Thread: Caster Corrected Front Swivels, How to do it...

Originally Posted by sclarke

$150 per side

Cheaper than cranked arms and does not cause propshaft issues.

Or buy my 6 bolt ones for $200 posted.....

im a little confused,whats the advantage of using your 6 bolt swivel housings????cheers Ramon.

Originally Posted by Bush65

Castor correction bushes improve the castor but they upset the diff angle on Land Rovers (and reduce articulation)


In many conventional vehicles your understanding would be correct, but for the front tailshaft of coil sprung Land Rovers it is wrong.


Yes you can - this is exactly how a tailshaft with a double cardan joint must be set-up (e.g. Disco II front tailshaft). And is very close to how earlier coil sprung front tailshafts should be.

When Land Rover introduced coil springs, they raised the front of the engine to get more clearance between the engine and axle housing.

This inclined the engine and driveline down to the rear. This was not a problem for the rear tailshaft - just angle the diff pinion up so it was parallel with the engine and gearbox.

But angling the front diff pinion down would not be good for the u-joint angles.

So Land Rover angled the diff pinion up toward the t/case. This makes the u-joints out of phase, but by rotating the front and rear u-joints out of line it bought the joints back into phase and corrected the vibrations to an acceptable amount.

Rotating the swivel housing is the best way to correct the castor of a coil sprung Land Rover without upsetting the front tailshaft.

Thanks for that, I remember something now about shafts being in and out of phase, I run unis on a lot of equipment but there is rarely any problems with vibrations that are noticable over the rest of the machine.

So is it just a matter of turning the flanges around or can you split the shaft and move it around on splines? Ive never paid that much attention of the shaft itself.

Ive recently replaced the unis but pit them back the way they came appart so that shouldnt be a problem unless they were pit together wrong to start with before I got it as it has always had a slight vibe but is more noticable now it's lifted.

Originally Posted by discologist

im a little confused,whats the advantage of using your 6 bolt swivel housings????cheers Ramon.

What is the advantage????

OK back to the start....
Any lift over 2" can cause bump steer problems.
Correcting the Caster fixes this.

So these swivel housings will fix this....

Originally Posted by weeds

slotted or extra holes drilled? everybody is referring to slotted is this what you are calling the extra holes

any reason you didn't drill your own swivels out

Slotted....
and extra holes drilled as locking bolts so they wont rotate back

Originally Posted by sclarke

Slotted....
and extra holes drilled as locking bolts so they wont rotate back

OK, i'm guessing the slots were not ery long....thanks

Originally Posted by mcrover

I see what you guys mean now.

Originally Posted by mcrover

Thanks for that, I remember something now about shafts being in and out of phase, I run unis on a lot of equipment but there is rarely any problems with vibrations that are noticable over the rest of the machine.

So is it just a matter of turning the flanges around or can you split the shaft and move it around on splines? Ive never paid that much attention of the shaft itself.

Ive recently replaced the unis but pit them back the way they came appart so that shouldnt be a problem unless they were pit together wrong to start with before I got it as it has always had a slight vibe but is more noticable now it's lifted.

Man your confuzzled, you can;t turn the flanges to change the phasing of the shaft, it needs to be split and rotated on the slip joint spline

If you drag yourself underneath, the phasing should be out enough to be noticeable by eye

Originally Posted by weeds

OK, i'm guessing the slots were not ery long....thanks

Enough to allow 5degrees of rotation