Thread: HD Axle Install

Just some added info...

Ive made mention of this before...
I dont remove the inner axle seal as feeding the axle ends with oil isnt enough. Ive had numerous ex fire service vehicles in over the years, all had the inner seal removed and fitted with Maxi drive axles (the old HTE brand) and all had worn out the splines.

I fit initially with grease and re-grease the outer splines on customers Defenders that have HTE (brand name) axles/drive flanges fitted every second or third service.

Also if fitting HTE (brand name) drive flanges on the front with standard axles (perfectly acceptable), if the Defender is low mileage the splines will be a tight tight fit (a good thing) and the use of a sliding hammer will make it an easy job.

Regards
Daz

P.S sliding hammer with adapter that screws into front axle, my dad is the machinist.

I had another thought as to why there is no needle roller bearing on the rear of D1's at least - the drive member and axle are single piece. So there is no need to support the axle shaft through the stub. In the case of a separate drive member with splines, the splines must also keep the axle centred or it will rotate off centre. Correct?

Do any other vehicles (Defenders?) have the single piece axle and drive member?

Originally Posted by Judo

Do any other vehicles (Defenders?) have the single piece axle and drive member?

Its doesn't matter, all Defender, Discovery 1/2 are all fully floating axles, as in the load of the vehicle is not born by the axle.

Just as a side note..
The last few month of production of the Defender TDCi (puma) went to a one piece axle/drive flange.

Regards
Daz

Originally Posted by Judo

I had another thought as to why there is no needle roller bearing on the rear of D1's at least - the drive member and axle are single piece. So there is no need to support the axle shaft through the stub. In the case of a separate drive member with splines, the splines must also keep the axle centred or it will rotate off centre. Correct?

Do any other vehicles (Defenders?) have the single piece axle and drive member?

the needle roller in the front end is not present in the rear as the rear does not have a 2 piece shaft, its supported by the spider gear in the diff and the drive flange.

on the front the bearing supports the body of the CV and the drive flange supports the axle side of the CV. This locates the CV and the CV then located the half shaft with the sun gear of the diff supporting the other end of the half shaft.

There is a bearing in all of the front hubs in some its a needle roller in others its a bush type bearing.

All landrovers (save the original series 1) with beam axles run a fully floating axle even though in the rangie and the disco have the flange made as part of the driving shaft, the simple test to prove the type of axle configuration is to remove (or break) the drive shaft.

If the wheel (hub) doesnt loose any alignment you had a fully floating axle
The wheel goes wonky but remains vaguely in position or attached to the vehicle then it was semi floating
if the wheel comes away with the axle then it was non floating or a load bearing axle.

Keep in mind that thats a very rough outline as depending on the exact configuration of the hub and and the nature of the axle failure a non floating axle can act like a semi floating axle and a semi floating axle can act like a non floating axle.

Makes more sense now - the needle roller does support the shaft, but that's for the CV end, not the drive member thus it is a moot point in the rear. Thanks Dave.