Another does any one know?
I want to lift the suspension between 1 to 2 inches on my 1989 4x4 panda, i know of a crude cut, extend and weld method for the rear and fitting a 1 inch spacer to the top of the front struts?
This causes the front steering to do wierd things in reverse so want to see if theres a better way.
Again, cheers
Lee

Unless you only lift the body and not the suspension you will have problems with the front bearings, apparently they go through them very quickly when raised. Easiest way for an inch or two is higher wall tyres.

i ran a lifted 4x4 for about 10 months, the only side effect was the steering problem. i run 175/70 13 knobbly tyres so need to lift at least 1 inch to get them to fit.
Any better ideas than my bodge..
Cheers
Lee

Only thing that springs to mind is spacers on the shock mounts & leaf springs. Someone looked at manufacturing a spacer a while back if you have a search.

That's gotta be a first...

arc said:

Need's raised

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Alan.D said:

Only thing that springs to mind is spacers on the shock mounts & leaf springs. Someone looked at manufacturing a spacer a while back if you have a search.

Click to expand...

That was me. You can safely lift about 20mm with a spacer under the front springs. This keeps a reasonably sane camber. If you space the struts down you will have problems with huge camber and the driveshafts will bind in the joints. As the wheels drop they move inwards until they try crushing the driveshafts. For 2" of lift you are looking at a fair amount of work as you will have to relocate the lower arm mounts outwards to compensate. I think the nearside joints will run out of angle at around 1.5" lift.

You can extend the shackles on the rear springs for some rear lift but if you lift too much you will tilt the nose of the diff up, causing prop shaft vibration.

Les

Lesnewell said:

You can extend the shackles on the rear springs for some rear lift but if you lift too much you will tilt the nose of the diff up, causing prop shaft vibration.

Les

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Les, I am about to make 20 mm spacers to put in between the rear axle and the leafs. I actually planned to make them with a small angle, so the angle between diff and rear axle decreases, instead of increases. Can You explain why there would be vibration, when tilting the nose of the diff up?
(for the front I'm about to make nylon 20 mm spacers to place between strut and spring)
Arnd

I can answer why props vibrate....
prop shaft lesson 1 o 1. When you put a prop together the yokes must be put together in the same plane(in line) this is to compensate for cyclip variation caused by the prop going fast, slow, fast , slow at various angles. This is only true if the input angle is matched by the out put angle. Fitting a spacer between the leaf and the axle will mean the variation will still be in check as the angles may be greater but the prop will still work in the same plane.
Extending the shackles will alter the diff input angle and then alter the torsional stresses causing vibration.
Land rover overcome this on the front axle of coil sprung vehicles by fitting their prop one spline out to alter the cyclip variation.
The best way to sort this out is to have constant velosity joint thats not effected by the angles...

I will be trying the spacer option when i lift my own 4x4, being the greedy git i am, im putting 25mm poss 30 inthere once ive sorted how to do the front the same...

Lee

Raising the body on the leaf spring shouldn't have any effect on the hight/angle of the diff just the centre bearing which is attached to the body so could a form of spacer not be used on those?

Alan.D said:

Raising the body on the leaf spring shouldn't have any effect on the hight/angle of the diff just the centre bearing which is attached to the body so could a form of spacer not be used on those?

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Yes, but to a large extent it defeats the object of lifting the car. To be honest I have seldom found rear clearance to be an issue. Normally you hit the front bash guard. If you go over a step then the footwells and centre bearing plate get a beating.

A very worthwhile mod is to make a plate that attaches to the protective frame under the engine and sticks up a bit in the front. This let you ride up over rocks rather than jamming on the cross bars.

A couple of driving tips - on rocks, go slow (oh for a low range...). If you go fast the struts compress and you catch the bash plate. If you take it steady you can climb over some pretty impressive terrain without hitting anything. If you are driving down a lane with a deep rut on one side you can end up dragging the middle of the car along the ground. In some cases you can drop the back wheels into the rut and keep the front wheels out. You end up driving along diagonally. It looks and feels weird but it keeps the horrible grinding and grating noises to a minimum