Diff suggestions plz

[Rangie Motivated]

I recently purchased an 86 RR that has a suspension lift and is running bigger rubber - 265/75R/16. At time of purchase the vehicle wasn't going. Its a work vehicle (towing trailors) and my weekend mud machine.

I've finally got this thing on the road, but what a pig (a pig I love). It doesn't like taking off with a trailor on, and on the open road if I try to use 5th gear at 100km I have no power, even a loss. I'm guessing this is because of the bigger rubber. Also I'm guessing these are 30" will some-one confirm plz.

I was thinking of going with nissan diffs, but am open to suggestions as I need to get some power back into this thing.

Thanks in advance

[DK]

I wouldnt of thought going up to a 265/75 would of made that much difference.
I ran 33's on my old rangie and never found it much of an issue.

Nissan diff's is a big step on a rangie and come with a few of there own drawbacks,ie vibration and huge pumpkins

Maybe consider a set of 4.11's from Ashcroft and bolt them straight in.
Only problem you might find then is it revving a bit hard at 100 clicks
But look on the bright side at least you can go bigger tyres when u want to!

[V8 Rangie]

Don't ever put GQ diff on rear !!! the vibes will shit you off in no time

I'm just finishing my conversion from the GQ rear to an 80 series rear this weekend to fix that prob.. (kept the GQ front) finally will have a good setup though with the 4.11's and running 33's

Camo

[RangingRover]

265/75 16 is 31.6 inches in diameter - shouldn't have TOO much effect.

How much do you have in the trailer? My carby 3.5 running on 7 cylinders would cheerfully enough turn my 34 inch Simex all the way up to 100km/h (not fast, but it would get there without too much fuss), and on normal road tyres never had any real issue with a trailer (on 8 cylinders!).

My guess is the motor is getting tired or needs a tune - possibly the cam has worn the lobes off (common issue, my number 8 intake lobe was non-existant, hence 7 cylinders!), maybe the timing isn't right or the vacuum advance isn't working, air flow meter or ecu up the creek (incidentally, if you do find that to be the case, I have an ecu and AFM here...)

For the money nissan diffs may cost you (depending on how handy you are, and how much you pay for them), you may find grabbing hold of a decent 3.9 motor with its injection system (hotwire AFM instead of Flapper) yields a better result anyway.

[Rangie Motivated]

>>I wouldnt of thought going up to a 265/75 would of made that much difference<<

I was kinda hoping no-one would say that, might need to do a compression test although it seems to be burning pretty clean.

I was thinking of selling it and getting something with a 3.9, but this thing has had a lot of work done to it by some-one that was obviously keen (not the previous owner, he treated like shit), and I like it. I was thinking of a conversion from the 3.5 to a 3.9 but I'm told that its major work going from carb to efi.

[Suspension Stuff]

Your tyres are 31.5" which is equivalent to a 32" tyre. Any bigger then you will break your diffs and or axles on your first hard hill climb when in the bush.

Some have done a totota Hilux diff conversion which gives you the better ratio, a stronger diff but you would need new axles and there are some mods to do. You can search on here if you are interested.

Even thought the gearing may help I think the money would be better spent getting more power out of your engine or get a transplant.

If you start doing all this stuff then it makes you wonder why you bought a Rangie.

Shane.

[kitacooch]

I wouldnt of thought going up to a 265/75 would of made that much difference.
I ran 33's on my old rangie and never found it much of an issue.

Nissan diff's is a big step on a rangie and come with a few of there own drawbacks,ie vibration and huge pumpkins

Maybe consider a set of 4.11's from Ashcroft and bolt them straight in.
Only problem you might find then is it revving a bit hard at 100 clicks
But look on the bright side at least you can go bigger tyres when u want to!

Please enlighten me on the Ashcroft 4.11's What are they???
Cheers

[kitacooch]

I recently purchased an 86 RR that has a suspension lift and is running bigger rubber - 265/75R/16. At time of purchase the vehicle wasn't going. Its a work vehicle (towing trailors) and my weekend mud machine.

