Thread: 1981 Poo brown two door restore.

Here’s the spacing for the lettering as provided by Richard at Church house classics on you tube.
He spent quite some time and effort to supply this for me,so if you intend to use it,kindly support his channel and send him a beer voucher via PayPal.

if you run an old rangie ,this is compulsory viewing,and his archive of videos well worth a search.
If you’re targeting one area,odds on he will have covered it in detail.
Church House Classics - YouTube


He covers all aspects of maintenance,restoration techniques and how to’s based on his wealth of experience,and his hard case sense of humour is gold.All off the cuff as he works,gifted guy.

FD9E8857-81E7-4925-8AA8-44AC3DEA98B1.jpg

Finishing touches,carpet on rear tailgate inside attached with domes riveted onto lower gate,vain attempt to quieter her and overlaps carpet on cargo bay so reduces carbon monoxide death

still waiting on upholstery guy to finish seat backs but apart from that interior is complete.

Nervously attended a local warrant of fitness yesterday and nearly fell over when it passed as noticed rear stoplamp was out as he drove it into the shop,he didn’t notice Quietly I think I caught him and his mate having a couple of quiets in the garage,so lucky for me he was having a good day and missed the stoplamp,weep on steering box and atrocious brakes

Spent the morning removing those awful blue clip clamp type wire connectors around the rear brake light setup ,someone had used that were full off dirt so no volts.

Rebuilt one side front brake caliper,such a crap job and they never balance properly afterward but at least binding less and no more kamakaze dive into the gutter on hard braking
Minor frustration trying to get those outer dust seal and rings in flat,hence the bird photo..got to laugh

Looks like a diff rebuild required,,a few extra items after the oil drain
Need some guidance here,never attacked the diff at all.

Its an 81 two door,so when looking for a donor,will it accept a later model Range Rover diff without issue,anything to know or look out for?

By the look of the pin it’s chewed to hell,so expecting collateral damage when I get it out.


2F0309AF-1C64-444F-A331-AEA0F2AD4FE5.jpg 4467CD91-420D-4DD5-BF3A-88C9710ED0BF.jpg 38DFE9F3-0F8B-4BA1-9D73-FC85E7B5F0E9.jpg

Originally Posted by westy1

Looks like a diff rebuild required,,a few extra items after the oil drain
Need some guidance here,never attacked the diff at all.

Its an 81 two door,so when looking for a donor,will it accept a later model Range Rover diff without issue,anything to know or look out for?

By the look of the pin it’s chewed to hell,so expecting collateral damage when I get it out.


2F0309AF-1C64-444F-A331-AEA0F2AD4FE5.jpg 4467CD91-420D-4DD5-BF3A-88C9710ED0BF.jpg 38DFE9F3-0F8B-4BA1-9D73-FC85E7B5F0E9.jpg

Are you talking just the centre or hub to hub inclusive?

They went to 23 spline axles in the early 90's. '81 would be 10 spline which won't fit.

At some stage they also went to having the shocks in the same plane..........not fore and aft like an 81.

Found a decent donor front final drive from mates hangar of Land Rover gems.
Righto,enough faffing,, get into it,so wheels off,brakes off.
removed top swivel pin to release brake line mud shield and cable tie out of the way.
ED827018-AD35-4A77-ABD7-C6986C5C365A.jpg

Remove the 6 bolts on hubs and removed entire unit each side with half shafts.
looks like the long side shaft is a bit flogged,but save that for another day,as would be big delay to get a new one,same as cv’s etc,so this isn’t quite a full front end rebuild yet,wish I’d had this stuff ready to go tho..

373DABFB-0AF1-426A-A37C-E2208C273210.jpg

Someone had been into the left side before me,,that inner axle oil seal was facing the wrong way.

C1FA9281-783B-4402-91AB-98B9AAF5C76F.jpg1A35B9BD-05A3-462B-95EA-E87E002D54A6.jpgB37DA802-2641-49D7-A675-05B68A69C3BE.jpg

neither were holding back from mixing the swivel grease and axle oil so was a black mess,(and yes not bad for lubing bearings that way)so changed both while in there and also the swivel ring seals that were weeping as well.easy as while on the garage floor.

Top tip;Use marker paint across the axle /hub prior to disassembly,to avoid any drama with alignment and bolt holes while wrestling the rather heavy unit back on(red),do same for the swivel seal plate iq test (yellow)

DB570E8D-4C76-4B9D-AF2D-79771765EECB.jpg

Mr backward seal was obviously a fan of bathroom sealant,,why?

