebuildable, after removing the halfshafts to give back to Mark. I gave me halfshafts to whichever Land Rover and Marcos garage that was nearest home (alright, it’s probably the only one in the country) along with new wheel bearings, which they pressed onto the halfshafts for dosh. Next I removed the roll pin then pinion pin from the differential, removed the diff gears and cleaned everything up. All was in good order, the axle looks to be a low mileage unit. So new thrust washers were fitted to the sun and planet wheels, the half shaft bearings were packed with grease, the halfshafts fitted and the whole thing was back in one piece. I did the old trick of putting a slit pin throught the roll pin and opening the ends, to prevent any chance of the roll pin coming out of the pinion pin. Hurrah, a nice diff at last, ready to go back in.

New bearing on te halfshaft, ready to be shoved in. They were wound in using the bearing caps and a couple of long bolts, until they were in far enough for the proper securing bolts to be used.

The rear axle was painted in Tetrosyl with all the other black parts. Having been thoroughly cleaned up inside and carefully inspected, the new thrust wahers were fitted, which can be seen here as they are so thick, compared to the old ones which are always wafer thin.

At this point Matt reappeared from University, and was promptly recruited for helping my get the thing finished. So began days of working hard on the car, stopping for pizza and chips, then returning to the car for the rest of the day, and getting a lot done quickly, too. And he managed to put up with my bad moods as things did not fit, were the wrong type, or vital bolts and fittings frequently disappeared just for fun. Good work Sir.

Again, it's superb to be working from a complete kit of parts, all new, recon or refinished to as new condition. New bump stops were fitted, now they could actually be fitted, the original bmp stop mounts had corroded away and were plated over, I repaced them while repairing the rear chassis rails. Polyurethane suspension bushed went on the back as well, along with uprated dampers. One day, the springs may be uprated or the ride height tweaked, who knows...

Our first task was to get the axle attached to the bodyshell. Onwards with the rear suspension then, the reconditioned uprated dampers had been bolted in place, and the leaf springs had polyurethane front eye bushes fitted. They were then bolted into place at the front, and the struggle began to get them fitted at the back. This is easy once you know how, difficulties arise getting the polybushes wedged into the holes in the chaissis rails, then not coming out when the shackle plate is pushed through. They are in a fairly hard to get to position, so leverage is difficult. The main problem though was having too much paint in the holes in the chassis rails, further reducing the clearance. With this cleaned out, much trial, failure, then eventual success got both springs in place at the back.

Dampers and springs fitted. Note the special white grease for the polyurethane spring pads.

The axle could then be brought beneath the car and raised and pulled one way, then the other to get itsitting on the springs. With he U-bolts, spring plates and polyurethane spring pads fitted, the drop links to the dampers and check straps could be bolted on, and the axle was in place.

Axle on! Droplinks in place... U bolts and spring pads in place, bump stop pedestal on. The only remaining object is the axle check strap.

Despite the brakes not being fitted, the rear wheels went on. The car could now roll… she was on herwheels again!