Modifications...

[MudPlugger]

I'm looking to modify my Dico that little more, it has a 2" lift but I want a couple more inches, what's the best way to achieve this? can it be achieved with spring assisters?

I'm also looking for a side exit exhaust, does anybody do them for a 200TDi? I have noticed that alot of people have simply made their own is the performance affected in anyway?

And another thing I want to do is replace the standard headlamps, I have everything to do the 300TDi conversion but I don't know how to tackle it,does anyone have any tips?

[Disco_Stu]

As I understand it, going anymore than 2"+ on the suspension starts to add problems with props fouling, UJ's breaking up instantly, trailing arms and radius arms breaking or just not being long enough to provide proper angle/travel any more. It is do-able but not just the quick fix most of us have with springs and shocks.
IMHO the next option is a body lift. Aside from from the job itself being a bit more daunting, it seems to create less issues than going higher on the springs does.
Wizard, a guy on here does body spacers and instructions on how to fit them.

Side exit exhausts are a doddle to do yourself, do a search on this forum there's a few threads. Mine hasn't affected performance either way, although Steve-o reckons it looks like a fat man with a small willy....

Havent a clue about the lamps  :D :D

Stu.

[boss]

lamps should be easy, off the top of my head i think landymadjay has done it on his bobtail the build is on the modified vehicles page. side exit exhausts should be better as most of the after market ones you can buy have free flow silencers and a bigger bore. but i would get a cat pipe first and lose the back box. that will make a difference and is easy to do.
you can go up to 3" with the standard arms but it isn't very nice. unfortunately there isn't really a company that do radius arms that are as good as the landrover ones...apart from maby LRS offroad but i haven't seen too many people with those as there £1,500 a pair! 
springspacers are cheap, keep your original spring rates, easy to fit. but you don't benefit from any extra axle articulation. if you buy new springs you have the option to go HD or softer, you can have what ever lift you want. a body lift as said is a bit more of a daunting task but can be worth it. the thing i don't liekabout the body lift is it moves the weight upwards,you gain no extra ground clearance and after you have done it the bumpers and everything don't line up.
if your after a lift and its mostly an off road car i would buy the red and white stripe spring which is RRC HD rear apparently they give you about an inch of lift there quite soggy so you get good articulation, there landrover springs and there only about £10 each.....or a pair, i cant remember.

[MudPlugger]

It's already got a +2" lift on heavy duty Bearmach (blue) springs. I'm not too fussed about ground clearance I'm just after that little bit extra height because of the size of the tyres and the fact that my arches aren't cut yet  :roll:

[clbarclay]

Bear in mind that the £10 a piece red/white stripe springs I've seen for sale (and bought) were not genuine items. Not sure what the going rate is for a genuine new red/white. They are nice off road, but may be a bit too soft for saome peoples liking, particuarly on disocveries where there is no self leveling device. I remove the SLU on my RRC abd with over half a ton in the back and just red/whites it was a little interesting to say the least. With red/whites on in place of the bearmach springs you may find the bigger tyres rub more than they did before due to the softer rate.

For increasing tyre clearance there is an aditional argument for heavy duty springs because not only do you get the lift in standard ride height the same as spacers or a body lift, but because the suspension is stiffer, the tyres do not move up as far for a given situation (ie when cross axled or driving over a bump)


Boss
When you say

the thing i don't liekabout the body lift is it moves the weight upwards,you gain no extra ground clearance and after you have done it the bumpers and everything don't line up.

where you implying that you raise the centre of gravity for no increased clearance under the chassis, after all any lift raises the center of gravity.
Also I find that you need more ground clearance under some parts of the vehicle than others. I've had several instances where a front corner or sill just missed the gound thanks to the extra lift on the body lift whilst at the same time there was still lots of clearance under the diffs and chassis.

Some people advicate that the only clearance to care about is that under the diffs, in some situations this is the case (eg. ruts in level ground), however in a number of other situations its not the diffs that ground out first.

Mudpulgger
Is ther any particular reason why you haven't cut your arches?

[MudPlugger]

The reason I haven't cut the arches is becaue I have only just got the car my dad never gt round to it...was one of his "Oh I'll do it when I can be arsed" things pretty much the same as the 300 lights. But my dad didn't really off-road it he just wanted it to look special.

I am totally different and will be using the car for what it was intended as soon as is humanly possible!

Plus I'm not quite sure if I have the bottle to hack away at my precious car  8-[

[Disco Matt]

The thing about a body lift is that it allows you to fit bigger tyres - that's where the extra clearance under the axles comes from.

