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busted defender

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 9:14 am
by thomo
hi all
A friend of mine has a 95 tdi defender the other day he went for a bit of a spin up the bush nothing extreme ,when he got back to the bitchy he noticed when he went around corners the ass end was trying to overtake the front plus he could smell tyre smoke,so he got out for a look and found the top arms that go from the diff to the body had snapped off, the thing never gets abused and he takes it pretty easy in the bush just wondering if any one has heard of this happening on other defenders.

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 10:06 am
by RaginRover
what is actually broken on the arms ?

Are the tags that attach it to the diff housing cracked/rusted off or have the bolts failed or what ?

Those bolts are a 15/16" grade 8 job if I remember and the tags are more than solid enough for the task. It is the same design as the Range Rover's trailing arms. Mine are nearly 30 years old and are no where near showing any signs of fatigue.

Tom

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 10:41 am
by thomo
Not sure what part has broken yet going to have a look at it today he just said it had snapped off the body, I dont know a lot about rovers ive only had toyotas.The local land rover place is fixing it.It has spent more time there then at home.

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:56 pm
by Bodge
We ripped the ball joint mounting off the axle housing - but thats under extreme use in a 1979 Rangie with a blue printed 4.4 up hill lockers in bouncin all the way.....

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:58 pm
by RaginRover
The A frame ball joint ? You must have been going hard suprised you didn;t break the old 10spines before you did anything else !

But holy shite how did he break the trailing arm mounts?

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:59 pm
by mickrangie
a mate did that to his 82 rangie the other week being a :bad-words: ...

dosn't take much i fink the later models are built a bit stronger in that department.

I stinking to findout what happen to the defender.... maybe the guy who built was pissed? and missed a few spots

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 3:41 pm
by RaginRover
mickrangie wrote:a mate did that to his 82 rangie the other week being a :bad-words: ...

dosn't take much i fink the later models are built a bit stronger in that department.

I stinking to findout what happen to the defender.... maybe the guy who built was pissed? and missed a few spots


Yeah who knows they were pissed when they primed the paint on my 1976 rangie the forgot to prime the roof and one of the quarter panels hence the paint is all flaked off and the rest of the car is looking sweet.

But you get that from time to time with hand built cars

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 3:50 pm
by mickrangie
:rofl: must have been a monday, wednesday or friday build

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 6:25 pm
by thomo
Talked to my mate today about the defender he said the brackets snapped of the body, The track he went on at the weekend wasnt anything extreme been up and down plenty of times in mine so i dont now what happened.I think he is getting it fixed then selling it.

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 9:37 pm
by mickrangie
thomo wrote:Talked to my mate today about the defender he said the brackets snapped of the body, The track he went on at the weekend wasnt anything extreme been up and down plenty of times in mine so i dont now what happened.I think he is getting it fixed then selling it.


do you mean body mounts?

thats bad luck shite happens...

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 3:21 pm
by thomo
had a look at the defender today where the top arms come from the diff to the chasis there are three bolts, one at the rear and two at the front, were the the bolt goes thru has ripped of at the back one and one of the front ones the other front one the bolt has snapped dosent look very nice and im the one who has to fix it land rover joint quoted him $1000 to fix it.

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 4:08 pm
by landy_man
PICS :shock: :shock: :shock:

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 8:50 pm
by thomo
Im picking the thing up on saturday ill try and take some pics then but i dont really know how to put them on here.

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 6:31 am
by HSV Rangie
If you want email me the pics and I will post for you.
michael@amsfab.com.au

Michael.

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 9:53 am
by ISUZUROVER
I have NEVER heard of A-frame bolts breaking before - they are almost 1" diameter!!! On the old rangies the a-frame ball joint mount can crack where it is welded to the diff.

I think either the 110 has been thrashed (maybe by previous owner(s)) or it has carried lots of heavy loads over corrugated roads - or some other sort of work where the bolts/mount could be badly fatigued.

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:35 pm
by thomo
Ive had a good look at this thing and i dont think it has been abused by the previous owner it had done bugger all klms and there is no damage at all underneath apart from the obvious.When i went to have a look at the thing at the landy dealer the service bloke took me out to have a look at it, parked next to it was a new duelcab defender that didnt have a tray on it so i had a look at it and im amazed that it dosent happen to more of them, were the bolt goes thru the chasis there is one pissy little weld holding it it would only take that weld to brake and the others are going to go with it even the service bloke agreed.I will email you the photos michael when i get it.And i fogot to say its a wagon.