Thread: Fitting Maxidrives

Jeepers 8O

What's the total installation cost (full kit - installed) cost if done professionally? I'd hate to think!

Aren't ARB AirLockers and an axle upgrade ultimately a cheaper way to go?

Great work.

I suggest that Paul's writings be duplicated over in the locked PROJECTS thread.


Very worthy :!:

Originally posted by sclarke
good work.

How long did it take you to cut the housings???

All up how many hours to do the job??

Hi Steve

Cutting & welding the housings really didn't take that long. Bear in mind that I'm not the fastest of workers, and I was being very careful, you know - measure twice yada, yada :roll: . I reckon it was about 3 hours work on the Salisbury housing including cleaning it out with degreaser (to avoid unintentional setting fire to things ops: ) and setting it up with the porta power to put the pre-stress on it. The hole for the Salisbury was the most difficult because it was right where one of the brake line mounting brakets was originally welded on. Although this was whipped off pdq with the angle grinder, the housing must have been hardened by the welding and it took bloody ages to grind out the hole, even with a carbide die grinder. By comparison, the front axle took about half the time.

The whole job took me ages really, as I said, I'm no lightening bolt when it comes to these things. About an hour or so to rip the Salisbury centre out and dismatle it so I could send the hemisphere off to Mal to do his bit. Around half a day to remove the front and rear axles completely from the vehicle.

Reassembly of the diffs was much more straightforward than I expected. Everything pretty much fell back together, even at my pace. I guess roughly an hour to put the Salisbury diff back in the axle housing and checking backlash and engagement etc. The front diff probably 2 hours because you do actually have to adjust it to set it all up as well as modify one of the bearing caps for the new lock tab. This work was done over a week at night so the time taken is a bit of a guess.

Putting both axles back in the vehicle, running the vacuum lines, electrics, installing the switches and lights, rebuilding the front with new CVs and seals etc all took me a full day.

So, in total, it probably added up to nearly 3 days work. I'm sure proper mechanics would be a good deal quicker, especially if they've done the installation before. They'd certainly save on the time I spent double checking everything before I actually did it.

I'm glad I made the effort though. There's a certain satisfaction in doing a job like that yourself and not cocking it up. The cost saving wasn't really one of my motivating factore to be honest. It was more a case of having a go. Also, there aren't actually any LR workshops in Adelaide that have done this job to my knowledge (and I did ask Mal), although there are a couple here that I'm sure have done the ARB install. I know places like Fred Smith in Melb and Graeme Cooper in Syd do this job often, but I don't live there.


Paul

Originally posted by Omaroo
Jeepers 8O

What's the total installation cost (full kit - installed) cost if done professionally? I'd hate to think!

Aren't ARB AirLockers and an axle upgrade ultimately a cheaper way to go?

I have no idea what the cost of getting someone to do the job would be, but I'm sure someone here would know. It might not be as much as you think because I've probably made it sound more of a job that it really is. :wink:

ARBs are definitely going to be cheaper if you're paying someone to do all the work. There's a big saving with the ARBs for a start because you don't have to take the axles out of the vehicle and that would easily make up for the extra $400 or so in parts cost. Which is the better option? Well that's a discussion that could go on for days. In the end I made the right choice for me, but for the next guy...

Paul

Fantastic post. Thanks for sharing.

Something to save up for.

Well done, you're braver than me.

I could of DIY, but I din't have acess to the gear like you had and forked out the $$$ to get it retro-fitted to my 87

Trav

This was a good read. I hope to do this one day.

Originally Posted by rar110

This was a good read. I hope to do this one day.

Not likely as Maxi-drive do not exist anymore. If you buy secondhand you will buy the whole diff and you will not have to worry about the fitting instructions