80 series drivability - make easier to drive

[esp22]

Hey everyone, was just wondering how i could make my 80 series more 'drivable' or more 'car like' around town. Changed jobs and can't afford a second car and defs want to keep my 80. So far all i can think of is snake racing arms to help with steering and castor etc...anything else???

Will boss adjustable shocks help?And how?Harndering ride etc...
It has 3inch lift and 35s...


Thanks guys

[azwa]

Hey everyone, was just wondering how i could make my 80 series more 'drivable' or more 'car like' around town. Changed jobs and can't afford a second car and defs want to keep my 80. So far all i can think of is snake racing arms to help with steering and castor etc...anything else???

Will boss adjustable shocks help?And how?Harndering ride etc...
It has 3inch lift and 35s...


Thanks guys

what are you trying to acheive? 3"+ 35's is the same combo as mine & it drives just fine,have you got the castor correction done ie;does it wander on the road? do you still have swaybars connected? if high speed cornering is what your lookin for a high cog 4wd will never have car like handling.

[crankycruiser]

3" shoud be nice and drivable unless u havent done any castor correction? as AZWA said...

bout only thing u could really do is drop bak 33's or so?

[DIRTY ROCK STAR]

just buy castor bushes off anyone else!
snake by name snake by nature.

or if it makes you feel better for the same result, send me what hes going to charge you, i will send you something faulty and kick you in the balls a few times. maybe smash your truck up abit for the true feeling.

or go buy castor correction bushes from hobzees online store, or tough dog, lovells etc. costs you less, will fix it and you wont be left stuck with sore balls.

[beebee]

just buy castor bushes off anyone else!
snake by name snake by nature.

or if it makes you feel better for the same result, send me what hes going to charge you, i will send you something faulty and kick you in the balls a few times. maybe smash your truck up abit for the true feeling.

or go buy castor correction bushes from hobzees online store, or tough dog, lovells etc. costs you less, will fix it and you wont be left stuck with sore balls.

^ANGRY!^

[Stoive]

swaybars! if you removed them, or previous owner did, its pretty common

[fester2au]

3" shoud be nice and drivable unless u havent done any castor correction? as AZWA said...

bout only thing u could really do is drop bak 33's or so?

However cranky if castor correction is the issue and it quite likely is without further explanation then dropping on to 33's will make no difference at all.

What is the unacceptable handling. If it is all over the road then castor/alignment issues are present etc. If rough then maybe tyre pressures and incorrectly matched shocks/springs or crappy shocks. If wallowy then maybe lack of swaybars, worn out bushes somewhere or the rubber.

However having had a few 3-4" lift + 35" tyred trucks none of them drove that much worse than a car for what they were and all were used as daily drivers. Never will match car handling but should not be that uncomfortable, something is not set up right. What rate springs are in it compared to the everyday load you are carrying. Heavy duty springs with no load will feel like crap. Too heavy a shock for the weight and spring weight will be similar. I had EFS extremes in my truck initially witht eh exact same combo as a lot of 80 series owners and it rode like crap bbut I had next to no weight and the guys who loved them had full draws etc etc and loved them. Now I've got Boss's and set softer they are fine. Not a Commofalcamry but fine none the less.

[DIRTY ROCK STAR]

just buy castor bushes off anyone else!
snake by name snake by nature.

or if it makes you feel better for the same result, send me what hes going to charge you, i will send you something faulty and kick you in the balls a few times. maybe smash your truck up abit for the true feeling.

or go buy castor correction bushes from hobzees online store, or tough dog, lovells etc. costs you less, will fix it and you wont be left stuck with sore balls.

^ANGRY!^

you know it bee bee.

[Luxo]

Part time kit if its a GXL/Sahara

[solo13]

yep part time kit .got 1991 80 crusier same problem put part time kit in perfect

[dumbdunce]

make sure everything is tight - all suspension bushes and bolts, steering joints, kingpins, steering box adjustment, wheel bearings. everything that bolts together or is adjustable. if it feels like a truck to drive, it is mostly because things have got sloppy. my 80 has 5" lift and apart from slightly uncomfortable body roll around roundabouts, it is not unpleasant to drive on the road.

[junior80]

my 80 had a 3 inch lift and 33"s and it handled like crap. it wandered all over the road and didn't corner too good.

to fix this I had snake racing lower controll arms and adjustable panhard rod in the rear. And in the front i had the castor correction bushes fitted.

now it handles like a car.

oh and make sure you have front and rear swaybars in, they make a huge difference.

[Pauwolf]

Mine drove fine with 4in lift and 35s with nothing more than ARB caster bushs, still had the sway bars though

Paul

[davids]

mate i have 3" lift and running 35 silverstone extremes have no driving problems at all, no castor plates just adjustable panhards.

