Sunday i was driving out on some old logging roads when i spotted an old M37. After a closer look i noticed that it had an offset rear end. I did a little research and I found that the rear-ends in the military M37s had a 9.63 Ring Gear and 1.375 Shafts, the gear Ratio is 5.83:1. This would be great for an old series rover. I guess it would work with coilers too, although i don't exactly know how stout the axles are. I think that the military tire size is about a 36 though. Anyway, i was just thinking outloud.


Brad

Prolly a full width axle. I will also likely need a rebuild if you plan on running down the highway at 80 mph.

You will need narrow it and have the axles shafts narrowed. Then you will need to fab coil mounts, trailing arm mounts, and an A-arm mount for the top (much harder than it sounds if you use the stock A-arm).

Then you will prolly need to plumb a brake bias knob to control the bias between your front discs and rear drums. And to top it all of, you will need to carry two spares, as the front and rear bolt pattern will be different.

Then on to the pinion flange - you will need some sort of conversion there (might be as simple as pulling off the rear flange of the driveshaft and using the 1310 to 1350 ujoint to mate to the pinion yoke on the M37 (although again, I am not sure what it has on it).

Just wanted to give you some idea of the steps involved to "bolt-in" a non-Rover axle. Pretty easy isn't it?

Billster

opps, I forgot to add that you will have do to something about the R+P ratio as well.

Billster,

I realize the work involved, but i was thinking that if you used both front and rear axles out of a M37. (just one spare) Also, the M37s are fairly narrow trucks to begin with, so i don't know how much you would have to cut the axle housing down. Like i said, i was just thinking out loud. And the reason i even brought it up was because the axle housing was already offset the pass. side. I dont really have any measurements of axle width because i was just eyeballing a truck that was parked on the side of a trail. And the Military stuff is usually pretty stout.

Brad

Cool, I was just giving you stuff to think about.

The gear ratio is way to high. You would have to run big assed tires and reduce your T-case ratio to even come close to working.

Check the offset on the front axle (passenger or driver), and the steering arrangement (would it require some big time fabrication to make the tie rods work). Also, some of the older axles have lots of material around the ends and around the diffs making it difficult (but not impossible) to fabricate radius arm mounts and panhard rod mounts. What is the diameter of the tubes? If it is larger than the Rover tubes, then the radius arms will have to be altered or changed to something custom. Is there enough space on the short axle side to mount your coil spring mounts (need about 5.5" in of flat unobstructed space to fit the springs)?

If you run the full axle set you might be disappointed in the braking power of the old front and rear drum brakes. I am not sure if there is a disc conversion for these.

You might end up being better off running a rear Sals/Custom 9" or D60 front (or a hybrid:flipoff2: ) as far as the time, effort, money, and strength goes.

Just some random thoughts,

Billster

What's the problems with fabbing a stock a-arm mount?

The mount has a tapered hole that you will have to get machined then welded into a custom mount. You can cut the mount off of the stock housing and reuse it. That is what KC did on my Rover9. With a larger center diff section, the fabrication required to get it positioned right might be interesting.

I am just trying to say, that it is not as easy as some people think when you get down to actually doing this sort of thing.

Billster

I believe the M37 suffers from really weak rear halfshafts, like the rover. There are aftermarket axles available to beef them up, but I think that by the time you are done, it would be easier to use something that is already strong.

Billster, why not just steal the part with the tapered hole from a Salisbury? It is bolted to the axle with four bolts, should be possible to fab a mount for this on the axle without getting inte rocket science.

Not really a good option here in the states as Sals axle assemblies are pretty few and far between here. You could prolly source them over in the UK from a used part supplier, but would have to pay shipping and duty.

Billster

Well, that IS a good reason. Always the local perspective...

Originally posted by wilsby
Billster, why not just steal the part with the tapered hole from a Salisbury? It is bolted to the axle with four bolts, should be possible to fab a mount for this on the axle without getting inte rocket science.


i've got one of these kicking about on an old rusty salibury casing if anyone wants it. it's here in the UK but shouldn't take too long with postage to get over to you.

Jamie