suspension lift - whats else is needed?

[POPEYE]

Well here goes, i'll do the rear and body a bit later
2” BALL JOINT SPACERS,

This is a quick write up regarding fitting ball joint spacers to obtain lift on the front suspension, you choose the lift by the thickness of the spacer you req, anything from ½” to 2”, it may be possible to fit even thicker spacers but personally 2” is as far as I’d go, any more and I’d recommend cranking up the torsion bars or preferably fitting +2” replacement bars, if you want even more lift there’s the body lift (up to 4” with some mods) more than that? Then go to the likes of LA Supertrux who will put it in orbit as long as you’ve the cash,
When I did mine I had loads of help from guy’s on the site by way of advice and parts so a big thanks to you all, there are prob other maybe better ways of doing this mod but this is what I did and hopefully will help some of you who are planning on doing it, I know there are other “write up’s” about such as the Aus web site but I found some niggley little things missing, such as the need to bash out the ball joint original bolts as they are “drifted” into the ball joint flange, and no amount of hammering would shift em until I held them accross the open jaws of a vise and wacked em,
Also bear in mind that doing this (2”) will put the camber of the front wheels out and make them “bow” in at the bottom so you will need to get that redone at the tyre place, (I still haven’t got this done with the result the front tyres are starting to wear on the outer edge,
Right, first give all the nuts/bolts you are going to mess with a good WD40 ing,
Jack up the truck on the chassi till the front wheels are off the deck, (having loosened the nuts)
Remove the wheels and get a jack (found a trolly jack the best) and place it under the lower ball joint, jack it up till it just takes the weight of the truck from that side of the chassi jack, this means the top wishbone is now in the “under load” position (up at it’s normal height,
Get a nice flat block of wood and place on the deck in line with the front edges of the wishbones (or as near as poss) measure from the top of the block of wood to the underside of the top wishbone, I had a length of steel box section and cut it to this measurement, I then cut the head off a bolt and welded it to the box section,
This bit is now fitted under the top wishbone (the bolt goes in a hole already there, (drain hole I guess) and on the block of wood, I then nailed smaller blocks around the steel box to stop it slipping, the welded bolt at the top stops the top of it slipping, so you can work without the danger of it shooting off and doing your hands damage, this box section now keeps the top wishbone in the under load position, I found this way better than the “bit of wood jammed through the wishbone” method, all this makes it much easier to remove/refit the joint etc,
Hook out the split pin from the joint castle nut (having both wheels clear of the deck makes it easy to swing the steering to either lock so you can get at this nut and the others easier) remove the nut and lower the jack under the bottom joint and knock the control arm free, a couple of sharp smacks got mine off,
Undo the ball joint fixings from the top of the wishbone and tap the joint out, hold it accross the slightly open jaws of a vise and bang the old bolts out,
Place two of the new longer bolts through the spacer and offer it up under the wishbone and determine how much metal you’ll have to remove till it sits comfortabley in place, Trial and error here as you only want to grind off as much as you req,
Once the spacer fits snugly remove it and fit the four new bolts through the ball joint and then fit the spacer on this and fit this assembly up through the wishbone and bolt in place,
Wriggle the control arm back into the taper as you jack up under the bottom joint and refit the castle nut, as tight as allows the hole and castle to line up for a new split pin,
I should add that I replaced the angled grease nipple with a more upright one due to this now being down in the center hole of the spacer, just makes greaseing a bit easier,
Finally and prob needless to say clean and oil all threads as ya go and take precautions when jacking, these are heavy trucks and will kill you if your careless, do it on flat hard ground and stick the two front wheels one on the other under there as an extra precaution, plus stands etc
Fit your new shock absorber (+2”) and do it all over again on the other side,
Refit the wheels and jacks down, all done, get the camber/tracking re done soon as poss
I’d also recommend fitting either manual free wheeling hubs with this lift or spaceing the front diff and ARB down to suit the lift, as the drive shafts will new be at a steeper angle than before and will wear out the boots quicker

[POPEYE]

Popeye--------you're a legend !!

