The general consensus will be stick to oem bushes. I went poly only because i have no tools for pressing bushes in and locally it was expensive to have that done. I read many discussions on Poly bushes with rather contrasting opinion. Some praise from the hilltops and others would have them cast out into space. I'm very happy with my install and i think i've achieved the air cushion ride that the car should have. Time will tell about the lifespan of them so I can't comment. Again, i only did poly's because of what it was going to cost me in garage labour to have bushes pressed. Just happens that it seems to have worked out well for me.

I'm no expert but i'd imagine you should replace both sides at the same time. You wouldn't just replace one shoe!

Get underneath with a bar and see if you have movements in bushes. Visually inspect for cracks and any other signs of wear. Check balljoints for movement. Jack both the front wheels up, hold the wheel at 9 and 3'oclock and try rocking it. That's how I found my worn track rod balljoint as the visual inspection looked ok.

There's many things that will play havoc with the steering. Wrong/worn tyres, wrong pressure, steering box alignment,tracking. Its a case of getting the basics right and then eliminating things one by one.

We fitted the blue polybushes to our P38 about 6 years ago, just after we'd got it. They weren't cheap ones either, they were made by Polybush.

At the time, it tightened the car up and improved the ride significantly but after about 12 months the car started to feel like something was wrong. It started wandering on the road and didn't fill you with confidence when on narrow roads. I put it back in the air on the ramp and went over everything with a bar but wouldn't really find anything that looked that bad so we kept using it.

A few months later it started to develop a horrendous vibration if you hit a pot hole or an uneven road surface. It almost felt like the car was about to shake itself to pieces. The only thing you could do to stop it was to lift off and let is slow a few mph and then normal service would be resumed.

I put the car back on the ramp and got the long pry bar out and found movement in the front radius arms.

Water had gotten in between the polybush and the hole in the radius arm and corrosion had occurred so the bush didn't fit properly in the hole any longer. When trying to take the bolt out to remove the radius arm the metal insert in the middle of the polybush had corroded to the bolt as well. No amount of battering the bolt would make it shift and because the bush was there I couldn't get the oxy acetylene in to heat it. It took hours to clean the radius arms up to a point where they were fit to take the LR bushes.

In the end I had to use a very thin angle grinder cutting disc to cut the bolt out inside the mounting points on the axle to remove the bloody radius arm and replace all the bolts on both radius arms.

At this point I bought genuine Land Rover bushes (all of them) and my Dad made a tool on the lathe to fit them as the genuine bushes need compressing as you press them into the arm. When they come out of the tool they expand slightly so they're a very tight fit into the radius arm.

5.5 years later the genuine bushes are still tight, there's no wander or vibration from anything in the car and it drives spot on. The only bushes you couldn't get from LR at the time was the rear radius arm bushes so I had to fit aftermarket ones to them.

Personally, I'd never fit polybushes to anything ever again, the longevity of them I found awful and they're no cheaper then genuine. The only benefit is as mentioned above, they are very easy to fit as they come in two halves with a metal tube that pushes into the middle of the bush.

I'm sure others have probably had better results but these are my findings on my car using bushes I bought :)

Managed to just get under, Put it in high mode but the ground here is soo uneven its certainly not easy. Going to get a set of ramps as working under will be a nightmare.

I can't get the propshaft to move even with a pry bar, when i mean move I am looking for play. This is making me think that the replaced Front Differential is broken.

I will get the UJ and stuff tomorrow in the post so hopefully take the propshaft off and turn the front diff. (Will I need the front wheels off the ground to do this?) If it is anything other then smooth I will take the casing off and see if we have a mess of gears. Been on the phone to ashcroft to see how quick they can get a new diff to me.

Yes to wheels off the ground to turn the diff, I’ve got one in my garage your welcome to.

You won't know for sure about prop UJs until you have it off the car. Can't easily detect free play if the joints are loaded in any way.

I've never taken a prop off without rotating to get at bolts, but it might be possible. Someone on here's bound to have done it!

To rotate prop (safely) to get at bolts, you'll need either:
Car in neutral, handbrake off, two wheels on same side off ground. Wheels on ground chocked, axle on stands, chassis on stands. Tailgate open or EAS timer removed. Level firm ground
or, I think you'll get away with 1 wheel off ground, transfer neutral, gearbox neutral. Handbrake on. All wheels chocked. Lifted axle on stands, chassis on stands. Tailgate open or EAS timer removed.
Neither sound safe on a slope.

To test diff (prop off)- one first, then both front wheels off ground. Safety precautions as above.

Well I got a couple of ramps and its on them away from anything that is expensive!

Will leave it on them overnight and when the parts come tomorrow will take the UJ off, refit and see if it fixes it.

If we didn't have 1 foot of snow still left I might have been finished. Think these shouldn't be changed every couple of years anyway.

Just hoping its not something else.

Thanks.

Not changed but they should be greased every 10,000 miles when you do a service. As long as they are kept properly lubed they are very unlikely to fail but if they aren't then they don't last long running dry.

