Saving a Series I: Part Eight
A front axle rebuild is not so easy as it might seem. James and Alisdair deal with the issues to win the day
After a full eight months in, the time has come for Alisdair and James to restore the front axle
Tools needed – Grinding and sanding equipment, general sockets and workshop tools, ball joint separator, paint brushes and rollers, hydraulic press, hydraulic table
Workshop wizard, James Holmes, and I have had our heads down, cracking on with my project car. A full eight months in, it is easy to forget the progress we’ve made. Lifting our heads from the spanners we can see a vehicle taking shape now, which is incredibly exciting. One of the final parts of the rebuilding work is the front axle, which was removed two months ago, to improve access for the front chassis repairs.
Earlier, we’d blitzed through the rear axle, cleaning back the corrosion, stripping the brakes and hubs, then repainting and rebuilding the mechanicals. The front is pretty much the same, except we have the engineering of the steering system to contend with. Ultimately though, this is relatively simple stripping and replacement work as we begin fitting new steering swivels and building it up from there outwards.
STEERING KNOWLEDGE
The Series I steering works like all classic Land Rovers, by having the steering hub arcing around a chromed swivel ball housing. Inside of this, the axleshaft with universal joint rotates on bearings, taking drive from the axle’s diff, through the steering swivel and out to the drive flange on the end of the axle. The original steering on this particular model uses a cone and spring swivel-pin set up, but that can wear severely, and is better replaced with a Railko bush conversion, as used on Series IIAS from 1962. This later system replaces the original top pin in the swivel with a Railko bush, and the new plain lower pin then uses a tapered roller bearing instead of the original spring.
WELL PRESERVED
We inspected every seal and bearing and the universal joints as we stripped the axle down. All were original, and close inspection showed negligible wear, so they were cleaned, repacked with fresh grease where appropriate and re-used. Seeing the condition of axle components like this further reinforces the validity of the vehicle’s mileage of 25,000. We also got to the bottom of the stiff steering; the swivels were both bone dry of oil.
We made a few mistakes along the way, but we got there in the end and at least the axle looks good, and the steering action is silky smooth again. But neither James nor I want to hear the words “Railko conversion kit” for a while.