I've finally got this thing on the road, but what a pig (a pig I love). It doesn't like taking off with a trailor on, and on the open road if I try to use 5th gear at 100km I have no power, even a loss. I'm guessing this is because of the bigger rubber. Also I'm guessing these are 30" will some-one confirm plz.

I was thinking of going with nissan diffs, but am open to suggestions as I need to get some power back into this thing.

Thanks in advance

Mate sounds like you have onother problem, i have a later model disco and 35" treads, give me some cooling probs soon to fix but power altered only a little. Check your rubber diaphram on your distributor, apparently this is a common problem for many Range Rovers and i assume Disco's. Causing lack of power and higher fuel consumption, need to remove and inspect and i am told there is a little screw easily lost and apparently if lost will cause head aches????
Good luck

[uninformed]

Your tyres are 31.5" which is equivalent to a 32" tyre. Any bigger then you will break your diffs and or axles on your first hard hill climb when in the bush

Shane.

this is bullshit!

yes rover diffs arnt that strong. but to say they WILL BREAK WITH 33'S OR BIGGER is bullshit

it depends on how you drive!

and you will probably break an axle first....

if you do break something, just cause its a hard hill climb doesn't mean you have to drive to break....

serg

[RangingRover]

Your tyres are 31.5" which is equivalent to a 32" tyre. Any bigger then you will break your diffs and or axles on your first hard hill climb when in the bush.

This I don't get - according to popular opinion I should have been changing diffs regularly.... But I'm still on my 385,000 km old stock front diff, despite regularly spinning my 32s up on bitumen and same with the 34s when I have them on.

I was thinking of selling it and getting something with a 3.9, but this thing has had a lot of work done to it by some-one that was obviously keen (not the previous owner, he treated like shit), and I like it. I was thinking of a conversion from the 3.5 to a 3.9 but I'm told that its major work going from carb to efi.

Who told you that? Although I'm confused as to why an 86 has carbs, unless it was built in 85 and took a while to be registered, carb to EFI is a piece of piss, as long as you're capable of removing the intake manifold. The hard part is getting all the bits to do it, specifically things like the loom and ecu, air flow meter and air filter housing, accelerator cable off an early EFI car (late might work too). But everything bolts in, chuck a VL commodore (or Bosch 070) fuel pump in and run some 8mm EFI hose and you're pretty close.

Check your rubber diaphram on your distributor, apparently this is a common problem for many Range Rovers and i assume Disco's. Causing lack of power and higher fuel consumption, need to remove and inspect and i am told there is a little screw easily lost and apparently if lost will cause head aches????

This is the vacuum advance, no need to remove it to check its operation (fiddly to get it off, tiny screws), simply pop the dizzy cap off, unhook the vacuum line from the manifold and suck on it - should be able to see the advance plate moving, and should hold vacuum. If you can suck straight through it, its buggered (or the hose is loose on it)

[Rangie Motivated]

I'll start with a correction : I have 2 RR an 86 and now an 84, I'm talking about the 84. Hope it is now understood why I have carbs, sorry about the confusion.

I have always fixed my own vehicles but I have never worked on these things before. I was looking forward to building a nice offroader.

I'll start by checking out the dizzy as I had thought that the fuel consumpsion was quite a bit higher than my 86, I had put this down to the efi/carb difference.

Ultimately I think I'll need to buy a 4.6 and drop that in. I purchased a Disco just before xmas and was going to use the 3.9 out of that, but when my lady spotted it she decided she liked the leather and power and gave me her zuk. I really wanted to feel quite pissed off but she was that happy I couldnt.

