Thread: British Steel

Yep, their hardening processes left a lot to be desired. Axles like plastercine. Funny thing is, not all Landies were built like that. The Salisbury diffs and axles are very strong, and the axles in the 101's are bloody huge - you'd never break one - they are the same as a Dana 60 axle. I'm sure it just came down to production costs. If they had run the sals in every vehicle then I'm sure LR wouldn't have such a bad name now.

British Steel Part 2
Now don,t you guys get me wrong I just love landys I eat, drink and sleep Landrovers.In fact since the first series 1was built their design has been so far ahead of jap 4wheelers right up to the present Landrover there is no comparison.But they do suffer with what I call “British Ostrich syndrome head in the sand” Yes we Brits have the best steel in the world,,,,,REALLY!..... You only have to watch Top Gear each week to see what I mean. Now I have just finished reading an article in 4X4 mag about 25 years of Landrover Discovery and surprise surprise I read the Iron Lady Maggie Thatcher way back in 1986 wanted to sell Landrover to GM and all those silly poms protested in Hyde Park and stopped the sale. Wow do you realize what they did way back there,can you imagine what awesome vehicles we would have had if the worlds best automobile manufacturer GENERAL MOTORS had bought Landrover.But no such luck..but wait years later the news is out Ford has purchased the Landrover company and for weeks I can,t control my joy.Now we are going to get 110s with Ford 9” diffs front and rear Falcon engines 4 sp autos we are going to be in landy heaven,no more will we have to buy Marks adapters to fit falcon or holden engines to our landrovers so we can drive all over Australia at a decent speed …. But no it didn,t happen they were sold of again

I agree with , like you I have been a Land Rover devotee , for many years now and had more than my share as well , I always kept hoping that next years model would be an improvement , hoping that they would sort out there build quality , leaks , electrics axel's , gearboxes , but It never happened , year in year out the same two blokes at the back of the factory , just turned up doing the same thing , Joseph Lucas . We don't even want to go there ! But people kept buying them , hoping they would get better , Including me , One thing I can say that is a positive is they have improved my mechanical skills , They are finally just about getting them right after all this time , only to tell the world there now stoping production . All they had to do was put better light switches , and a bit harder steel in the drive train , I still love my Landy's Jim ...

Originally Posted by wildweels

...the worlds best automobile manufacturer GENERAL MOTORS

Ahem, naah... biggest may be true, but best?!??? I do have my reservations. Besides, if the deal had taken place, Land Rover might just as well have shared the fate of other GM belongings, namely Saab, as things started to turn sour for the mother company. Worn and milked out, sold off for scrap, only to disappear from the screen completely.

Originally Posted by Jojo

Ahem, naah... biggest may be true, but best?!??? I do have my reservations. Besides, if the deal had taken place, Land Rover might just as well have shared the fate of other GM belongings, namely Saab, as things started to turn sour for the mother company. Worn and milked out, sold off for scrap, only to disappear from the screen completely.

Best thing that could happen to Saab heaps of ****

Watch out for Part 3 of British Steel you guys Cheers Noel

It is well known that Landrover axles are made of cheese.

They seemed to be worst during late S3 production, then they improved for a while (one-ten to early D1), however later D1 24 spline axles are weaker than earlier D1/RRC 10-spliners!

Curiously though, they seem to have found quality steel and appropriate hardening processes for their transfer cases and largely for their gearboxes aswell.

British Steel part 3

As we all know it doesn,t matter wether you have an English motor cycle or a car you are always supplied with that most important free accessorie the OIL LEAK.I had to rebuild my gearbox and got to thinking that I would bebuild it without the oil leaks,so when time to reassemble it I carefully cleaned all surfaces with wax and oil remover and using aircraft gasket cement sealed all joins.Gearbox reassembled and fitted back in the Drover one week later and all is looking fantastic,one day later what,s this I see on the garage floor yes it looks like oil well I was getting sick of seeing a clean floor.
Around 1980 I had the pleasure to have to do some building work for Noel Searle who was in Toorak he had a large glassing company.After working there for a few days I had to go through the garage he had quite a few expensive cars in the garage one was a Rolls Royce 4 years and I looked under it and that’s right you guessed it that free accessorie lying on the floor.It was around the time the Commadore had recently come out and there was top of the line Commadore sitting near the Rolls I said to Noel hows the Commadore go he said I would much drive it than the Roller and guess what it never had an oil leak under it