Thread: Barney - a 1958 Series II

For about the first two years of production (48-50) L/R's had taper roller bearings top and bottom.
.W.

So I'm looking at my hubs... some missing studs and the threads are flogged out; would you put Helicoils in these? Is it safe? Is it legal?







Peter.

My shed is slowly filling up with bits and pieces.





Listening to Chris Rea today, "King of the Beach"; here's "King of the Shed"...

Originally Posted by B.S.F.

For about the first two years of production (48-50) L/R's had taper roller bearings top and bottom.
.W.

Interesting... 10years prior to my Rover... but also later in Defenders according to Rod... well I think I'm getting a bit confused...

Well u never know, someone may have put an earlier front diff assy in it 55 years ago. Unless u had it from new, anything could have happened in the past. I didnt know about the early s1 having top n bottom bearings.
Good luck with it. It obviously works coz its lasted this long.😆

Cheers Rod

Originally Posted by OneOff

All good information lads, and thanks.

John, I do not have "Tufnol" bushes, neither do I have a spring arrangement as my parts list catalogue for a 1958 shows; I have taper bearings upper and lower, with external shims to adjust them. Is this yet another variation? Possibly from a later year?

Peter.

As noted, early Landrovers had taper roller bearings top and bottom - and were plagued with wheel shimmy. A very early fix for this was the steering relay with two tufnol bushes instead of one plus a bearing. The change was offered free retrospectively to all Landrovers 86001-861900 in April 1949, and was almost certainly fitted to all of them.

Some time after this, to further address the shimmy issue, the top swivel bearing was replaced by a spring loaded cone friction bearing, which in turn was changed to the more familiar tufnol bush and thrust washer during early Series 2a production.

Rangerover and coil spring Landrovers reverted to the tapered roller bearings top and bottom, with shimmy being less of an issue due to the more consistent geometry possible with coil springs, and the increasing use of properly balanced tyres.

Many today may not realise that until the 1970s, balancing of tyres was not routine, was relatively expensive, usually reserved for high speed cars, and was rarely done for utility vehicles. Often seen as a last thing to check, I remember (would have been 1964) an issue one of our mechanics had with wheel shimmy on a Landrover - having checked all the mechanical issues and replaced a couple of tie rod ends, adjusted preload etc, as a last resort, got the front wheels balanced. One of the front wheels was 26 ounces (close to a kilo) out of balance. Removing the tyre revealed a half circle sleeve had been fitted! Move the tyre to the back, problem solved.

John

Brilliant reply as always John, your vast knowledge is certainly a huge asset to this community.

So what's the best course of action?

Keep the taper bearings as is? (I don't like the idea of wheel shimmy)
Change to the bush and spring as per the parts catalogue?
Change to the tufnol bushs as per the later models?

Will the chrome swivel balls be the same regardless? Or will they need to be changed depending on which way I go?

Wow, six questions in a row... I appreciate your tolerance everybody, but I'm a bit stuck on this.

Peter

Change to railko bushes - they do work!

The swivels stay the same.

I converted my S1 to railko by making a swivel pin and pressing in the new parts,

Cheers Charlie