Al

In my own lunchtime Cheer's Al (i think)

[POPEYE]

Right next,,,,,,,,,

REAR COILS,

This is what I did to raise the rear suspension without it costing a fortune, theres a few ways of doing this, and it up to you which way you go, I fitted land cruiser springs but with these as I found out the hard way you defiantly need the alloy (or hard plastic) seats to fit between the top of the springs and the mounting, the spring “slips” out of line without these seats, two other ways of doing it is to either fit +2” longer surf springs or 2” block spacers on top of the original springs, whatever method you will need +2” longer shocks,

Jack the truck up on the chassi as high as you safely can, support it well cos your going to be right under there, it helps if you have a pit or the use of one, having removed the wheels, jack up the axel to take it’s weight, and remove the ARB (if you intend to refit it you can just unbolt it from the axel but you will need drop brackets when you refit, these are either brackets or longer links on the end, using LC springs I left the whole thing off as these springs are much stiffer than the stock ones, I get no roll at all, but the ride is harder,
next unbolt and remove the panard rod,
Next unbolt both top radius (I think that’s wot their called) rods from the axel brackets, once you get the nuts off you’ll prob need to knock the bolts through using a drift or bar slightly smaller in dia than the bolts, they take some fiddleing out with a pribar,
Next remove the shock absorbers, jack up or down to help with removal of the rods and shocks,
Next, unbolt the break load sensor and you may have to unclip some break pipe above it, this is to avoid straining the pipes,
Next lower the axel and remove the jack,
At this point the old springs just about fall out, getting the new longer ones in will req some levering the axel down past it’s dead weight position either get some help or as I was on my own I used a length of 4x2, difficult hanging on the 4x2 and getting the spring in with one hand, I also cut half of the rubber bump stops off to make it easier to get the springs in,
Once there in and positioned ok (the bottom of the spring sits in the shaped cup) slowly jack up and check the position as you go, I should add that if your using LC springs you need to remove the old top mount rubber and dump it, the new alloy seat just sits on the metal mount, not sure if you need to keep this rubber if your using longer surf springs or the spacer blocks, you’ll have to check with someone who’s fitted these,
Jack up and refit the radius rods, this will req some greaseing and a FBH,
That’s about it for the axel, next you can either lower the break load sensor unit via spacers and a bracket like I did or buy a longer hose, roughtrax do an exrended “braided” replacement one, up to you, fit your new shocks and the ARB if your keeping it,
next fit the wheels and lower it down,
next is the panard rod, you can go a few ways this this, either fit a drop bracket, this fits on the chassi end, or you can buy an adjustable rod, or what i did, i cut the rod roughly central, it's hollow BTW,then i refitted eack end and measured the gap now created by the lift, made a note of this and i then found some steel round bar that just fitted inside the rod, it needed some taping to get it in, tapped this bar into each end of the rod untill i had the req gap, made sure the bolt flanges lighned up and then welded it gradually building up so i could grind it down to the dia of the orininal rod, refit the rod, i also made a 2" bracket to "lift" the break pipe where it used to connect to the panard rod,
have a drive and a bounce and just double check everything.
LC springs wil give about 3” of lift, spacer blocks! What ever thickness you want, I would keep to around 2-3” at most tho,
pics will give you some idea,

[Pine12]

Thanks Popeye, excellent write up!

Will post back when i get things sorted. Unfortunately might be a bit longer than i thought as we are going to have a 're-structuring and staff reduction' at work. Now i wonder what that's going to entail?

[dannyboy77]

popeye is that an adjustable panard rod? like the colour coding of the parts!

[POPEYE]

Thanks Popeye, excellent write up!

Will post back when i get things sorted. Unfortunately might be a bit longer than i thought as we are going to have a 're-structuring and staff reduction' at work. Now i wonder what that's going to entail?

Your welcome mate, i'll do the body lift when i get time, hope all's well at work, you never know these days,

[POPEYE]

popeye is that an adjustable panard rod? like the colour coding of the parts!

Thanks, it makes some on here sick, they prefer seven shades of mud
no i cut and welded it mate, the pic with the yellow arrow is where i cut it,

(just showing off my welding skills, or lack of em, quite proud of the fact ya cant see the weld tho)

[goodcat]

great write up Popeye!

i got dizzy looking at the pics tho!
think im getting swine flu!

[POPEYE]

Cheer's Jamie, was gonna link this to you post on the general bit in case you had'nt seen it but you obvisiuly have

[goodcat]

thats ok mate and thanks anyway.
as youve done some spraying could you comment on my next thread please mate. wont hijack this one.