Get your tickets to THE BIG THING 2026!
I took apart the stock front axle to give it a look-see and the u-joints are the size of a newborn baby's fist and being 10 spline, I kinda lost interest with even considering using it.....
I tossed around the idea with using newer LR Discovery axle's, but it looks like the steering would be a pain with leaf springs.
The biggest hangup is the rear axle since it needs to be off set to the right side of the truck.
There's certainly an appeal to a reliable vehicle with the classical safari looks. And all the series landrovers that you pass on the highway will wonder what's up...
My quick google shows that a stock 109 weighs about 750# more than a stock XJ. About 3150# for the XJ and about 3900# for the 109. So the 109 weighs almost 25% more. That seems significant to me.
Personally, I would have guessed an even bigger difference, due to the heavier-duty frame and running gear. Even the different style of body construction seems like it would weigh more.
Having driven more than a couple miles in each, the 109 'feels' much heavier to me. But I certainly could be wrong.
Right, right, mmmmmaybe....
Call Keith Kreutzer at Rovertracks. He may have some solutions for that front axle. I know he's got rear Salisbury's available. www.rovertracks.com
Well, I didn't exactly know where to post this since I'm a long time jeep fan slash hoarder. I've been building XJ's for years now and wanted something a bit larger in the back side for camping and cooking ect. It just so happened I stumbled across a fairly decent '68 Land Rover 109' RHD in Seattle that somebody shipped over from Australia and never got around to fixing up. The Rover had a swapped in Holden 6cly bolted to the stock transmission and t-case. So after stripping it down to see what I'm up against and to find what areas need to be replaced due to common rust issues... I came to the conclusion that I wanted to use my favorite and always available motors, the Jeep 4.0 and to use a AX15 mated to the Rover case. I want to keep it "stock" looking but have the reliability and power to keep up with traffic in todays world. I would love to get a hold of a newer rover diesel but due to the fact they are expensive and hard to come by it just makes sense to use a motor that I'm very familiar with good parts availability and seem to last forever. The reason why I'm posting it here is because some people get kinda weird when you change stuff from stock (not saying there is anyone on here like that, but from my experience it makes for a messy thread) If it needs to me moved, I'll move it.
So here is what i picked it up looking like.
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The mighty Holden 6 Red Motor
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Simple interior needing some love
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Interesting project but completely backwards from what I would have ever expected. The weak link in the Jeep is the powerplant. Also a good deal of folks would kill to put a diesel in a JK. You can do just that with the 109.
Will be following to see how it turns out. Best of luck.