Thanks for the help guys

[cloughy]

Your tyres are 31.5" which is equivalent to a 32" tyre. Any bigger then you will break your diffs and or axles on your first hard hill climb when in the bush

Shane.

this is bullshit!

yes rover diffs arnt that strong. but to say they WILL BREAK WITH 33'S OR BIGGER is bullshit

it depends on how you drive!

and you will probably break an axle first....

if you do break something, just cause its a hard hill climb doesn't mean you have to drive to break....

serg

Avoid ANY shock loading and you CAN get away with it, Pffffffft, gotta drive like a panzy

Can usually get away with front for a long while, but it'll all turn to shit eventually

[Aquarangie]

Avoid ANY shock loading and you CAN get away with it, Pffffffft, gotta drive like a panzy

Can usually get away with front for a long while, but it'll all turn to shit eventually

Always at the most inappropriate time too

Trav

[uninformed]

i dont doubt they break.... i just get sick of people giving the impression that they will break the frist time you go off road

many a rover diff been touring and 4x4ing and still going.....

[Rangie Motivated]

Guys your getting a bit off topic here.

The reason I'm a member of this forum is because you Ozzies seem to be the best when it comes to building and repairing Range Rovers, its not easy for a kiwi to say that btw.

I would love to spend a holiday over there just visiting every one and checking out what they have done to their machine. I wouldn't even care if I didn't meet everyone, I just want to check out the vehicles.

I dont need a new flash car, for sure I would like a newer (96-97) Range Rover, but it would just sit in my drive. I just dont have it in me to be dumping bags of cement and blocks in the back during the week then taking it bush and bashing the shit out of it on the week-end. I honestly love the RR I have now. The only thing I dont like is the manual box and the lack of power.

There is only 3 reasons for me to consider changing to nissan or toyota diffs:
1. I believe there is a better range of diff ratios
2. Just so I can say I have done it (personal satisfaction), and a bit more confidence if I ever needed the extra strength.
3. Wider range of rims.

I only go offroading with my cousins at this point, and I'm yet to find anything they do a real challenge. They are a good crowd of guys and thats the only reason I go out at all.

I enjoy building 'stuff', I get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing I have done it.

More than anything I just want a truck that looks the way I want it to look, and possibly something that I can put into a few competitions if I ever get around to it.

I may be getting on, but I like power. I like something that sucks gas like theres no tomorrow. But, this is my work vehicle. I cant have it parked up in the shed endlessly.

There are a couple of things I have trouble with in regards to my truck.
1. Work always gets in the way of working on it, but without work I dont have the money to work on it anyway.
2. Anything with a computer, I grew up with carbs. But, I'm not saying I cant learn.

Now can we stay on subject and not argue about diffs

[Hobie18]

If you wanting extra power, the P76 motor fits in nicely to a rangie, I have one in my 77 2 door matched up with the 4 speed manual box which has been fitted with the later high range gearing which makes 1st gear high range usable, my fathers rangie has the P76 matched to the torquflight auto, these are indestructable but are only 3 gears and seem to suck a fair bit of power from the engine. You can get the adaptor plates to match the ZF auto onto the P76 from the Rova Centre in Melbourne. My P76 had a holley fitted and i had issues with steep inclines due to the way the holley is setup, there are apparently ways around it but we never found them.

I haven't broken an axle in my rangies to this point, so have no assistance with the diffs

[Rangie Motivated]

I was looking at the P76 at one stage, but again I was told its a major pain in the butt.

It would be nice if I could get some agreement going.

I'm still quite keen on the 3.9 idea. The Disco I purchased (stolen by my lady) runs well, and I was quite impressed by the power. Its not the fastest thing in town, but I did show up a couple of boy racers one night on my way home.

The 3.9 would be an easy transplant and I could wreck out the rest of the vehicle and probably recover my costs.

Only problem would be finding another cheap Disco. Either that, or do the transplant in one night (2 vehicles) and hope my lady doesnt notice that she now has a 3.5 under the bonnet with carbs. It might be asking a bit much ?

[bigbad]

I have a p76 in my 75, looks like an easy swap, I am building a new one for my 110 which will have a zf behind it. I might even part with the 75 for a reasonable offer, it hardly gets driven any more, I originally bought it for the engine. Also have a selection of transfer gears for the lt95, though you could keep your five speed and lt230 and just change the ratio in that.

