[tails83]

I've done a strut mount flip and got 30mm of extra down travel, looking at a cheap way to get another 20mm without using 15 washers i was thinking of using 3x10mm (or 4x7mm) 3-bolt exhaust flanges as in the same as the stock extractor flange. so maybe i think 2 1/4 I.D. of the flange which i could get from any exhaust shop for about $5 each.

the bolts look to be 58mm apart on both the flange(the one next to my catalytic converter on the car) and strut top, i don't wanna buy them if they don't fit though or a bad idea so just wondering if anyone else has done this idea.

strut spacers on ebay are like $180 and me being cheap don't want to pay that lol.

thanks

[joeblow]

so you want to put an item thats not designed for structual loads on your suspension?.......cheap aint the word i'm thinking of!

[royce]

I concour, the longer those bolts get the less load they can handle and the more load they will be subject to.
plus they will squirm and make the car handle sloppy

[tails83]

what about if it's all welded together, then it's a rigid structure, it sholdn't woble or squirm at all then, and were only talk 30mm here.

the flanges are 10mm thick stainless streel, so there bloody strong, stronger then a few washers to gain a few mm's.

but thanks for your feed back.

[Bruce]

X3
And I thought Sierra drivers were cheap.
If your going to do something like that DO IT RIGHT. Stop being a tight arse. You will be the first to winge if it brakes driving up the road and you have a crash or it brakes on the track.

[royce]

even if its 2 plates with a section welded in the middle and seperatly bolted like the calminis its still going to squirm, youll still altering the geometry, still adding leverage to stuff not designed for it

there is no real advantage to having more travel than OME struts afford you, you just smash more CV

[Bruce]

royce wrote:

even if its 2 plates with a section welded in the middle and seperatly bolted like the calminis its still going to squirm, youll still altering the geometry, still adding leverage to stuff not designed for it

there is no real advantage to having more travel than OME struts afford you, you just smash more CV

x 2

[kenn]

Tails83 ,good on you,you asked the wright people the wright question BEFORE you did a dodgey mod...The problem with DODGEY mods (any DODGEY mods) is that when (not if) they fail it's possible to end up crashing into some poor sole, then the media pick up on it and " another 4WD caused an accident today..blah,blah ETC..." That just makes us all look BAD in the eyes of the public ,giving the greeney's and the FUN police even more to whinge about , consequently tracks get closed ,laws get changed and those who spend the time/money getting it wright do so in vane. SPEND SOME MONEY DO IT WRIGHT if you can't afford it don't do it... Nothing good comes quickly....

[tails83]

okay cool, s what do you guys think of the calmini style strut spacers, do u guys think there safe. not being a smart ass about it. i've read on these and other forums people bagging out the calmini lift kits.

[royce]

why do you want to put a spacer in so bad?

[tails83]

royce wrote:

why do you want to put a spacer in so bad?

cause i measured it and found i only have 40mm of down travel. when i jacked up one side on the rear so it was basically balancing on one front wheel and the jack it only compressed the one front wheel 60mm. so i was thinking that in stead of havinh 100mm of overall travel i could have 120mm. it might be what it needs so get over a rut or when it get wedged up on something and needs the extra down travel. btw the sway bar was disconnected when i flexed it up on the jack.

[royce]

ahhhhhh so I see you have found why spring spacers are bad, the dont let you still get full uptravel

you may find one day in a big rut youll use all that up travel anyway

problem also is your allowing the CV to turn at a higher angle, I always said she'll be right I will be sure I dont lean on it when its drooped but still broke a CV on sand

[tails83]

i don't understand, yes i have 30mm strut spacers in the front, when testing max up travel the spring wasn't fully compressed, didn't look anywhere near it, why is that.

just with those cv's, i've read a few times on different forums, ppl testing out how much droop they can get with out breaking cv's and 60mm seem to be about it without any drama's most said at 70mm they'd break cv's just going over a speed bump.

[royce]

springs have a rate, for every inch of compression they need so much weight, IE 50kg to compress and inch, 100kg to do 2 inch and so on

so to compress to full up travel you need to squish the spring another 30mm, so need to find whatever amount of weight the equals (but is some stupid amount) but last time I worked it out it was like having the whole car vertical above that wheel

proper lifted spring are lower rate so same amount of weight compresses them all the way

[tails83]

royce wrote:

ahhhhhh so I see you have found why spring spacers are bad, the dont let you still get full uptravel

so if it had 60mm uptravel before strut spacers, it should still have 60mm of up travel right. just wont have as much down travel cause the struts then stop themcausing it to top out going over lage bumps.

so flip the strut top so it's as stable as standard(wont squirm) then if more down travel needed add OME struts or calmini style struts(which is just a strut spacer from what i've read) and will all be in safe working limits of the cv's.

easy and all good, ie not sheap lol!!!

[tails83]

also just found out that the calmini 2" lift kit uses stock springs, the lift is built into the control arms, a-la spring spacers, so if ppl are baging out spring spacers and strut spacers then the 2in calmini kit must be crap lol!!!


also here are there strut spacers, looks like exhaust flanges welded together, my idea is just to stack them up with abit of welding to make it a solid block.

[royce]

tails83 wrote:

royce wrote:

ahhhhhh so I see you have found why spring spacers are bad, the dont let you still get full uptravel

so if it had 60mm uptravel before strut spacers, it should still have 60mm of up travel right. just wont have as much down travel cause the struts then stop themcausing it to top out going over lage bumps.

so flip the strut top so it's as stable as standard(wont squirm) then if more down travel needed add OME struts or calmini style struts(which is just a strut spacer from what i've read) and will all be in safe working limits of the cv's.

easy and all good, ie not sheap lol!!!

if you had 60mm up before SPRING spacers then youll probably have 60mm after, but less droop cause the strut limits droop.

fit ome or tough dog dtruts as they are longer, Calmini struts are shit and not any longer

you dont want to move the point the strut top pivots around as you are moving some pretty well engineered load points in the front end that will alter the geometry, camber arcs, castor on turns and so on

[royce]

and yes calmini lift is shit, all about blue bits and look at me, like all them spacer things

[tails83]

[/quote]Here's a good thread on how to flip the front mount. The only thing I'd suggest is to use a couple 3-bolt exhaust flanges to fill in the rolled edge, and add a little extra down travel. I like doing this first before everything, it's simple and easy[quote]

just something i found on another site, more just for info for ppl reading and not what i'm gonna do.

[atari4x4]

royce wrote:

and yes calmini lift is shit, all about blue bits and look at me, like all them spacer things

I painted all the shit blue bits black & that made it heaps better!

There is nothing wrong with the Calmini kit once you fix their cost cutting issues.......