Home > My Land Rover Blog > Fitting Defender Puma utility springs to my 300Tdi station wagon - Land Rover Blog
My Defender came with yellow springs when I bought it. I don't know what brand they are but I suspect Britpart. The ride was lifted slightly and was a bit firm (the previous owner used to tow) and I wanted something more standard, so I sourced some front and rear new take off springs from a Puma Utility Wagon. The front springs are yellow/yellow NRC8045 and the rears are purple/brown RKB101111. I decided on the stiffer, progressive utility springs for better weight carrying ability (later I fitted RKB500300 Station Wagon springs as these turned out to give a better all round ride as I didn't carry that much weight most of the time).
In both cases, you need to jack the axle to remove the wheel, then place on an axle stand, then jack and suspend the chassis. Then you can relieve the weight from the axle stand under the axle and let the axle droop so that the springs are on full extension. This also gives a lot better access to get a socket wrench between the springs to tackle the bolts on the spring seat. It can be a bit of a precarious job, and on the rear axle you need to disconnect the rear anti rollbar (if fitted) to allow maximum travel in the spring.
I treated the areas around the spring seats on the chassis and axle to some rust treatment (but now I know this is futile). Some underseal product would have been better. It's worth doing, as this activity is the only time you get good access to the chassis side of the top spring seats.
LR Workshop may receive compensation for any purchase made on eBay after clicking the links below.
I fitted galvanised spring seats and spring retainers from Gywn Lewis whilst I was there to help with corrosion reduction in future.
Typically the 300Tdi era Defenders would have handed springs, but later vehicles did not. It was not something I've been concerned about and the vehicle doesn't seem to sag to one side. It may be different with LHD Defenders.
The last two photos show the lift comparison between the two types of front spring. The genuine springs sit slightly lower with a nose down stance, which is the factory designed position as most additional weight on the vehicle would be loaded onto the rear springs, so these are higher to accommodate this.
