defender steering assembly question

[pushkin]

Hi guys, have a very newbie question regarding steering assembly on my TD5 defender. Have it a few weeks now and while attaching a new bumper I noticed something which I'm sure isn't right...

Here's a shot of the right hand assembly:

https://sites.google.com/a/whybintbwa.com.au/shared_images/steeringhttps://sites.google.com/a/whybintbwa.com.au/shared_images/steering

And here's a shot of the left:

https://sites.google.com/a/whybintbwa.com.au/shared_images/steering2https://sites.google.com/a/whybintbwa.com.au/shared_images/steering2

All diagrams I've seen online show both right and left wheel assemblies attached to the track rod. It's been a few yrs since my last defender so I can't remember if it's right and have no Haynes manual at hand. The steering is horrible when driving it, bringing it in for a service on Monday :eek:

Any advice is appreciated, cheers

[rijidij]

I think they did a common casting of the housing allowing for left and right hand drive versions, so one of the arms isn't used.......just some extra weight for you to lugg around with you and burn up some extra fuel so they could save a little production cost I'd guess.

Cheers, Murray

[JDNSW]

Drag link is on the front of the axle, track rod is behind it. The unused eye on the RH swivel housing is for left hand drive. Early 110s at least did not have this, but somewhere along the line they changed to reduce the number of parts different between LHD and RHD.

John

[pushkin]

I think they did a common casting of the housing allowing for left and right hand drive versions, so one of the arms isn't used.......just some extra weight for you to lugg around with you and burn up some extra fuel so they could save a little production cost I'd guess.

Cheers, Murray


Oh, was thinking that might be the case but thought I'd better check!
Thanks mate