[MudPlugger]

So does anyone know of the easiest way to do the headlight conversion for a one-handed person?

Well I'm not one handed but I only have the use of the one arm  :lol:

But on a more serious note, what other mods are easy to do that will improve it...not going for any major suspension mods just going to keep with dislocation cones etc...

And does anyone know the best place to mount my CB and where do I stick the aerial, want the CB pretty close to me so I can change channels easily as at the minute it's mounted in the glovebox but I wanted it near where the stereo is or somewhere along those lines...what's the best aerial to use as well?

[jonny ramrod]

mine is mounted to the left of the steering colum sort of under the dash-ish,,,, i will post a pic, may make more sense then..  :shock:

Aerial on the rear top of the driver side rear panel..

[clbarclay]

These should give you some inspiration for where to mount the CB unit and arials

http://www.mud-club.com/forum/index.php/topic,60629.0.html
http://www.mud-club.com/forum/index.php/topic,27046.0.html
http://www.mud-club.com/forum/index.php/topic,4269.0.html
http://www.mud-club.com/forum/index.php/topic,16040.0.html
http://www.4x4cb.com/public/page.cfm?CatID=613

[MudPlugger]

Does anyone know where I can get the screw to mount it to the mounting bracket?

And does anybody know how Thermidor has mounted his in the map pocket, looks like he's cut it but I'm not sure...and where is the best place to mount the aerial as some places are saying guttermount and others are saying on the roof...totally confused.

And what's the best way to route the wiring?

[clbarclay]

For best effect the ariel should be mounted at the top of the vehicle and in the middle, though a number of people mount them on the bumpers were they are effective enough.

When routing the airel cable  keep it as far away from other wires as practically possible to reduce interferance. I once routed the areil cable on mine from the rig on top of the dash, through the dash, along the transmission tunnel, under the passanger seat, and then up the B pillar to the ariel. This was very neat, but it could suffered from interferance. some times when I reved the engine you could hear a frequency change exactly matching the revs  :roll: you could stop it by increasing the squelch, but I've since rerouted it. Some mounts require the ariel cable to route outside, some peolpe just trap it in the door which is simple enough, but can damage the cable.

[MudPlugger]

Another couple of quick questions!

Will a Mini steering wheel fit the disco, have been told it will but before I commit to buy I want to make sure of this it's from a 25th anniversary Mini...

And what size tyres can I go upto I am not bothered at all about cutting the arches, was going to do it anyway but I want bigger tyres after a friend remarked that I should get "big off-road tyres" I thought they were big...I was looking at 35's but would settle for 33's, does anybody know where I can get a set fairly cheap? would be looking at about £250-£300 tops just for tyres?

[sMUDge]

Does anyone know where I can get the screw to mount it to the mounting bracket?

And does anybody know how Thermidor has mounted his in the map pocket, looks like he's cut it but I'm not sure...and where is the best place to mount the aerial as some places are saying guttermount and others are saying on the roof...totally confused.

And what's the best way to route the wiring?

http://www.thunderpole.co.uk/  Do pretty much anything you could need for fitting a CB  ;)  :D

[thermidorthelobster]

And does anybody know how Thermidor has mounted his in the map pocket, looks like he's cut it but I'm not sure...and where is the best place to mount the aerial as some places are saying guttermount and others are saying on the roof...totally confused.

And what's the best way to route the wiring?

I removed the plastic map pockets and cut it - looks very neat and keeps everything out of harm's way.  I picked up a 12v feed off the electric sunroof I don't have fitted.

Up to you where you put the aerial, but the centre of the roof is ideal, as apparently it acts as a better ground plane.  If not, gutter mount or roof rack is fine, but try to make sure the mount earths to the mounting point well (ie scrape through the paint etc).

I routed my aerial wiring through the roof.  Drilled a hole in the roof and used a connector which I can screw a CB cable to both inside and outside of.  This is actually much easier than running cables up and down all over the place, and it's fully sealed with silicone so won't leak.  If I remove the aerial for any reason, I can just cap off the connector to leave it nice and neat.  I got the connector from Communication 11, at www.4x4cb.com.

[Disco Matt]

The problem with fitting a radio in the map pocket area is that the mic cable will surely dangle in front of you?

Mine is mounted between the pockets (where the sunroof controls would be if I had one). This is not immediately apparent to passers-by and means that both driver and front seat passenger can get to it.

The aerial is mounted on the back door, which while not ideal works well enough for my needs. If I was starting again I would probably buy a body mount and a centre-loaded aerial, then make sure that the body mount was fitted in such a way that the aerial coil just sticks up above the roof.