Good info on portals? (1 Viewer)

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Ok, so the time has finally come to put some portals under the 80. Now the question is which ones? This needs to remain at least somewhat streetable, although I realize I won't be cruising at 95mph any more to the trailhead :flipoff2:.

Anyone got any suggestions on which one, or even any good links to sites that have good info to help. I've been to like extremeaxle etc, but need some more BASIC info. :dunno:

I definitely want to keep the drop where it is now. I've heard the portals come with lockers that can be taken to a push/pull cable company and have cables made up for them. This is definitely way over my head, but I'm determined to do this. Figure I'll start towards the end of summer, but gotta start researching cause time's a flying. :eek:

Thanks
 
As far as portal axles, If you like dealing with drum brakes, seals and low road speeds, unimog axles would probably do well. You can get an entire unimog 404 for pretty cheap and the axles come with lockers (linkage operated, cable conversion probably would not work) and the brakes, when maintained work pretty well. Keep in mind the portal axles are going to give you a 4:1 reduction and many people figure out a way to reverse mount a tansfer case to acheive the desired road speed. The biggest problem you may have is the fact that unimogs run torque tubes to sheild the drive shaft from the outside world and the axle housings are offset. With some creative engineering you can probably figure out how to run a convntional drive shaft and U-joints. I can send you some pix of how my 404 is setup, If intrested. The images are a little to big to post on this forum.
 
Here are some links on Unimog 404 axles:
http://killeraxles.com/
http://www.exaxt.ca/

Also, don't forget here: http://webpages.charter.net/cruiserrg/toypuproject.html This is all my pics of placing MOG 404s under the tube chassis I am building.   As you will see I have added yolks to the diffs, and disk bakes to the hubs.  Also, converting to a cable actuated locker would be easy.  I haven't gotten to that part yet.  

Some considerations for the MOGs:  The front axle is offset 3.5" from center to the drivers side.  The rear is the exact same housing in the center and therefore 3.5" offset to the passenger side.   So for installation into an 80 Series will require modifications to get a passenger side drop.  For reference on mine I had the housings narrowed to put the diff closer to the wheel on the drivers side for my rig, and it centered the rear.  This was done by taking 7" off the correct side and having custom inner axles made.  Doing things like this drives the cost of quickly. On a rig with passenger side drop transfercases, both sides of the housing would have to be modified. I got my parts from Taradon on Pirate4x4.com he has good prices and does great work. Also exaxt will mod housings for passenger drop, he goes by Ryeguy on Pirate. I would suggest looking on Pirate4x4.com in the Mercedes section, most of the vendors post there. I also believe Wolfgang owner of killeraxles has a easter special on 404 axles, check the vendor site on Pirate.

Volvo portals are much easier to mount and install in most vehicles because the offsets are right, and they already have yolks on them for the driveshafts.  The lockers were vacuum actuated and can be converted to cable.  They will require custom rims, but so do MOGs unless you go disks like I did.  The big thing about volvo portals is that they HAVE to be imported in from Europe and spare parts are nonexistent in the States.  Last thing, the joints used are similar in design to a birfield.

If you have any specific questions post up and I will answer them, as I have researched these thoroughly.
 
oh and the reason for Portals:
image53.jpg


there is 19" of clearance from the ground to the bottom of the diff with my 42s air up.
 

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