Thread: Full floating axles into 80"

i hope my axles dont do that to much time and money gone into it thanks for sharing

Originally Posted by Timj

Well I have finally got my 53 80" going again. Took it for a test drive today and it seems to be going great. It has been quite a saga that started with breaking an axle while just pulling out of a driveway onto the road. I didn't even realise what I had done as I was stuck across the left hand lane of a busy three lane road and was trying every lever I could in a bit of a panic to get it moving again. I pushed the yellow lever down as part of that and ended up running around in front wheel drive for a while without even realising. Anyway once I realised something wasn't right I pulled the axles and found the short side snapped at the end of the spline at the diff end. Had to pull the diff out to get out the broken part as well.

I though someone might be interested in the story of converting to full floating axles.

After reading of Scallops problems with bearings and spacers and the suggestions there for changing to full floating I started ringing around and decided to get a set of Hytough axles and drive flanges and convert it. The car is not standard in any way really so there is not much point in worrying about keeping it original, it just needs to be practical and strong. Of course the day after I rang to get prices and before I had decided to go ahead someone else bought the one set that was in stock so I had to wait while some were made and then sent away for heat treating. These axles are ten spline at the diff and 24 spline at the wheel and are much stronger than the standard ones.

Quite a few weeks later I finally had them in my possession and then realised that I needed some other bits as well like stub axles, hubs and brake backing plates (couldn't be bothered getting the originals off the axles). I have a few Series one diffs sitting around so I pulled the hubs, stub axles and brakes off one of those and thought that would do but the stub axles from the front are not the same as the rear so I had to buy some new rear stub axles from FWD. I also stripped the thread on one of the brake lines while trying to screw it back into the wheel cylinder so had to get a new brake line made (TBS-BHSS at Capalaba can do these, other places have looked at me blankly and said "gee it's not easy to get those parts any more")

So all the parts required were Series 3 stub axles (new), Series 1 hubs, series 1 brake backing plates, Hytough axles, Hytough drive flanges and of course bearings, seals and gaskets. Once I had all the parts it didn't take too long to get it all back together again and it now seems to all be working fine though it does look a bit flash with the gold drive flanges.

Very happy it is back on the road, just in time for All British Day on Sunday .

TimJ.

Why confused Russellrovers?

Originally Posted by Timj

Why confused Russellrovers?

hi it should haveread contact me for those fully floating axles willsee you on sunday jim

Look forward to seeing her on Sunday Tim.

Sounds like a good job. Couldn't you use series 3 flanges ? Thats what they used on the early ones i thought........

Yes, could have used series 3. But I don't have any of them sitting around.

Timj

Originally Posted by Timj

I also stripped the thread on one of the brake lines while trying to screw it back into the wheel cylinder so had to get a new brake line made (TBS-BHSS at Capalaba can do these, other places have looked at me blankly and said "gee it's not easy to get those parts any more")

"Not easy to get those parts any more"? The brakes use UNF tube nuts to secure the flares on the ends of the brake pipes. There should be no problem getting these. The only hard thing to get is the BSF bleed screws, but I think these are only for the 80".

Aaron.