Axles

Two posts in one day? 

Wow. Maybe things do move along for a little bit, at least, when you get past a major blocker on your car project. 

Or maybe the weather's just been generally shitty and there's not much opportunity to go motorcycling. 

On with the story: I hemmed and hawed and generally prevaricated, thinking about whether or not to paint the chassis black. Eventually I settled on leaving it with the bare galvanized finish. Why? Well, I am:

1. lazy

2. not flush with the right equipment

3. not terribly skilled (in fact painting might just be the one thing I'm worst at)

4. not sure I really want it black after all? 

Anyway, when you finish with your chassis, painted or not, the next thing you logically want to do is start bolting things to it. Right? What good is a fourteen-foot-long piece of metal doing in your garage in the first place if you're not going to turn it into something other than a glorified shelf?

"Regular readers" (hi, mom) will know that I've been mucking around with the axles -- well, the rear axle, anyway -- on this project for some time. By now I should have a set plan on what to do and some progress made, right?

Riiiiiight.

I made the fateful decision to post on the roverlanders message board some months ago and see if there was a later, Salisbury-type axle available for a reasonable price. They were offered as standard on all military, 1-ton style Land Rovers and were a standard fitment to the later Series 3 long wheelbase trucks. They are said to be much stronger than the stock Rover unit. 

So I bought one. 

But. But! I didn't just buy a standard axle -- oh no, that's too easy and straightforward a decision. What I bought instead was a Salisbury axle with a 3.54 ratio crownwheel and pinion. This is a higher drive ratio than the standard 4.7 Rover unit. Using this axle, therefore, would have a couple of implications. First, that the final drive ratio will be higher overall; this will mean lower-RPM driving in all situations. For the standard 2.25-liter gas engine, this is perhaps not the best option. Restorers looking to help their sixty-year-old farm appliances reach 'safe' speeds on modern roads have a couple of other, better options, including fitting an overdrive unit or upgrading the transfer case with a different drive ratio in high range. Both of these options would allow the modestly-powered 2.25 engine to perform well in high-speed travel but with the benefit of keeping the ratios 'correct' for low-speed situations. 

In my case, I also have an unknown-provenance 200tdi engine lurking in the garage that might be good and, if it is, would be a perfect match for a 3.54 ratio axle. 

So that's what we're going with. For now. 

When you buy a used axle from a dude off the internet and pick it up in a parking lot, you're kind of taking the chance that the product you're getting is in good shape. Sellers don't typically let you disassemble the thing right there to see if it's all in good working order. You kind of have to take them on faith that the part they're selling works as advertised. 

Most times, it does! Sometimes, it doesn't.

In my case, I bought a Salisbury rear (complete) and a Rover differential with a 3.54 crown and pinion in it to use for the front axle. It wasn't a bad deal, but unfortunately (in retrospect) it's not what I was hoping for. 

Whatever. Disassembling a Land Rover axle isn't too difficult; just keep your parts organized and labelled. 

The axle I bought obviously had a leaking pinion oil seal. It was pretty covered in oily dirt. I was going to have to do some work to clean it up and get it ready to restore. Let me tell you, dear reader, that this is not easy work. 

You will spend a great deal of time power washing, then scraping, wire brushing, scraping some more, and generally just degreasing the thing. This will take a lot of elbow grease and your floors won't thank you. 

Eventually, you will end up with something that looks pretty good:

Solid work, right? 

The problem with oil contamination on metal is that it attracts dirt and, when combined with said dirt it looks a lot like paint. It is really difficult to know that you've got it all and are ready to paint. I spent several days (a couple of hours each day) scraping this thing down, by hand, then wire wheeling it, then re-scraping and degreasing, all to get the axle casing to where I was reasonably sure a coating would stick to it. I genuinely wanted to do a good job. I was intending to POR-15 the whole thing, then topcoat it for some extra protection. Getting rid of anything that was greasy -- at all -- was therefore a priority.

Meanwhile, I had an opportunity to work on some of the other parts for the axle. I took the brake drums and the backing plates for the Salisbury to Langley U-Blast for a semi-enjoyable 45 minute session in the cabinet. I figured this was a smart precursor to painting the parts. Why scrape, after all? 

In retrospect, this was the much better decision. Mechanically stripping the parts with a media blaster is far superior to doing it with a screwdriver, some engine degreaser, and an angle grinder. Pay a man a few bucks for use of his equipment and walk out with a part that's ready to accept paint.

On my way home from the sandblaster however, I started to have thoughts. You know, the ones where you question your plan halfway through. 

Was I planning to use the right paint to coat these parts? 

Brake backing plates and drums, certainly, are probably subject to higher heat. And doesn't brake fluid attack painted surfaces with a vengeance? Shouldn't I maybe check the local Lordco to see if there are better options? 

As it turns out, there are indeed paints made specifically for drums and brake parts. They are higher-temperature paints that have some brake fluid resistance to them. Unfortunately, the only paints I could find in several different locations were the blingy colours of caliper paint. I have no desire for bright red brake drums. 

Fortunately, I found the last two cans of semigloss black paint in all of Surrey that the Alder Auto location just downhill from my home. I love that store. They're really friendly. Here's the stuff I found:

I am not a painter. I do not have the skills.

But, you know, the parts came out... okay. 

Now all I have to do is let them cure for a week or so. 

P.S. This job took about a can and a half to do three coats, as specified by the instructions.