Today, I picked up the axle and third member housings that I had dropped off at the sandblasters earlier in the week. The third member housing was in excellent condition, but the axle housing was a bit worse for wear. The leaf spring perch welds on both perches had developed several cracks. I re-welded the perches, and spot welded any additional pin holes that I found in the housing.

After all of the welding was completed, I added a Land Rover axle tube vent to the top of the housing. The original breather was simply an 1/8″ hole drilled in the top of the housing, which I thought was kinda hokie. I drilled and tapped a hole for the new breather assembly. The banjo bolt and vent was off of a spare Land Rover Discovery axle housing that I had in my shop. Now, I can route a vent tube across the axle tube and up towards the fuel tank. This should keep the breather nice and clean.

I primed and painted the axle and third member housings, and leaf spring mounts with chasis black. I also primed and painted a handful of engine tin with Packard green engine enamel from Kanter Auto.

Once the paint was dry on the third member housing, I test fit the pinion and carrier to check the pinion height. As I had suspected, the pinion was sitting a bit to low and would need to be shimmed up a titch.

Tags: axle
Categories: axle