Puma Axle's

[jake]

Just a quick question, more out of curiosity.
Have the rear axles changed in the puma and are they good in terms of longevity.
Has anyone used other brand/type of axle.

Jake:)

[gvwow]

Hi all i would like to know as well. as i would like to know that i will be able to have confidence with the family in the defender. I have read a lot of post, but i do not know the technical aspect. I just want do offroad with a little of sand,hills,mud rock but not extreme and able to pull out outher offroaders that may need my help.. thank you :)

[RVR110]

Puma axles are fine. You only need to upgrade them if you are installing lockers and therefore subjecting them to conditions that they were not designed for. In particular, if your car is under warranty then leave it's drive train untouched until your warranty expires.

[rick130]

I hope for your sakes the drive flanges are being pulled and the splines greased every 20,000km or so when the car is being serviced.

Fretting corrosion of the axle/drive flange splines is the Defenders Achilles heel.

When the warranty expires I'd be converting the hubs to oil lubed.

[Blknight.aus]

same rear diff as the td5, I abused the hell out of mine and failed to break a shaft.

In your case I'd be more worried about the pinion bearings failing early because of the change in the included angles in the propshaft because of the tilt on the Tcase caused by the tilt on the gearbox thats hooked up to the engine they had to install on an angle.

Noooo skimping on doing the pinion checks during servicings on a ford.

[gvwow]

Thank you much for your promp replies, especialy on a rainy sunday afternoon, I just got back spashing around (love driving the defender) and you guys have answered my questons Thank you very much :)
p.s the kids all have smiles on there faces and there starving apparently..:spudnikdizzy:
Thanks again...

[newhue]

Just a quick question, more out of curiosity.
Have the rear axles changed in the puma and are they good in terms of longevity.
Has anyone used other brand/type of axle.

Jake:)

As mentioned for normal use the axels will be fine. But check the flanges are well greased well as Rick suggested.
There is a bloke in the GCLRO club who uses his Tdci truck pretty hard. He has twin lockers on standard axels, or did have. It took him several years to break or strip the axels, so normal the axels aren't weak so to speak.

Ashcroft, or HiTuff do replacement axels if you are concerned. If you replace axels, upgrade the flanges as well. It's also worth considering running them in oil opposed to grease. It's a simple conversion which involves removing one oil seal all together, and replacing another with a twin lipped seal. You need the upgraded flanged as well to make it work.

[Drover]

I did the Ashcroft conversion ( front and rear half shafts, drive flanges and CV's) about 12 months into the new car warranty period. Also did the oil lube conversion at the same time.

That was 3 years ago and I think it was worth while. I wanted to negate any possible issues before they happened. It is well and good to say just claim it on warrenty but if you in a remote location when something g breaks...

[Jacko44]

What was the approximate cost of this work Drover?

[Drover]

I imported all the Ashcroft stuff directly from them in the UK, they broke the order into seperste shipments to keep each purchase under the £1000 to avoid the import duty.

Cost was about $2250 AUD delivered. Then another $80 I think for the new oil seals and 2 litres of diff oil of to top up the front and rear diffs. I turned the spanners at home so no fitting costs.

You can pay well over $4500 if you buy the Ashcroft gear in Australia. So speak directly to them if you decide to do it. Check out their web site their gear is pretty cool.

[Jacko44]

Thanks Drover, I have added to my wish list. Seems like a huge saving to import directly.

[c.h.i.e.f]

Never had a problem with rover rear axles to be honest and that's on 3 vehicles a county,200tdi defender and a puma having said that the puma went in for 3 rear diffs whilst under warranty for reasons I put down to what blknight said...the same cannot be said for genuine front ends I have snapped axles/cv's in puma and 200tdi with standard tyres and Hp the county's I have not..

[Iain_B]

The rear axles were replaced under warranty on my 2011 Puma after the first trip up to the Cape. It seems if you load up your Defender close to max, have drive up a few steep creek exits, you can damage the standard axles. I had a lot of extra play in the drive train after the first trip, and after the dealer to check at the next service, they told me the axles were damaged. Replacing them made a bit of a difference to the play, but I was still not happy.

I decided to fit Hi-tuf axles when I fitted the Ashcroft ATBs front and rear and converted the axles to oil lubed as well. MR Automotive set up the diffs properly, and removed a lot of play out of the drive train that the dealer had said was "within spec".