Fitting QT diff guards to a 2013 model Defender 110

[Ian1878]

I looked at a thread on fitting QT's on the disco section prior to fitting my front and rear QT diff guards today. After reading the post I was feeling quite positive. . . . .and then I started.

First mistake. . . . . Doing it on my own with very limited experience of tinkering with cars. Last time I was under a vehicle with a set of spanners was on an old Vauxhall Chevette in the UK . . . . Long time ago.

Anyway this is to help future fitting by Deefer owners.

1) go to your local fishmongers and see if they have any octopus in stock. You will need all the hands you can muster.

2) if you're doing it alone get a bottle jack or something to take the load of the guards while you are postioning them

3) the front one isn't too bad but I'm actually not convinced that these fit the new Puma perfectly. On both the front and rear, the top bracket needs serious fiddling to get it to sit to the point that you put the bolt in.

4) on the rear guard you have to undo 3 of the diff housing nuts at the bottom, which end up clamping against the guard. The 2 outside ones are easy. . . . But QT also utilise the lowest centre nut which is easy to undo but really awkard to retighten, as when the guard is in place the nut sits directly behind the guard. It becomes one of those spanner moments where you can move the nut about 1/8 of a turn for each spanner movement.

5) when fitting the rear guard, it worked best for me to fit the top bracket as stated but also to get the bolt started which connects to the main guard at the top at rear. The alignment of the holes in the diff guard and bracket are not easily aligned. If you leave the top rear bolt until the latter stages of fitment you will end up undoing the diff housing nuts again to get slack in the diff guard to get the nut in.

6) for me the bottle jack came in handy not just to hold the guards in place while I was struggling with the nuts and bolts but came in particularly handy when fitting the rear guard . The rear guard was quite a tight fit and I used the bottle jack to gently move the guard into position around the diff housing and up to the side mounting holes.

However after all the hassle, when they are on . . . They look the muts nuts and with 5mm steel look like they will be the saviour of the diff on impact.

$300 for the pair seems like a good investment.

Ian

[newhue]

I have a rear QT guard for a late mod defender if someone is considering one. PM me if want to talk more.