Thread: A Few Resto Questions

1. Depending on your finances, I would replace these on condition.

2. Prop shafts only need replacing based on wear on splines or damage/elongation of bearing sockets or bolt holes on flanges.

3. Unless the driver makes a practice of 'driving on the brakes', or you are in a very hilly area and often fully loaded or towing, the standard brakes are good. Apart from replacing hydraulic components and discs/rotors as necessary, I would not consider upgrading for normal use (unless increasing tyre diameter significantly, which does increase load on braking as well as everything else).

4. The gearbox should be checked especially for wear and lack of lubrication on the splines between the main gearbox and transfer case. There is a modification to improve lubrication here. The centre diff needs to be examined for wear and repaired as necessary. There will always be slack in the transmission of these vehicles, but the gearbox itself is rarely an issue. There are a lot of splined joints in the transmission path, with the only other ones likely to cause failure from wear being the hub drive flanges. Free play in axle locating links, especially the ball joint on top of the rear axle can also be implicated.

5. Spare tyre. The rear door can provide barely adequate support for the standard tyre/wheel. Definitely not the way to go for oversize tyres/wheels or if used on rough roads. In any case, carefully check the internal structure of the door for cracks, and repair and reinforce as necessary.

6. For the specified use, this would be an almost total waste of money.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

1. Depending on your finances, I would replace these on condition.

2. Prop shafts only need replacing based on wear on splines or damage/elongation of bearing sockets or bolt holes on flanges.

3. Unless the driver makes a practice of 'driving on the brakes', or you are in a very hilly area and often fully loaded or towing, the standard brakes are good. Apart from replacing hydraulic components and discs/rotors as necessary, I would not consider upgrading for normal use (unless increasing tyre diameter significantly, which does increase load on braking as well as everything else).

4. The gearbox should be checked especially for wear and lack of lubrication on the splines between the main gearbox and transfer case. There is a modification to improve lubrication here. The centre diff needs to be examined for wear and repaired as necessary. There will always be slack in the transmission of these vehicles, but the gearbox itself is rarely an issue. There are a lot of splined joints in the transmission path, with the only other ones likely to cause failure from wear being the hub drive flanges. Free play in axle locating links, especially the ball joint on top of the rear axle can also be implicated.

5. Spare tyre. The rear door can provide barely adequate support for the standard tyre/wheel. Definitely not the way to go for oversize tyres/wheels or if used on rough roads. In any case, carefully check the internal structure of the door for cracks, and repair and reinforce as necessary.

6. For the specified use, this would be an almost total waste of money.

JD,

Thanks so much for your reply, much appreciated!

A couple paint questions I forgot to include:

1. Axles- powder coat or tractor paint? Either way I will get them blasted and treat with Fertan rust converter.
2. Getting chassis hot-dipped galvanized soon, and wondering if I should also get the bulkhead and b/c pillars dipped. I've heard very mixed reviews on getting paint to stick properly after galvanizing.

Cheers!

Slack and backlash in the transmission area can be caused by wear in the shafts and spud shaft between the gearbox and tfr case. In early versions - earlier than about 1996 oil cannot get up to lubricate the splines on the gearbox output shaft and the tfr case input shaft - the spud shaft joins them.

There is a mod that has a plate that splashes oil up to the area but in later transmission units LR drilled the spud shaft to allow oil to lubricate the splines.

Any early gearbox/tfr case will have wear on the splines and spud shaft (my 1994 (95MY) Disco had this issues within 100,000km).

Of course in an older vehicle you will most likely have wear on the driveshaft splines and the hubs will likely be worn as well.

Garry

Just drive it til 350k then worry about driveline , they had backlash from new.

Backlash can be from wear, or engineered from new. From memory the greater the pressure angle the more backlash and noise, but upside is easier lubrication between teeth and stronger teeth. Smaller the pressure angle the less noise and backlash, downside harder to lubricate and weaker teeth (Q - quiet - boxes for example).

