Gen 2 Road Handling

[kev500sa]

Hi all,

Hope you can help me on this one. I have an NH V6 LWB. When I got her she handled like a boat. Replaced the shocks with new adjustable OEM. Handling improved, but not much. Just replaced all the front ball joints, all the rear rubber bearings, did wheel alignment. She still handles like a boat - no turn in, rolls excessively. Asked a mate to drive it as well, he seems to think it is under damped.

The question is, is this normal for a Paj or should I be looking for other problems?

Thanks,

Kevin.

[meece4x4]

Cant comment on the Gen 2 HOWEVER my Gen 1 Paj does the same thing ... lots of body roll, vauge steering, wandering etc... and yeah ive done the new shocks, bushes, tie rods, ball joints, and alingment route too.


have given up and called it "A Pajero thing"

might be a boat on road but boy she can sure go places offroad

[date]

It is all in the mind. I have a NL LWB and find that it handles fairly well. Prior to this car, I had a Range Rover. Now that did roll and meander all over the place, but you get used to it. They say that the way to tell a Rangie driver is by the gravel rash on his elbows!

Seriously, have you looked at the anti-roll bars and their mountings? Also the rear Panhard rod and its bushes. I had a wheel alignment done on my NL recently, and the guy reduced the castor to the minimum recommended. It wandered all over the place, but either it or I have settled down and we don't fight very much these days. Hope this helps.

[bakerboy]

It is all in the mind. , have you looked at the anti-roll bars and their mountings?

x2
i have disconnected my swaybar (its still inthere, just removed the bolts from the bar and chassis) got a little more roll but i dont really care

[matt17081]

i have a gen 2 swb that's been lifted by 2 1/2 on a body lift and another 2 1/2 on the suspension and is running 35/ 12.50mt s it did develop some "interesting" handeling a while back i just changed the rear shocks with some heavy duty ones and also changed the bushes on the front shocks that were completley knackered, i'd recomend that you just work through things (cheapest first) i used landrover shock bushes on the front with the original mitsubishi inner sleeve and i had these localy for about £4.00 for 4 of them now i've got 2 spare, also check the camber on the front wheels mitsubishi say it should be 0 degres but i've given my paj a little bit of negative camber and this has dramaticly improved the handeling again it's easy and cheap to do you can either make spacers or use washers mitsubushi sell them either as 1 mm or 2 mm spacers these go where the top wishbone mounts to the chassis and you do have to remove the shock to make it real easy to do though, as for handeling it will now lift the inside front (about 2/3in) during VERY hard cornering and "drift" it with good predictable oversteer even at quite high speeds - NOT REALLY RECOMENDED !!! but you've gotta try it !! (and the look on your passengers face is AWSOME !!

[Andres]

We got a 99 NL recently, and I think it handles pretty much like an average large sedan (i.e. pretty decent for a 4WD). I know it isn't much help to you, but Pajeros have always been considered pretty well mannered 4WDs on the road (assuming your comparing it with another, similar era 4WD).

[kev500sa]

Hi Matt,

So you reset the camber to negative..how much? I have read that setting the castor to about 3deg (increasing it) also helps.

Thanks,

Kevin.

[matt17081]

Hiya Kevin,
i've reset the camber to about 2 degrees negative (tops of wheels angeling inwards) i did'nt want to adjust it anymore than this as i felt that it would cause excessive tyre wear on the insides of the tyres, but i do have to say that the improvement in the handeling was felt immediatly and was quire remarkable considering the ammount of work involved (very little) to achieve this i used a spacer of about 3 mm on each side

[matt17081]

following on from above i would also check that you dont have excessive play in the steering box, this is also very easy to adjust, BUT DO SO IN SMALL AMMOUNTS AND SLOWLY !!! and check all other steering joints / track rod ends etc first for play and while your doing that you may as well get the grease gun out and grease them all at the same time