Suspension sagging

[extreme90]

The last time I saw one bend was after a 60mph collision with a tree. To be fair, it shortened one side of a Tomcat by 9" too.

HTH

cheers
 8)
Eeyore

OUCH any1 hurt ?

from what i gather he said to me he was going up a v shape gully and fron axle started to articulate then slipped down the gulley and the axle decided it wanted to go a different way to everything else passenger bent upwards drivers downwards  :shock:  10 outta 10 4 effort i say  :P
he has already spoken to m&m and they are replacing them free of charge so i thing somethin dodgey going on at m&m  :?
danny

[Eeyore]

OUCH any1 hurt ?

Nah. But dang, his pride took the beating of a lifetime. As did his nearside wing!  :lol: Oddly, he now races on that odd, tarmac stuff. The tree was released from the medical centre follwoing a routine check.

from what i gather he said to me he was going up a v shape gully and fron axle started to articulate then slipped down the gulley and the axle decided it wanted to go a different way to everything else passenger bent upwards drivers downwards  :shock:  10 outta 10 4 effort i say  :P
he has already spoken to m&m and they are replacing them free of charge so i thing somethin dodgey going on at m&m  :?
danny

Defo 10 out of 10 for effort.
Couldn't comment on M&M (his second album was his best   ), but it usually takes some act of violence to duff one o' them arms. Seems like a positive outcome though. Hopefully he'll get more mileage out of the new ones.

cheers
 8)
Eeyore

[extreme90]

yes, hopefully, never had a problem with my scorpion ones tho  
eventho everyone h8s scorpion !!!! i luv em cant knock colin and roz great treatment keep regulars happy they do just like simon at d4x4 he keeps his customers sweet
well thanks for that eeyore

[Xtremeteam]

ive seen one o them arms being bent by the fron axle stopping in a hole & the chassis going sideways twisting the arms

[SteveG]

eventho everyone h8s scorpion !!!! i luv em cant knock colin and roz great treatment keep regulars happy they do just like simon at d4x4 he keeps his customers sweet

ahhhhhhhh that's nice to know!     So sweet of you to say. Not sure I see the relevance of mentioining it on this thread, but you probably feel they get such a bad press from non regulars.

Don't think it's fair to Devon 4x4 to compare their great reputation with SR's though! :roll:  :roll:

back to the post..

As mentioned above the paddock kits have a good reputation, so do the Britpart ones. Britpart also do a 1.5" kit.

It seems to be a bit variable but with a 2" lift you risk affecting castor angle and propshaft angle. Castor will make the steering feel vague around centre, especially at motorway speeds. This can be corrected cheaply with castor corrected bushes, more expensively with castor corrected radius arms, and even more expensively, but best way is corrected swivels. All work ok. Correcting castor with bushes and arms has caused prop vibrations on some Defenders.

If you end up with prop vibrations to cure it you'll need a new prop. Either DC one or wide angle.

When changing out springs, soak everything in WD40 for a couple of days before a few times. You might as well replace all bolts. I would change out turret rings for heavy duty ones while you are there and chack front shock turrets as standard ones are prone to rust. For the cost too, I would change out spring retainers for HD items too. All of this can be ordered from Paddock.

Your Shocks do not affect your ride height, just the springs. To check shocks, jump up and down on each corner and check for damping effect. If ok, you can leave shocks alone for now - if you fit longer springs though you will need longer shocks to maintain the same level of suspension travel.

A word of caution when fitting longer shocks, like +5" inch ones mentioned above. Fitting +5" shocks on +2" lifted Defender means that you now have +3" of shock travel. If your radius arms allow you to use this, your brake lines will be further stretched and without looking at upward shock travel and bump stops you may be pushing the shocks past their upward travel point. This will soon knacker your shocks.

If you don't want to worry about any of this and want to leave suspension travel as standard then fit shocks that are same length over standard as your springs.

Cheers

Steve

[Eeyore]

If you end up with prop vibrations to cure it you'll need a new prop. Either DC one or wide angle.

To follow on from Steve's handy post, independent of how you choose to manipulate your caster angles, lifting a vehicle will cause accelerated wear on the prop UJs. I can't remember the exact numbers (long time ago) but for every additional 5 degrees of angle, the wear rate on a UJ increases by somethig like an order of magnitude. A DC prop will halve the working angle on the UJs at the transfer box end, meaning they'll last longer. A wide yolk prop has a wider working envelope (it can work at a greater angle without binding), but won't last much longer than a standard prop as the working angles don't change (same rate of wear).

My preference would be to go for a DC prop first, unless your building in a lot more flex into the suspension. In which case, a wide yoke, DC prop would be just the ticket (and they are readily available courtesy of Saginaw for reasonable money) - best o' both worlds.  

If you do want to change the prop, try to steer clear of the big retailers and go to either a specialist prop maker or scour the 2nd hand market - you'll save a small fortune.  

HTH

cheers
 8)
Eeyore