Regarding the standard centre diff, at minimum consider replacing the two centre pins with an Ashcroft solid centre pin. While in there it will give you a chance to check the shim thicknesses - despite relative low kms if lubrication has been skimped they will wear quite quickly. I have a centre diff out of a v8 of low kms with broken centre pins sitting on the bench at the moment and conditions elsewhere in box indicate poor lube servicing. Then there is the debate about under what circumstances should you should engage/lock the standard centre diff - installing the Ashcroft torque biasing centre diff does away with all the arguments (you would hope) and gives you the best of both worlds.

I prefer lockers front and rear. Others like different combinations.

I have restored a TDI defender from ground up and learnt a few things. If I were to do it again I would know better. My mistake was that I created a shopping list of desirable's before I even started tearing it down. As a result I ended up spending a lot more than I really needed to.

Do not replace anything that is working perfectly fine. Upgrading or replacing for the sake of piece of mind will not get you across the finish line on time or under budget. You shouldn't have a list of wants/upgrades on your shopping list. Tear it down first and find out what actually needs doing.

The true value of a full tear down and rebuild on an old defender is you get to cure all the mistakes they made when assembling at the factory, plus you get to inspect pretty much everything on your defender.

Galvanise everything steel; bulkhead, body cappings, chassis, brackets etc etc. Paint will stick if galvanised surface is etched and primed properly. Paint all your galvanised steel and you will never need to worry about rust again.

Where dissimilar metals meet, place a barrier. For bolts/screws use something like tefgel. Where dissimilar metals join use very thin plastic sheet or closed cell foam gasket. Stainless bolts/fixings are not good in contact with galv or aluminium! Galv bolts are better.

Remove the skins on your doors, get the frames galvanised. The ali skins will react with the steel frames if left in contact and turn to dust! Alternatively get a pair of rust free (puma) steel skin doors and inject them with something like dinitrol.

Paint all your body work before re-assembly. All new paint will make your defender look factory fresh. In the USA it will be a real head turner.

Diffs, brakes, engine, axles can all be maintained without pulling the car to pieces. You can replace or upgrade those further down the track when due. Whilst you have those parts off the car you should inspect for any signs of obvious wear, leaks etc, and fix/replace/service where needs be. If you do the timing belt, head gasket and sump gasket you will get to know the condition of your motor. Clutch and rear main seal are worth doing with the motor out.

For the dash, replace all broken plastic and all missing screws, use loctite. Hit corrugations with any missing fixings and you will fracture sections of your dash in no time. The APT steel dash binnacle frame is also well worth it, the LR plastic one is flimsy as crap and WILL break if not broken already.

Re trim your interior if drab, kits available from exmoor. Soundproofing also worth doing. The exmoor matting really tidies up the interior and dampens transmission noise.

Have mudflaps front and rear, and consider something like the gwynlewis wheel arch kits that stop dirt going all up over your chassis. Because after you put in all the work you will want to keep it clean!

IMO getting it looking factory fresh and knowing it is rust free and solid is a big enough job to get your started. After that you service as normal and upgrade when appropriate.

Originally Posted by garrycol

Slack and backlash in the transmission area can be caused by wear in the shafts and spud shaft between the gearbox and tfr case. In early versions - earlier than about 1996 oil cannot get up to lubricate the splines on the gearbox output shaft and the tfr case input shaft - the spud shaft joins them.

There is a mod that has a plate that splashes oil up to the area but in later transmission units LR drilled the spud shaft to allow oil to lubricate the splines.

Any early gearbox/tfr case will have wear on the splines and spud shaft (my 1994 (95MY) Disco had this issues within 100,000km).

Of course in an older vehicle you will most likely have wear on the driveshaft splines and the hubs will likely be worn as well.

Garry

Pulling x-fer case today...do I get the mod or will the later spud shaft fit?

Originally Posted by JDNSW

4. The gearbox should be checked especially for wear and lack of lubrication on the splines between the main gearbox and transfer case. There is a modification to improve lubrication here. The centre diff needs to be examined for wear and repaired as necessary. There will always be slack in the transmission of these vehicles, but the gearbox itself is rarely an issue. There are a lot of splined joints in the transmission path, with the only other ones likely to cause failure from wear being the hub drive flanges. Free play in axle locating links, especially the ball joint on top of the rear axle can also be implicated.

Here's what I found...looks fairly dry to me...there is wear on the splines as well, not sure if it's normal or not but it looks abnormal to me.