87BCCDAC-4AA4-4F79-8799-9BB1658EDCD5.jpg

Phase two,remove prop shaft,(sits on rear crossmember nicely out of the way)then undo 9 nuts and wrestle heavy diff unit onto chest while upside down

Those little gems found in the oil drain now completed the jigsaw puzzle of destruction..
Check out the remaining pin ,hanging in there,but edging it’s way out of the hole,,,fun times at 120km .
Surprisingly the play wasn’t that bad so stuck it back into car…Joke…

ECA581F5-4B30-4DB4-86FD-76E670316B38.jpg BD7DE863-E5FD-4C05-96CB-B82165D02DAA.jpg F470B806-76FC-4586-8EDF-F48188EE806C.jpg

Flying solo ,so cheated and used a trolley jack to assist line up axle shafts back into diff..
Laughed at what a grubby oily messy job this can be,or maybe it’s just the operator
Tomorrow,tidy up,,do swivel preloads,prop shaft back on ,oils and grease packs,and reinstate new track rod replacing current banana rod.


2C7185E9-9FE0-4100-B438-5567DE6A3077.jpg 7030A7E7-6489-4262-85F9-6B340C5ABC7C.jpg

Originally Posted by westy1

...............

Remove the 6 bolts on hubs and removed entire unit each side with half shafts.
looks like the long side shaft is a bit flogged,but save that for another day,as would be big delay to get a new one,same as cv’s etc,so this isn’t quite a full front end rebuild yet,wish I’d had this stuff ready to go tho..

373DABFB-0AF1-426A-A37C-E2208C273210.jpg.................

That's bad. The splines on the axles from my 74 diffs were almost pristine and went into the '81 diffs I had as part of a major 'colour change'. They'd done 600 thou, including 185 thou towing a van by a previous owner.

The '81 axle splines were ok, but not as good. I guess the grade of cheese they used in 74 was superior.

DL

Originally Posted by westy1

Found a decent donor front final drive from mates hangar of Land Rover gems.
Righto,enough faffing,, get into it,so wheels off,brakes off.
removed top swivel pin to release brake line mud shield and cable tie out of the way.
ED827018-AD35-4A77-ABD7-C6986C5C365A.jpg

Remove the 6 bolts on hubs and removed entire unit each side with half shafts.
looks like the long side shaft is a bit flogged,but save that for another day,as would be big delay to get a new one,same as cv’s etc,so this isn’t quite a full front end rebuild yet,wish I’d had this stuff ready to go tho..

373DABFB-0AF1-426A-A37C-E2208C273210.jpg

Someone had been into the left side before me,,that inner axle oil seal was facing the wrong way.

C1FA9281-783B-4402-91AB-98B9AAF5C76F.jpg1A35B9BD-05A3-462B-95EA-E87E002D54A6.jpgB37DA802-2641-49D7-A675-05B68A69C3BE.jpg

neither were holding back from mixing the swivel grease and axle oil so was a black mess,(and yes not bad for lubing bearings that way)so changed both while in there and also the swivel ring seals that were weeping as well.easy as while on the garage floor.

Top tip;Use marker paint across the axle /hub prior to disassembly,to avoid any drama with alignment and bolt holes while wrestling the rather heavy unit back on(red),do same for the swivel seal plate iq test (yellow)

DB570E8D-4C76-4B9D-AF2D-79771765EECB.jpg

Mr backward seal was obviously a fan of bathroom sealant,,why?

87BCCDAC-4AA4-4F79-8799-9BB1658EDCD5.jpg

Phase two,remove prop shaft,(sits on rear crossmember nicely out of the way)then undo 9 nuts and wrestle heavy diff unit onto chest while upside down

Those little gems found in the oil drain now completed the jigsaw puzzle of destruction..
Check out the remaining pin ,hanging in there,but edging it’s way out of the hole,,,fun times at 120km .
Surprisingly the play wasn’t that bad so stuck it back into car…Joke…

ECA581F5-4B30-4DB4-86FD-76E670316B38.jpg BD7DE863-E5FD-4C05-96CB-B82165D02DAA.jpg F470B806-76FC-4586-8EDF-F48188EE806C.jpg

Flying solo ,so cheated and used a trolley jack to assist line up axle shafts back into diff..
Laughed at what a grubby oily messy job this can be,or maybe it’s just the operator
Tomorrow,tidy up,,do swivel preloads,prop shaft back on ,oils and grease packs,and reinstate new track rod replacing current banana rod.


2C7185E9-9FE0-4100-B438-5567DE6A3077.jpg 7030A7E7-6489-4262-85F9-6B340C5ABC7C.jpg

How on earth do you break spider gears like that? I'm guessing something from "somewhere else" went through them ?

The only other item in the bottom of diff pan was the circlip, bent and mangled,so may have got thrown around and pinched enough to tear off a tooth at a guess.

All back together and no leaks (today..)
Less perceivable whine noticeable,feels smooth & positive in steering,needs a little play on the Steering wheel taken up by tightening the box a tad,but not bad at all .
Will do a wheel align as best practice..
Hate to think what all that would have cost taken to a mechanics shop!!