[cloughy]

. Its not the fastest thing in town, but I did show up a couple of boy racers one night on my way home.

What were they in, Automatic 78 model Honda civics??

Even then I'd be scared

[kitacooch]

I wouldnt of thought going up to a 265/75 would of made that much difference.
I ran 33's on my old rangie and never found it much of an issue.

Nissan diff's is a big step on a rangie and come with a few of there own drawbacks,ie vibration and huge pumpkins

Maybe consider a set of 4.11's from Ashcroft and bolt them straight in.
Only problem you might find then is it revving a bit hard at 100 clicks
But look on the bright side at least you can go bigger tyres when u want to!

Please enlighten me on the Ashcroft 4.11's What are they???
Cheers

How bout it guys, What are they?? would like lower ratio's myself as running 35's and would like to considder 38's, rock crawlers no good to me as wish to tow a caravan to my destination and as rock crawlers only work for low range, what are my options??

[uninformed]

ashcroft transmissions is a company in the uk.

they do have a website.

they have opitions for different ratios in the diff in other words ring and pinion change, you have to do front and rear and they both have to be the same ratio......

3.54 is standard, they offer 3.83, 4.11 and 4.7..... this is from my memory. so best go check there website out...

there are other ways, ie, change the high range and/or low range ratio in the transfer case, many options here as landrover had alot of different ranges for different models sharing the same transfercase.

there are other companies out there that do ring and pinions...just have to search......

serg

[bigbad]

http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/index.html
they only do 4.11 as an alternative, I think Kam do the others.

[Suspension Stuff]

i dont doubt they break.... i just get sick of people giving the impression that they will break the frist time you go off road

many a rover diff been touring and 4x4ing and still going.....

Sorry for going a bit off topic however......uninformed may be misunderstanding my post a little bit.

While on 31" tyres I didn't break any diffs or axles. Then I put on some 33" tyres, I went off road and broke a diff the 1st day. I then replaced the diff with a 2nd hand unit. The next day I went 4wding and broke the front and the rear diffs which were all open centres and 2nd hand. One of the axles was twisted. I then did a lot of searching and found this was a common problem. (I actually did a lot of searching before I put on the 33's so I knew about the problem but thought it wouldn't happen to me.)

If someone is carrying a lot of weight combined with extra power and bigger tryes during the day on 20 year old diffs his parts would be wearing. Then if he goes off road to a hard hill climb with bigger then 32" tyres and has more power then my prissy little 89 model 3.5L that had a stuffed AFM; maybe a 5 Litre V8 or then I think a diff may be heading to the Rangie grave yard.
I should add that I had just finished trying to climb rock and was fully flexed up. (Big thanks to the guy in the Cruiser who spent an hour winching me out of a steep gully and to my brother inlaw for towing me home in his Hilux You don't realise how hard it is to pull a car up a hill which has no drive to the wheels, I was very concerned his winch was going to die.)

If you are gentle enough you could put 42" tyres on it and not break anything, anyway happy trails.

Shane.

[Reddo]

This is a perennial topic and everyone has their views on imporving Rover axles. Suffice to say that Jac Mac do make the axles, and they are very good. Not sure if Toyota CVs are any little stronger - the Rover CV is the same size and looks almost identical to a 60 series unit, but the input shaft size is less on the Rover unit, and this is where the axle most likely break - not that I've had one go:) Hilux CVs are smaller again - so I'm told.

Toyo CRP is definetely more robust, and therefore is a good option rather than Nissan units which cost you ground clearance.

We've got Ashcroft 4.11s fitted (pegged) and with Jac Mac axles (front) and Maxi Drive rears (gave up on JM cause of customer service issues), the units have so far given no problems at all with 36's on. Also fitted Nissan CVs as they suited the larger JM axle diameter than the Rover units, but again the CVs themselves are very similar - maybe 'cause the are all made under licence. Materials may be better for the Jap CVs given that Rovers like Leylands of that era were built by a bunch of commuinist trade unionists who could not care less about quality, durability nor consitency - so Jeremy Clarkson says.

