The Dreaded Front Axle

Leaf Springs sanded ready for painting

Decided to not replace current springs - they were just a bit rusty but still holding up fine.

Thr front springs are shown here rusty, they are more heavily rusted than the rear ones were. The rear springs are shown stripped and prepared for painting. Saved $700 reconditioning th esprings versus new.

Rear Axle Overhaul

The rear diff was in pretty poor shape. There was alot of external surface rust and the diff and axle show some signs of some heavy off road activity.

After I started pulling down the axle I discovered that the springs had been replaced at some time in the past and that the hubs were from a 75 series. Gotta love landcruisers, you can mix and match parts fairly easily. The axle housing below has been stripped and ready for cleaning and rebuild. Pretty simple diff with fully floating axles.

Brake drums and brake backing plates ready for cleaning and repainting.

Brake backing plate before blasting and after!

 Brake baking plate after bead blasting and painting.

 Drums sprayed

The old diff out and will be replaced with a 75 series diff.

 Below is the new diff - pretty good value only $152 off ebay.......gotta love ebay!

 

 Packing new bearings with grease, always fun. The old bearings and races came out easy. Bearings and seals were around $60 per side.

 Axle housing sanded back to get rid of rust and old paint and Etch primer sprayed on.

Backing plates attached and hubs installed, diff will be next, then brake shoes, drums and wheels and then ready for painting.

Brakes installed

Drums installed 

Got 5 rims with caps from a BJ73 - great deal at $350 with tyres having between 60-70% tread.

 Diff ready for painting,

Rust Blast Applied

The top pic shows the chassis completely stripped and washed with AQUA CLEAN by KBS Coatings. It is a three part system. The second part of the system is washing down in a product called RUST BLAST, it is a self-etching primer that also neutralises the rust. The  white film you can see is the zinc cozting that is applied over the metal to protect it for upto 30 days prior to painting. The final coat will be RUST SEAL which bonds to teh steal and creates a incredibly hard surface, in gloss black.

So to apply the RUST SEAL It needs to be below 28 degrees and 60% humidity!!!! And that just aint happening here in Rainy QLD where it rains more than Melbourne!! Its either below 60% humidity and 30+ degrees or 25 degrees and 85% humidity! Cant win...only got max of 30 days before I'll have to recoat with RUST BLAST!

Preparing chassis for Rust Blast

After using paint stripper the diffs and springs had to be removed from the vehicle. Getting what was left of the nylon bushes out of the frame was a real pain in teh ahole. Oh did I mention the difficulty in getting the tie rods to seperate and in getting the forward steering box arm to seperate? Well I discovered, much like primates do, that if you dont have a heavy enough hammer then just get a bigger wind up and smash the component harder with the hammer you have. Yes, yes, for all you vehicle buffs out there I did use a tie rod seperator on teh tie rods but the steering box required a crow bar and some crazy hammer swings to seperate, fortunately I am replacing it!

Paint stripping the chassis

I used CAMS paint stripper to remove the many layers of paint. After 30 years the undercoat on the chassis was like concrete and the paint stripper did a good job of removing most of it. The CAMS paint stripper is very potent, the smallest drop on your arm feels like someone has stabbed you  with a burning cigarette. But it was neutralised with water and the frame was just a mater of hosing down to remove the paint and stripper.

Removing the old Toyota 3B diesel

Chinese engine hoist hasnt fallen apart yet!

I am replacing the engine because it has low compression and all tests point towards worn cylinders, and probably everything else as the engine has 360,000km on the clock and  its the original engine.

Now begins the stripping back and painting of the chassis and diff housing.