Defender Rear Axles

**will993** · 12th October 2012, 09:04 AM

Wow this thread really blew up...

Originally Posted by weeds

what have you decided to go with Will.........

As I needed a solution quickly I managed to find a new set of std axles for a very reasonable price. These will keep me going for the next couple of months, at which time i'll grab a set of Maxi's/Hi-tough in preperation for the Cape Trip.
Thanks for all the input!

**steveG** · 12th October 2012, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by will993

Wow this thread really blew up...

As I needed a solution quickly I managed to find a new set of std axles for a very reasonable price. These will keep me going for the next couple of months, at which time i'll grab a set of Maxi's/Hi-tough in preperation for the Cape Trip.
Thanks for all the input!

Personally I wouldn't panic about having to have them for a Cape trip. We did our trip up there in July on standard rear axles with no drama's.
Ours is a '85 110 with turbo'd Isuzu 4bd1 and 255/85-16 tyres and Detroit rear locker. Reasonably loaded up but we weren't towing. We've got a on-road Jayco Flamingo so do a bit of towing normally, but none offroad.

If you've got the spare cash then go for it and get the good axles, but if you're a bit tight there's probably more useful things to spend your dollars on for that trip.

Steve

**dullbird** · 12th October 2012, 10:18 AM

we did the cape in july on standard axles as well towing a camper trailer no dramas either so agree with the poster above

**Drover** · 12th October 2012, 05:03 PM

If anything one thing is the most venerable, it have to be CV's, I would think.

**rick130** · 12th October 2012, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by Drover

If anything one thing is the most venerable, it have to be CV's, I would think.

Vulnerable

(I'm guessing your spell checker did it ?)

There are plenty of 110's around with AUE2522 Cv's that have multiple hundreds of thousands of Km on them, and lots of 110/130's with the crappy, small shaft 32 spline CV's happily soldiering on, but yeah, they'll go bang on full lock, lots of right foot and a locker, although sometimes not straight away either but have been substantially weakened in the bush.

I'm guessing it's a 50/50 type situation, but most end up replacing axles first as Land Rover have been using greased wheel bearings with two piece axles now for twenty years so the fretting/corrosion problem is well entrenched.

FWIW I posted a Q on LR4x4 a couple of hours ago re current KAM CV's.
Hopefully the two ex-KAM boys might chip on the current state of quality there.
I like the idea of an RRC style CV with replaceable stub axles, although Bearmach AEU2522 replacement CV's held up well in Ashcrofts testing for thos not wishing/unable to cough up for the strong CV's.

I'm also wondering if the wear problem some seem to be experiencing with the Ashcroft CV's might be mitigated somewhat by a better quality, super high EP oil, or better still, (and I'm dreading the outcry from suggesting this) a super high quality CV grease like NEO CV500 or HPCC1 ?

The racing type CV greases are loaded with bucket loads of lubricating solids as well as being overdosed on EP additives to fix the problems of Indycar/F1/Sports Car tripod joints and older race car CV joints.

**mox** · 12th October 2012, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by harro

Hi Tough, Ashcrofts or whatever you choose they will still flog out at the drive flange if you don't change to oil lubed hubs.
It is a relatively simple fix and if done from new I am sure the factory axles would last a hell of a lot longer than they do.

I run Hi tough/maxidrive rears with their flanges all round and with the oil lubed hubs I don't expect to ever have problems in that area.

IMO the dreaded driveline clunk found in most defenders starts from there and gradually flogs out everything else including the A frame ball joint.

Cheers,
Paul.

I had left rear axle and hub splines on '97 build 130 Defender strip when vehicle had only done about 35,000 km. Other three at the time were still OK - still had a bit of oil or grease in them. Anyway, bought secondhand set of standard axles and hubs from another Defender owner who upgraded his. Also some oil seals which I intended to replace grease seals in hubs with.

However, the latter job still has not been done. Seems a quick and easy interim measure I used to stop the problem of axle splines running dry and chopping out in grease filled hubs is quite satisfactory. When repeated`occasionally should achieve same result as converting to oil fill. Simply clean plastic cap over axle end on hub and remove it. Then about half fill with diff oil or probably better still thicker industrial hypoid oil from Castrol which I used. Then just slap cap back on before oil can run out. Obviously caps should be in good condition. Anyway, a bit of surplus oil would work its way through the splines and into the bearing grease. Should stop the latter from going hard and not circulating a bit within bearings as it gets older. However, unless procedure is repeated far more often than necessary, should not be enough oil working its way out past original grease seal to cause any problem.

I have never noticed any complaints about splines on these LR axles stripping on the diff end and they are the same as those on the hub end. Seems to me if the above quick and simple maintenence job is done on all Defenders with grease filled hubs from early in their life onwards, there should not be any problems with splines of standard exles and hubs running dry of lubricant and stripping themselves.

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