As you have a 1.0lt you are a little limited, only gearing option is transfer gears and probly series 2 4.9's would be the best option.

Suspension wise Old Man Emu is the spring of choice.

Hi mate all I can tell you about is the ebay lifts they are ok not that great dont flex well and sorta rough but I have had mine in for almost a year now and not a problem although the rear shackles look bent any way go the extra mile and buy quality kit as far as I know efs seem to be the go.

save $$$ on the lift, run 30's and do some severe guard bashing / chopping and put the lift money into tcase gears =)

X2 or even a virtual lift seems like the go now that I have read this forum a bit

That's the best kind of spring. Suspension lift doesn't fit bigger tyres.

Steve.

They came out the factory inverted. Many of us with "lift" springs remove leaves to soften the ride, and thy end up just like yours. Lift springs are most often stiffer so they don't ride as well and often don't even flex as well either.

Sounds like you have stuffed shocks as much as stuffed springs.

When you flex the car or bounce it with a 2" suspension lift, the tyres move up just as far as they could with standard springs so they tyres still don't "fit" it just looks like they do when the car is sitting level.

There's a perception that lift always makes a car better and that's not the case. I'd be keeping a 1.0 as low as possible.

I run 30s with no lift in my 1l. I just trimmed down the front bumper mounts and added some bumpstop spacing (I'm not sure if this was really necessary, mine didn't have bumpstops at all when I got it so I installed the ones from my corona which were longer). No scrubbing anywhere. Rims are 15x7 -6 offset iirc. The tyres are 30x9.5 BFG KM2s. Some 2" rubber flares cover all that.

With original super sagged springs it's got the mega lows. It's awesomely stable for a NT. I've never thought "damn, I wish I had some lift" but then I never really wheeled anything that hardcore in my 1l. Arguably, in a open diffed Sierra with minimal flex and crappy gearing you aren't going to be wheeling anything hardcore anyway.

Putting the 30s on with no gearing changes is undoubtedly the worst thing I've done to a car. It went from being able to effortlessly cruise at 110 to struggling to top 90. Trying to drive technical stuff was pointless, not enough gearing or low end power so it was all just clutch torture(not that a standard sierra is a whole lot better....). It kicked arse on sand though.

LJ80 or LJ50 R&Ps (4.556 and 4.88 respectively) with correct the gearing but you'l still be left with basically the same lowrange as standard which is not good enough. The problem with transfer gearing with 1ls is they run such a low ratio in high range to start off with. Even 6.5s wont correct 30s. IMO the best solution is to run LJ80 diff 3rds with 4.16 transfer gears.

If you get the diff 3rds from an LJ80 stockman it's as a simple as dropping the tailshafts, pulling the axles out of the housings, unbolting the 1l 3rds, bolting in the LJ80 ones and sticking the rest back together.

1983 SJ40? Does yours have the "4wd" light on the dash? You need a 4wd switch case to install reduction gears. The cheapest place to buy them will be Low Range Offroad.

Note that the precentages listed in their chart will be different for your vehicle as they are calculated for a 1.3 transfer. The 4.16 gears will give you the same Hi range and 63% lower Lo range. The 4.9 set will give you 4% lower Hi, and 88% lower Lo. If you fit either of these gear sets to your transfer case, you will require 1 factory gear from a 1.3 case, so it might be easier to find a 2nd hand case to build your new gears into and swap the whole lot over.

The 4wd light is on its own below and to the right of the instruments. Fairly close to the ignition. Most 83 1.0litre SWB car will have a 4wd light.

Steve.

What would you suggest for the bouncing as it is going up the hills?

As its already a 1.0lt light or no light makes no difference. If you're going to get gears buy a 1.3NT transfer and fit them to that leaving your original intact

I'd suggest that sounds like a sierra driving anywhere, let alone up a hill =)

Get some new shock absorbers though, and make sure they're correctly valved for a sierra.

Oh okay. I didnt know theyd fit. Would it probably be easier to find one already done on here?
Thanks for clearing up the light thing

Definitely easier to buy already done haha.

You are looking at around 800 smacks, on the dear side, 4-500 or so on the cheap.

It costs around the dear price to build them yourself.

Put the transfer in low range. Turn an output flange (front or rear, won't matter) one turn and count the number of times the input flange turns. Viola!

To give you an idea of how much better the standard the gearing is with transfer gears, I drove my ute for a while with a shonky 1.0, 6.5 transfer gears and 34" tyres. It was ok on road and pretty awesome in the bush.

Steve

Why cant u just install a Sierra case and gear it ?