Axle upgrade

[malibu9]

Is there an axle upgrade for Rangies without going to lockers?

[HSV Rangie]

yes:

maxi drive and jac mac both make axles to suit.

Michael.

[malibu9]

Roughly how much?

[BIg StEvE]

This is a common thread i know but i was also wondering who supplied these products!

thanks

[ISUZUROVER]

Maxi Drive make a heavy duty axle kit, which includes a new 4-pin diff centre and 2 24 spline axles made from AMS6418. This is same as the locker kit but without the locking mechanism. I think the kit costs about $1200. You can add a locker later for another $700 or so.

I'm sure JM offers an equivalent setup.

[Slunnie]

The Rangie comes with factory 1.1" 10 spline axles doesn't it. To step up to the bigger 1.24" 24 spline axles you will need to do something with the diff also. You can break a factory diff with LandRover 24 spline axles let alone the Maxi kit. Just axles is about $6-700 dollars for the strong material ones and Graeme Cooper in town or Bruce Davis at Annangrove will have these.

[malibu9]

Did they apgrade the axles and diffs in the Discos?

[Slunnie]

They did.

The Diff itself had the pin altered as the earlier design had a stress raiser, something that was sorted for the D2. But, they will still crack. The planetary gears strip pretty easily if you're into some decent 4WDing, and thats with ETC which doesn't allow a great deal of wheel speed differentiation. The axles they changed in 1994 I think and went from the 1.1" 10 spline to the 1.24" 24 spline axles which were a lot stronger. The 10 splines from what I can gather just break, but the 24 spline ones are a lot stronger. I've been running 33" JT2's on these for a while now, but ended up breaking a diff and axle on the Unimog hill step at Lake Lyall, though unless you are thrashing the ass out of it, it should be ok.

Some of the other folk on here may be better up to speed on swapin axle parts, but maybe a 94-98 Disco diff, axles and axle flange bits will change over into your setup - from a wrecker (or the for sale section on here) this may be an economical alternative.

[GURU]

I did this when i fitted a disco 24 spline locker.

you could get the carrier from a 24 spline disco and fit it to your RR centre and then fit the stubs, hubs and 24 spline axles from a disco.

I will have the hubs, stubs and axles for sale at $150 if my rear diff doesn't sell complete (not looking like it will) should be out within the week

[LukeV]

I've just been talking to a guy at Toorak Tractor about buying the bits to switch to 24spline axles. I've just had some trouble with my existing locker (was re-built from a warranty job at ARB) and so am going to have that one re-built for the front and buy a new 24spline for the rear.

After reading the posts hear from DAS and Travis, I assumed that I could buy just the axles, hubs, stub axles to fit the new axles. Now, the guy at TT is telling me he doesn't think the stub axles from the Disco will bolt up to my housing?? Does this make sense? He said I could just come and take the whole housing for the same price. Will this bolt straight up? Are all the suspension mounts and stuff in the same spots? Will my 3rd member still bolt straight up to it?

Also, when fitting the 24spline locker to my existing 3rd member, are there any other mods required to fit it in?

Cheers,

Luke

[ISUZUROVER]

Luke, if it is going to end up being a lot of $$$ and hassle using genuine parts, why not spend the extra $$$ to get some MD or JM axles - since they are much stronger than the stock rangie or disco ones. Last I checked a pair of axles and drive flanges were about $800.

[p76rangie]

MD make a set of 24 spline axles for old 10 spline housings. Therefore you do not have to change stub axles, etc, only get a 24 spline locker. However you will need new diff centre bearings as the inside dimension is larger. From memory it cost me about $700 dollars for the axles and drive flanges. Can't remember how much the bearings were.

[LukeV]

The axle housing is going to cost ~250, and the diff lock, if I was going to switch to 24spline, would cost ~200, so it still would only cost 1/2 as much. I decided to buy a new locker for the rear as I need the car going again asap, and was going to get a front locker at some stage anyway.

Thanks anyway guys,

Luke