I think you can achieve a good outcome with the set up described above, and not have to worry about retrofitting CRP's or housings, brakes and so on, or to worry about gaining Transport/Engineer approvals.

Even so we busted non of the OE Rover stuff with 33s on and lots of abuse - in mud though not too many rocks.

[bigbad]

I have 31 x10.5 x 15s on my Rangies, regularly trailer landies and rangies over the Takaka hill with no problems. Obviously slower than without a trailer, but that is to be expected. My 75 with P76 and lt95 still has the original diffs, even though we have spun all 4 wheels on tarseal at times pulling out tree stumps or pulling trucks out of building sites. I would give it a good tune up first, make sure compressions, dissy, timing and carbs are all okay first.

[RRV839]

i am going to offer my opinions here, i have looked into swappign to LC/Patrol diff combo, and ive added it up, by the time i buy decent condition diffs, might have to budget for some seals here and there, and then stuff around modifying the brackets to fit the damn things to have another open centre front and crap toyota lsd rear, i have decided to go with front and rear ARB's, 4.11's (as im lookign to got to 33.4" tyres)then later down the track some stronger shafts and cv's, but for the time being i have spares shafts and cvs i put in the back when i expect to be doing serious offraodeing which are out of a car i wrecked.

I have mud tyres on my car than measure 32.4", i have had them on for 20,000km, the car has done 227,000km, its a 94 3.9 rangie with a fresh auto and LT230, i have not brocken an axle yet, nor are my cv showing anysigns they are going to spit it, i have brocken a rear diff centre but that had been dodgy/noisy since i bought the car at 206,000km with virtually no offroad use, that was on the old std 29" tyres that broke so it was just plain bad luck.

I drive pretty hard offroad as the body panels show with only a 2" lift, i have driven through cruiser canyon, club rally and camp road and just about everywhere else in landcruiser park on extreme tracks and the car, except for some minor panel damge came out unscathed.

So to say that as soon as you put big tyres on your car parts start shitting themselves, then i musht be on a 20,000km lucky streak, with half of that being offroad and the rest bagging up the front on the bitumen.

My advice would be to make sure u have no engine problems, as that sounds to be more the issue, even if its not tuned properly. Then start looking at cwp swaps etc.

[cloughy]

There is one benifet of Tojo/Nissan diffs, the brakes are fantastic and shit all over the rover stuff

[RRV839]

good point, however if i can lock up all 4 - 32"s with ABS off im happy with my rover brakes,

[cloughy]

good point, however if i can lock up all 4 - 32"s with ABS off im happy with my rover brakes,

Fit 35's, that'll fix that locking up problem

[rover_owner]

I've been following this thread because I was considering a diff conversion after busting my diff first time off road on 32" BFG's, admttedly i was on a rather steep incline with loose rock at the top of the incline and it took four attempts and increasing amounts of right peddle (until the floor was reached ) to get over the top as the rear diff decdided to end the days play .... (by the way, thanks Ron if your reading this for the tow over the last hill).
I was considering the GQ route (front and rear) as these are available at a steal from a friend, but after reading about vibs considered the 80 series route. That is, until I phoned around the wreckers (i couldn't find any on ebay) and found that there are plenty around but the prices I was being quoted are bloody rediculous. Prices ranged from $1000- $2200 for just the rear !!!!! Plus the fabrication work to fit it (not a real problem as some of my friends are welders and I'm a fitter and turner), but then there is the engineers inspection and the compiance plate to worry about!!!
So after following this thread with so many different opinions I'm seriously considering just buying a standard replacement for now and saving for some Maxi drives (yes I know they've closed down in Oz but are apparently still available from europe). Only time will tell ????
Oh and on the point of no power when towing, although my Rangie wouldn't set the road on fire, I've had no problem towing a 14' fiberglass boat, a compression check might be a good start... Good luck and thanks all for some interesting opinions....
Jim....