Thread: 110 Axle Upgrade, or is it?

Hi Guys,

Have been a long time reader of AULRO, it seems there is a much larger LR scene in Aus than NZ and so maybe some of you have hands on experience with what I'm considering?

I've recently sold my 02 Td5 90, a sad day as I rebuilt it from a wreck. Anyway it's replacement is a 94 Tdi 110, the reason for the change is that the 90 was a bit small to carry four adults plus assorted outdoor kit for weekends away.

The 90 wasn't anything too special, rear locker, 35's(On 120mm BS rims), 2" lift, 1.2 Transfer case, Reprogrammed ECU and so it goes on. It was quite a good compromise for me off road and not so bad on road.

I really want the 110 to be similarly or more capable both on and off road and so have been scheming.

I don't really abuse my vehicles, having had both a Tdi Disco and the 90, both on 35's(McNamara locker and axles) and having never broken anything R&P, axle or centre I don't really see the need for me to go any bigger or stronger.

The 110 has a salisbury in the back and as I don't really need the strength the loss of ground clearance disturbs me!!!

There is the obvious option of slipping a disco rear axle in, filling it with a McNamara and axles and calling it good. This leaves the front a bit weak, the disco had 23 spline CVs and a 4pin diff but the 90 was standard, never managed to break either one but I did worry about the 90 with the 32 spline CVs, it was only a matter of time.

Another option that is nothing new is to run Hilux centres with longfield CV and custom axles, this way I can also go to 4.1 R&P + Toy elockers for a lot less money than upgrading the rover gear and it seems that the Toy solution might also be stronger.

If I'm going to go down the custom axle route it seems that maybe I could widen the rover housing to improve the turning circle while keeping min rim offset to keep it driving nice.

Here is what I'm thinking:

Get a Hi pinion Toy 4.1 8" Elocker, Longfield 30 spline CVs, re-splined early 110 drive flanges, custom front axles 40mm longer than standard, machine a spacer to bolt/weld to axle casing and then bolt the swivel to.

Get a Toy 4.1 8" Elocker, custom rear axles 40mm longer than standard and have some early 110 drive flanges re-splined to take the 30 spline axles and a 40mm spacer between stub and axle casing.

I think I could find a propshaft laying around to maching the yoke and spline off and refit them to a suitably long pice of tube to make up for the shorter toy diff, the Sals is quite long!! With machined and re drilled diff flanges it should all bolt up like standard.

I haven't eyeballed this but I'm thinking that maybe with the Hi pinion in the front I might be able to run a tweaked tie-rod to get it and my bash plate well up above the bottom of the axle casing. This would mean the radius arms would be in the way so why not 3 link the front at the same time. A well designed 3 link with the right springs and maybe a sway-bar should handle as well as the standard radius arms right?

This seems like a good chunk of work that I don't plan on doing over night, it will take time to get it all right but I think it might be a good plan. I would really like to use the chassis end radius arm mounts for the lower links and then squeeze the upper link in somewhere, this means that I could always just bolt the standard front end back in if I have too much trouble.

Yes just fitting 80 series or GQ axles might be easier and cheaper, but I want to keep it as rover as possible.

I'm not trying to go extreme, just to reasonable strength at a reasonable cost as I don't have heaps of $$ to spend on the rover

What do you guys think?

Anyone tried widening rover casings this or any other way?

Has any one run a Toy 8" Elocker in the rear of a 110, or a 24 spline rover back axle for that matter?

I know the Puma runs a 24 spline or similar rear end and there have been problems which concerns me but it seems more like manufacture faults right?

From what I've seen and read it seems like the 8" toy holds up in Hilux rears, so no reason the 110 should kill it right?

3 link fronts seem like a can of worms, to me I really just want to increase wheel travel to use the range of the standard shocks, but definitely not wanting to adversely affect the handling of the 110, has any one really achieved this? Lots of searching and most 3 links seem to aim for extreme wheel travel not compromise.

Most of all, is there a better way to do any of this?

Right that is probably long enough, would be great to hear some of your ideas.

Cheers
Mike

Christ, I got lost in all that!
I'm with Jakeslouw on this one - $10-$14k and you're set Help please
what does the sals diff look like, does it have a flat horizontal bottom edge to it? And how do you shave one, and what part do you shave? Also what is this R&P you're talking about?
cheers Gerald
I'd love to see photos of all this work