Anti-roll Bar Fitted

anti-roll bar components

I finally got the opportunity to fit the anti-roll bar to the back end. I had previously bought a near-complete SIIA military ambulance unit from Dunsfold Land Rover, missing only the brackets on the chassis. Since those brackets are welded in place, they obviously weren’t going to be available, so I had some similar brackets made up by a local fabricator to dimensions taken from the schematic diagrams I posted in an earlier update. Those brackets had captive nuts welded to their top sides, and to prevent them from damaging the chassis rails when under compression, some matching depth bars were welded near the corners of the brackets that will spread the loads onto the chassis rails right next to their corners, preventing any distortion of the chassis. These were painted in Galvafroid for maximum protection before getting an internal coat of Schutz.

The chassis needed a small alteration for these brackets to fit. This merely involved trimming the bottom off the rear fuel tank mounting gusset. The bare minimum was removed in order to avoid weakening the mounting. With the brackets pressed into position, the 10mm holes were drilled. As soon as the first hole was done, its bolt was inserted to ensure that the bracket did not move while drilling the next. The holes were drilled from each side with the drill’s depth gauge set as shallow as possible to make sure any wiring inside the chassis wouldn’t be affected.

Once the bolt holes were all drilled, the brackets were removed and the trimmed and drilled areas were treated with Galvafroid and Schutz. The brackets were then refitted , with a healthy spray of waxoil to the bolt holes, inside of the chassis rails and the bolts themselves. The whole lot was then treated to three coats of Schutz.

Once dry, the anti-roll bar was fitted to the brackets, with a smear of copper grease on the inside and outside surfaces of the rubber D-bushes. With that in place, the vertical links were attached. These use damper bushes at the bottom and steering rod ends at the top, again assembled with copper grease. From start to finish took about four hours.