OK, so a quick update, Snow has gone and UJ are here.

Took off the front Prop and it looks OK, Drove it in two wheel drive and its still making a bad noise maybe a little quieter. The front diff has a bit of play, but not a lot. Tomorrow i will jack up the front and put it on axle stands to see if I can detect and noises coming from the front diff.

I will also drop off the rear prop and do the same with the rear diff. Lent my Circlips and obviously never got them back. Ordered a new pair for delivery on Saturday. Will change all the UJ anyway and hopefully its the rear prop that is the fault and not either of the diffs or the Transfer Unit.

Suspension will looked into soon and heating pipes and thermostat and service will done tomorrow.

When you take the rear prop off, make sure you put a couple of nuts on the studs on the parking brake. The drum should, in theory, be held in place by the countersunk screw but when I did the same check on mine, it worked itself loose and I came very close to having a parking brake drum make a bid for freedom from under the car. No telling what damage that would have done on its way out.....

Thanks for the heads up, that is the first job for tomorrow.

Quite enjoying learning more about the car. On the upside too I got a deal with a local hire car company that means hiring a car will not break the bank when the P38 is not useable.

Well quick update, Both the Propshafts are off, Neither seen to have any play in them but will change the UJ's anyway, Tools are on their way.

Less is a lots less play on the rear diff then the front diff so I have a feeling the garage fitted a second hand diff that was almost on the way out. Nearly S**t myself when the rear diff came off when the parking brake obviously didn't hold the car anymore rolled back a bit onto the chucks. Bolts on the rear diff are all shagged so glad I bought a load, however why the hell are sold in 10's when you need at least 16!!! I have a few lying round but if the fault is not the props UJ's then I will need to go back under it anyway.

Once I know what the problem is I will probably order a NanoComm, Want to turn off the Passive Immobilisation so that would save £40 for the first one. Blend Motors probably need to replaced, so another £40, and so on and so on.

Rcutler wrote:
why the hell are sold in 10's when you need at least 16!!!

Someone in the stores went metric. It's the same with big end nuts on a 6 cylinder Jag engine. They say you must always fit new nuts but they come in packs of 10 when you need 12. So you end up with 8 spare ones or Loctite two of the original ones on and hope for the best.

OK, So ordered a pair of high end circlip pliers on amazon and expected delivery on Friday, still not here! Drove 30 miles into town and got the best I could find between Screwfix and Halfrauds,

Now got home and circlips on the UJ's feel like they are welded in! I have even tried tapping them round with a flat blade and filling the socket of the UJ with WD40. Nothing is moving?

Struggling a bit for time now as would have like to have know the actually issue before I go away for work next week. Going to drop Ashcroft transmissions a message to see if he can prep a front diff for me so on Friday I can determine if it is that and see if he can get it to me over the Christmas break. Don't want to have to wait until Jan to order it as may have a lot of spare time over Christmas this year. Or should I plump it up and just order one on eBay?

Get a 19mm socket, stick it on top of the circlip and give it a whack with a hammer, tapping it in the way. Then try tapping the bearing cup in away from the circlip. That ought to break it free.

Thanks that did it, sounds like you have had that very same issue! Unfortunately though the Halfrauds circlip pliers aren't man enough so will have to wait for the three day late amazon parcel. Hopefully today.

What are your thoughts on another 2nd hand front diff? Ashcroft is what I want but at £500ish I can't justify it in case I might need it, with time running out I am thinking of an eBay special. Would get me back on the road anyway.

Do your Halfords circlip pliers compress the new circlips sufficiently to fit them? If so, you can just mullah up the old ones getting them out with a pin punch/ screwdriver and pliers. No circlip pliers required!
I thought Chris offered you a diff from his garage "stock" supply? See #24 above...

Orangebean wrote:

Do your Halfords circlip pliers compress the new circlips sufficiently to fit them? If so, you can just mullah up the old ones getting them out with a pin punch/ screwdriver and pliers. No circlip pliers required!
I thought Chris offered you a diff from his garage "stock" supply? See #24 above...

Thanks completely missed that one! I will get in touch with him.

Thanks.

£500? A front diff from Ashcroft should be £385 plus £32 for two way shipping. Once you ship them your old diff you get £100 back so the final cost is £327 - I can't see an ebay special being worth it once you've paid someone to fit it. They ship superfast too....

hmm, OK there's £80 VAT too, so £400.

Yes thats it, £400 plus the £100 return, its christmas so it its basically £500 until next year anyway.

I will fit it as already got both the both the propshafts off it can't be too much harder.

Rcutler wrote:

I will fit it as already got both the both the propshafts off it can't be too much harder.

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It can be a lot harder than removing the prop- that's the easy bit :)
You need to pull both front drive shafts partially out to be able to remove the diff. To do that you need to separate the hub from the carrier. They have a tendency to be rusted in and require a bit of brute force to get apart.
EDIT- although as yours has been out recently it shouldn't have had time to corrode back in.