odgreen

I'm watching this build

4.3L XJ

Are those axles a stamped steel housing or cast iron with pressed in tubes. Not very familiar with the foreign (to a yank) stuff

Leonmac

They are stamped steel housings. As you may have read my intention at this point is to use the same rear axle, turn it around and add (most likely) Hi Lux Knuckles and custom axles to make it a front diff. The main reason for this is, I can make the axle what ever width I need, I can get a factory electic locker, the same 5.285 gearing and the pumkin on the left side. It may seem like a lot of work but in reality the only thing extra over doing a pumkin swap on an existing front axle is the custom axles and that is just a respline to suit the side gears. also the Pajero comes with 2 size diffs, the later models (96 on) are bigger R&P and stronger than a HiLux.
Cheers Leon.

4.3L XJ

Leon

I would like to suggest a much cleaner and kick butt solution. The pumpkin swap is the way to go. You can do almost anything with those stamped steel housings. If you have a right hand pumpkin it is much easier to swap it than put a right hand tcase in due to the sheet metal and linkage work you would have to do. Ask Cantab, he will vouch for my expertise. Anyway, the trick to doing this is making nice straight cuts on the housing and getting an alignment devise made for the knuckles. Also, this can be a good time to set pinion angles and castor angles by how you rotate the pieces. I have done this on Toyota housings. Here is a pic of a Toy housing I recently cut down for an independent suspension vehicle I have.





These outer flanges have been aligned to be exactly true. I can do this with any size housing front or rear. Here is a pic of the alignment device I had made.





This one is for a front end. One end fits exactly into the inside of the spindle. It goes through two discs that have been turned down to fit in the carrier bearing areas on the fifth member. Then it is just a matter of welding the housing once you get it lined up.

Leonmac

Hi Mate, Yeah, that is exactly what I'm doing, I have gone away from the Tcase Flip a while ago. using a rear diff is only to get the locker and rigt gearing and the work is the same as a pumkin swap anyway. I do like your jig set up and will do something similar, thanks for the idea.
Cheers Leon.

Leonmac

Thought I'd just chuck these photos in here, This is a Nissan Patrol I built a few years back, Started as a stock truck and over a period of 4yrs and 3 Winch Challenges turned in this. 390" 600hp sbc, Th400, coilovers, linked, locked and Loaded. You may have seen this truck "Cantab27" I sold to a guy in Queenstown by the name of Bruce Perry about 4yrs ago and I know he still has it.

Leonmac

Thought I would do a bit of an up date, only home for 2 weeks this time so got the lift done. I did a home brew "Adda Leaf" in the rear which cost me nothing as I got a couple of leaves off a mate. No idea what they are out of, I'm guessing HiLux as that seems to be what he has the most of, that gave me 3". Then I had some alloy billet I got for something yrs ago which was 100mm with a 50mm hole though it. I cut a couple of bits 3" long and bored the hole to 60mm so it slid over the bump stop, took me about 6hrs to do the whole job. This is just a temporary thing as I intend to change the whole set up later but it gives me a giude as to the height i want to end up with. Only wee tyres on it at the moment as I need to do something with the wheels to fit the 36s.
Cheers Leon

4.3L XJ

Looking good Mate. Yours is starting to look like Wayne's with the lift and flares and of course being green

Leonmac

Hello guys, its been awhile since I posted any progress so I thought I,d do some more work on the xj, So the last 2 dayas I built a front bar and fitted a Warn 9500 Its made from some tube and scrap plate I had in the garage so I fabbed it up and spent today welding and cleaning up. I wanted to keep it light and simple while still giving the front of the truck some protection. I have kept it slim and may add some grill protection later. So heres some pics let me know what you think. Cheers Leon.

Leonmac

The other thing I have done is to make some Coilover shocks for the front. I will get them fitted in the next week or so and post some pics. The other thing is I'm getting some new tires. I'm going 33" for a couple of reasons 1) if I go 33s I will leave the D30 and C8.25 axles which will save a bit of money and a heep of work and after reading this forum and watching some video of trucks with D30s and 35s they may be better than I've given them credit for. 2) I can get away with the stock gearing for a while and the D30 on 33s has the same clearance as my mates Nissan on 35s and it also keeps the truck lighter. acouple more pics of the front bar, still have to paint it.

Testament

so there are some other kiwis on here ! Nice work leon, you dont mess around - and well it looks like you have done it all before!

Im doing similarish things with mine (just finish fabbing a bumper too) with the wheels I did alot of measuring and research around what was available and settled on 33x10.5 silverstones on 15x7 with +13 offset from 4wdbits - with the TJ flares you can probably go with a bit more offset (I just remounted the stock flares higher up) my problem was most shops only had 15x8 -19 or -25 in 5x114.3 which were just going to stick out too far really (the factory rims are 15x7+38 from memory).

who knows maybe we can catch up on a track sometime - I haven't done any over taranaki way before

cantab27

coolies Leon, nice bar work......with the 33s and d35 ya do have good diff clearance..like ya said same as safaris on 35s.....go gentle with the right boot pick ya line and y'all be sweet....have broke mine yet ....and drowning it dont count...

cheers wayne

Leonmac

morning Wayne, I watched a video of a TJ (Stock) with 35" Boggers in the rocks and this guy was givin it some and it didn't break, I've always had WAY modded trucks with big rubber and big HP so I've always been a bit windy when it comes to diffs. I figure if I keep the motor pretty stock and go 33" it should do the job, I'm pretty gentle on gear as a rule. My mate Kelvin has a LS1 in his Nissan and he breaks **** that I never broke in the winch truck and I had WAY more HP than he has. I'm going 33-10.5 Silverstones and I'll mod the Jeep wheels, Bead locks which will make them 8" wide and move the centre to give it 50mm more offset.Hey Testament, Where are you from?? I'm guessing Nth Island. We go to Pureora Forest every Christmas /New Year and there is some good tracks around Wanga and Tewera. Let us know where your from, there always room for new people at our Newyear Trip.Cheers Leon

4.3L XJ

Hey Leon, glad to see you making progress

Testament

I'm in Taupo - so yeah know pureora reasonably well! have not taken the jeep on the gnarly trails there yet, but have done most of them a few times in my mates ls2 70 series cruiser and v8 suzuki. Don't know wanga or tewera though. xmas and new year is all booked out with other things for me but cheers anyway, sounds like a fun trip