So yesterday I finally got round to starting suspension mods. Plan was to do springs and shocks first so I sourced the following..
4x NRC4304 Range Rover Heavy Duty Springs - from Mansfield4x4
4x DeCarbon plus 2" performance shocks - from Mansfield4x4
2x Rear spring locators - Devon 4x4
2x Front spring cones - Scorpion
4x Spring retainers - Scorpion
2x Range Rover Rubber Spring Isolator Thingy! - Scorpion
2x -2" Rear shock mounts - Scorpion
2x -2" Front Shock Turrets - Scorpion
Here are the two sets..
Rear
Front, sorry I hadn't got front cones out yet..
The 'Standard' 90 from the factory comes with following springs (plus length and poundage)..
RH Rear NRC9448 Blue/Red 15.31" 225 lbs/inch
RH Front NRC9446 Blue/Green 15.19" 175 lbs/inch
LH Rear NRC9449 Yellow/White 14.80" 225 lbs/inch
LH Front NRC9447 Blue/Yellow 14.80" 175 lbs/inch
I measured it all before hand. I used centre of hub to wheel arch. It was cold and wet so I couldn't be arsed to measure better measurement of axle to bumpstop! :)
RH Rear 52.3cm
LH Rear 50.4cm
RH Front 52.3cm
LH Front 51cm
So why did I choose the NRC4304 springs, well they give roughly 2" of lift and I personally like their ride characteristics I prefer the softer springs in the rear and find that in the shorter wheelbase 90 this works well on road. They are also supple off road and compress well. Oh and they are cheap too, they cost me about 16 quid a spring inc VAT ;) ;)
The NRC4304 springs are 17.71" long and 170 lbs/inch. To get the same sided effect of the factory 90 I used the RR spring isolators on RH Front and Rear springs. Here is a NRC4304 side by side with the std RH Rear spring..
Why did I pick early Jan to do this
Really encourages you to a day outside when you see this ;) ..
Anyway here are some before and after shots of the rear..
The Devon 4x4 spring locators work well, better than the rear cones..
Everything on the rear was easy to fit and took about 40-45min per corner. I won't be getting the full articultaion benefit of the 2" shock drop until I buy and fit the kinked rear radius arms I plan to buy from Gwyn Lewis.
The fronts weren't so easy as I couldn't get the axle to drop enough to get the springs in, so I had to borrow some spring compressors..
It's the first time I had used these so I was a bit wary handling a compressed spring, probably overly so. The fronts took about 1hr 15-30 min each corner. Here's a completed front..
Again, with the standard radius arms, I'll get no benefit of extra articulation. The plan is to save up and fit a 3-Link.
So here's how it looks ...
As expected the front sits slightly higher, but with a winch and winch bumper hanging out front I think it will be roughly about the same. Using the isolators works really well to give the side effect.
Here are the new measurements..
RH Rear 56cm plus 3.7cm about 1.5"
LH Rear 55cm plus 4.6cm just less than 2" ;)
RH Front 58.5cm plus 6.2cm about 2.5"
LH Front 57.5cm plus 6.5cm just over 2.5"
Extended brake hoses are still in the garage as it was bloody cold and I ran out of light!! :)
I'm pleased with ride, no 90 choppiness from the stiffer std rear springs which is good. There is a slight vagueness in steering at motorway speeds due to castor angle change which will get corrected later. There is a small vibration on lift-off from the front prop, which is to be expected with the 2.5" lift. I'll see how this changes when winch eventually gets bought and fitted - not for a long while though. Solution will be to fit a DC jointed propshaft.
I'll see how it performs off-road on Sunday :)
By the way I didn't fabricate anything myself because I can't :) and it keeps people in beer tokens if I buy theirs!! :P :P
Cheers
Steve
