[Gwagensteve]

Hi Mevanz,

I'll play.

Quote:

-I was considering having the new shock mounts 1" lower, essentially giving an extra inch of lift...bad idea?

Lowering the top shock mount 1" won't result in an inch of lift. the distance between the coil bottom seat and the coil hat on the chassis won't change, so the ride height won't change.

What would happen is that the shock would run out of travel 1" sooner than it did before. If you have added bumpstop spacing, then yes, lowering the top mount would be a valid way to regain the "lost" travel after fitting bumpstop spacing, but without bumpstop spacing, it's a bit fraught - there's unlikely to be over 1" of travel available in the shock when the axle is hard on the bumpstop. The risk is that in hard use (like landing an unexpected jump) the shock will reach full compression before the axle fully compresses the bumpstop. This will smash your shocks - therefore, pursue this with caution.

As an aside, I think the LAST thing a coil sierra needs is more than 2" of lift. Not only does caster suffer and therefore handling, but the ride degrades because the radius arm angle starts to coincide with the force acting on the suspension when it hits a bump. Like any car, nothing about the way a coil sierras works in improved with lift.

Quote:

-I noticed most shock mounts integrate a swivel as the angle of the shock changes throughout the stroke, but on an sj80 they make do with a bushing... Is this because the shocks remain relatively in-line with the line of travel throughout the stroke, or was suzuki just being cheap?

I not entirely sure what you're asking here. Many, many cars have an eye at one and of the shock and a pin at the other, including cars with PLENTY of wheel travel like 80 series land cruisers and Rover (front). I have heard it said that the bush is the wrong way around on the front lower shock mounts of the coil sierra, and that by rotating the bush through 90 degrees, so the bolt sits fore/aft rather than across the car, more flex can be achieved. I'm sceptical of this, but it might be worth a try.

Quote:

-Was considering putting the rancho rs5000's from my leafy on the coily... Everyone above was talking about shocks made specifically for the vehicle; the leafy is essentially the same as far as front/rear weight distribution goes, but I understand the mounting positions would affect it greatly. If I made new mounts and put them in roughly the same position as on the leafy and then used the leafy shocks...would that work?

Yesnomaybe. Firstly, as you're aware the front shock has a coil seat welded to it. The factory coil shock is very small diameter and there's no room for a (much) larger shock to fit through the top coil hat. a large diameter shock like an RS5000 will not fit. It's also very difficult to weld the coil seat to a Rancho. They are VERY thin wall and terribly difficult to weld to (I've tried)

Next - Valving. Even though the car is similar in weight and travel, leaf springs have their own internal damping due to the fiction of the leaves sliding against each other. Leaf cars need barely any shock absorbing ride and handle fine, however, a coil spring car will keep bouncing almost forever without shocks, so unless your Ranchos were quite stiff when used with the leaf car, they will likely be too soft for the coil sierra.

Last: Fabrication. The rear ranchos will go pretty close to bolting in, so notwithstanding the valving issue, they might be pretty easy to work with. The front is a different kettle of fish. You'll need to weld a coil seat to the axle, likely from a Vitara rear or Jimny front. Then, you;'ll need to fabricate a new shock mount to vaguely replicate the shock position on the Jimny. (the shock is behind the coil towards the rear of the car, not inside the coil) is this worthwhile? Maybe, it's been done before, but it won't transform the car, although it will give you more choice for springs and shocks. Shock and coil choice for a jimny is pretty difficult - they are notorious of binding front springs, and in the case of the coil sierra, the inherent problem isn't actually with the shock and spring, it's with the radius arm design that leads to excessive front roll stiffness.

All up, messing with coil sierra suspension is a bit of an all-or-nothing deal.

Steve.

[got_bar_work]

It would be less work to just put in real coilovers then it would be to make jimny coils and shocks work.

[Hairy]

What about these? http://www.onlineautoparts.com.au/buy/4 ... /ZPN-01806

[Gwagensteve]

As far as I am aware, that's the only source of struts and lifted springs in Australia.

I'd be VERY interested to see how "extended" the struts were, or more particularly, how much more travel they have than standard.

Steve.

[Hairy]

Gwagensteve wrote:

As far as I am aware, that's the only source of struts and lifted springs in Australia.

I'd be VERY interested to see how "extended" the struts were, or more particularly, how much more travel they have than standard.

Steve.

"** This kit has genuine extended travel front struts that are required when fitting raised springs. Other kits on the market often use standard struts and state these are fine with a 30-40mm lift. This is not the case and the struts will hyper extend at times resulting in early failure and premature wear of these struts **"

According to their sales rant they are?
I might get a set and try them.........

[Gwagensteve]

According to the sales spiel lots of things are true. I suspect they might be a little longer extended, the question is how much longer they are compressed, and if they actually offer any more travel. I bet there's little, if any, added travel, which means there's some safety margin being used up on the compression side.

[1DYX]

Hey, Fatzook! Did you ever go anywhere with these struts?
Now that I've sold 2 of my Hilux's, I'm gonna throw a bit of money at this POS.

Put new front rotors and pads in it today, and need to do the radius arm bushes next. (already have the bushes).

Hopefully before xmas, but I'm away for the next 3 months.

[1DYX]

Ok, while I'm waiting for FT to return, I would also ask if anyone knows if these: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120865522934 ... cc1a6&cp=1 are actually longer that standard.

If they actually are, I might get Boynes springs to make me up a new set of coils with an extra coil in them.

Or, can anyone point me in the direction af a longer shock. I dont want to use the heavy duty versions that usually come with these kits.

[greenzook89]

I have these in my coily. They are about 40-50mm longer than the standard KYB shocks that I pulled out.

[1DYX]

EDIT: Note for future reference: details of the shocks discussed here
Ultima 4x4 Shock Absorbers
Reference: ZPN-01845
https://www.onlineautoparts.com.au/products/Set-of-Front-+-Rear-Ultima-4x4-Strut-Shock-Absorber-Raised-Shock-Absorber---Strut-Ultima-4x4/ZPN-01845



Cheers for that. I did message the ebayer, and they responded with :
fronts are 285compressed 436 extended
rears are 277compressed 400 extended

but that made them like 5 mm longer than the ones I have (OE).

[greenzook89]

I messaged them yesterday aswell, for the same question. I'm looking at some Jimny shocks atm. 450mm extended.

[Tipper]

iNDIGOarts wrote:

Seems like finding decent front shocks for the SJ80 is tricky business... That was until I came across KYB Excel-G front shocks that aren't usually advertised to fit the SJ80, but totally do and work great! Not badly priced either.


Hope this helps other SJ80 owners

I can't make out the part numbers in the pictures. Can somebody help me with the part numbers please. when I click on the photobucket thing it doesn't do anything. Thanks for any help.
Alistair