UK based 109

[TeriAnn]

The reason I want later axles are many fold. Firstly, I want disc brakes on all four wheels. Standard parts would give me more confidence int he quality, would be cheaper and a lot easier to source replacements for, especially down-route.

Sounds like you know what you are about. But I am a little confused, probably because the only D110's imported to the States were a handfull for the 1993 model year. These had a Salisbury rear axle with drum brakes. It is my understanding that rear Salisbury's never came with disc brakes. That Rover went to their own 24 spline rear axle when they put disc brakes in the rear. I'm under the impression that 1994 D110's came with 24 spline rear Rover axles & rear disc brakes. Am I wrong? Its a trivial thing but I'd like to understand it better.

By the way, I agree that plain old factory rubber bushings does a better job of protecting components from high frequency vibrations and handling twisting forces from axle articulation. They generally last a lot longer than poly bushings. But it is usually heat generated by friction that kills poly bushings. The assembly lube gets washed out and dries leaving a surface with enough friction to heat up and kill poly bushings. long hours on wash board surfaces can kill dry poly bushings in short order.

That's why I'm experimenting with the new greasable poly bushings. With these bushings there is no movement between the bushing and the frame or spring eyes. All the movement is between the metal inner sleeve and the inner hole of the poly bushing. Also inserting new grease from the centre out helps eject any particles that may have wondered in. Only time will tell how long the greasable bushings last. Whenever I grease the bushing I can't help but do a visual inspection of the bushing. So far so good.

I went to poly bushings primarily for increased articulation. The movement on a stock Land Rover (metalastic) bushing is about the 3/16 inch that the vulcanised rubber is able to stretch, twisting between the inner and outer bonded sleeves.

Metalastic bushings are known as bound bushings because the rubber is bound to both the inner and outer sleeves and the only movement is the rubber stretching. This is why when you convert to an unbound bushing (poly bushing), you will increase the suspension travel/articulation by as much as 10%. You will also improve the ride quality with unbound bushings especially on rougher roads because a bound bushing starts to decelerate the suspension movement when you start to approach the elastic limit of the rubber.

Just some other thoughts.

 

[Snagger]

The original 110s and the 200Tdi defender 110s had drum brakes on the rear axle, but the 300Tdi Defender 110s has disk braked Salisburys. The TD5 and TDCI engined 110s (plus the 300Tdi UK MoD TUM XD, aka "Wolf") have a short nosed 4-pin Rover diff, basically the same diff as the P38, with a heavily forged Rover type axle case, which is stronger than the Salisbury axles (which can suffer loosening of the tube-to-diff casting joints) and allows much easier diff servicing and replacement. The only disadvantage with using this latest rear axle is that the diff nose is about 4" shorter than a Salisbury, so I'd need a new prop shaft. It nseems the best noption, though, and will at least be likely to be in good order - a 300 Tdi's Salisbury will probably be pretty worn, and their diff bearings do seem to wear more quickly than Rover diffs, and are very difficult to replace.

For the bushings, I used copper grease, which doesn't perish the rubber and should not dry out or wash off. I have considered drilling a very small diameter hole along the axis of the spring bolts, through the head to about half way along, and then cross-drilling at the mid point and fitting a grease nipple to the head, allowing periodic greasing of the spring bolts within their bushes, but I'm a little concerned over creating failure points in these highly stressed bolts. It should be alright if the holes are drilled accurately and small, but I have no way of calculating the effects or testing the load strength of any sample bolts after drilling.

 

[Snagger]

TeriAnn, I just realised that the top photo you posted was not a worn washer for the ends of the bushes but a shot down the poly section of the bush! They, combined with the grease nipple tipped bolts (just what I had been trying to explain in the last post) look like a fairly good alternative to the more common polybushes. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with them, because you application off road is similar to mine, ie. long distance, heavily laden on rough tracks, not lighly laden and crawling through mud and rocks.