[MAD80]

i have 3" lift with 33's only mod is return to center steering damper $140, i got casterbushes but never installed them as the car drove fine, if you want it to feel like a car.... buy a car.

[land8079]

make sure everything is tight - all suspension bushes and bolts, steering joints, kingpins, steering box adjustment, wheel bearings. everything that bolts together or is adjustable. if it feels like a truck to drive, it is mostly because things have got sloppy. my 80 has 5" lift and apart from slightly uncomfortable body roll around roundabouts, it is not unpleasant to drive on the road.

Just a question for you dumbdunce, do you get much feed back through the steering wheel? I got an 80 witha five inch lift and the feed back gets that bad somtimes it feels like the car will run of the road. Its had new steering joints put in, new panard rod bushes done and have just fitted drop arms. All thats left is the steering box. Any help would be good.thanks

[dumbdunce]

make sure everything is tight - all suspension bushes and bolts, steering joints, kingpins, steering box adjustment, wheel bearings. everything that bolts together or is adjustable. if it feels like a truck to drive, it is mostly because things have got sloppy. my 80 has 5" lift and apart from slightly uncomfortable body roll around roundabouts, it is not unpleasant to drive on the road.

Just a question for you dumbdunce, do you get much feed back through the steering wheel? I got an 80 witha five inch lift and the feed back gets that bad somtimes it feels like the car will run of the road. Its had new steering joints put in, new panard rod bushes done and have just fitted drop arms. All thats left is the steering box. Any help would be good.thanks

define "feed back"? mine is a bit dead to steer, it doesn't self-centre as well as it could. it requires fairly constant adjustment to keep it straight but it has big tyres and truck style steering and suspension, it's not much worse than a stocker.

[land8079]

make sure everything is tight - all suspension bushes and bolts, steering joints, kingpins, steering box adjustment, wheel bearings. everything that bolts together or is adjustable. if it feels like a truck to drive, it is mostly because things have got sloppy. my 80 has 5" lift and apart from slightly uncomfortable body roll around roundabouts, it is not unpleasant to drive on the road.

Just a question for you dumbdunce, do you get much feed back through the steering wheel? I got an 80 witha five inch lift and the feed back gets that bad somtimes it feels like the car will run of the road. Its had new steering joints put in, new panard rod bushes done and have just fitted drop arms. All thats left is the steering box. Any help would be good.thanks

define "feed back"? mine is a bit dead to steer, it doesn't self-centre as well as it could. it requires fairly constant adjustment to keep it straight but it has big tyres and truck style steering and suspension, it's not much worse than a stocker.

It happens if ya hit a rough surface in the road and the wheel can get pulled out of your hand then it will shake that bad that the only way to stop it is to pull over sa quick as posoble.

[dumbdunce]

make sure everything is tight - all suspension bushes and bolts, steering joints, kingpins, steering box adjustment, wheel bearings. everything that bolts together or is adjustable. if it feels like a truck to drive, it is mostly because things have got sloppy. my 80 has 5" lift and apart from slightly uncomfortable body roll around roundabouts, it is not unpleasant to drive on the road.

Just a question for you dumbdunce, do you get much feed back through the steering wheel? I got an 80 witha five inch lift and the feed back gets that bad somtimes it feels like the car will run of the road. Its had new steering joints put in, new panard rod bushes done and have just fitted drop arms. All thats left is the steering box. Any help would be good.thanks

define "feed back"? mine is a bit dead to steer, it doesn't self-centre as well as it could. it requires fairly constant adjustment to keep it straight but it has big tyres and truck style steering and suspension, it's not much worse than a stocker.

It happens if ya hit a rough surface in the road and the wheel can get pulled out of your hand then it will shake that bad that the only way to stop it is to pull over sa quick as posoble.

it will probably be one of two things.

the first culprit is panhard bushes. if you have aftermarket panhard bushes, replace them with the factory items. make sure the bolts are TIGHT, this goes double for all the bolts in the suspension.

the second likely cause is incorrect castor - the wheels are doing a shopping trolley wobble - even though you have drop arms they may not be providing correct castor, get it on the aligner and check. if you have aftermarket control arm bushes, replace them with genuine.



other causes can include excessive toe out, and on early model 80's cracking around the steering box is common. possibly bent axle housing resulting in too much or too little camber, causing the tyres to run on the inner or outer edges. if you have a return-to-centre style steering damper, remove the spring - these can contribute to front end shakes. it all needs to be tight but, if the angles are right, and everything is nipped up, it shouldn't wobble.

of course the other variable is tyres and wheel balance - a lot of shops are sloppy with wheel balance and it can be difficult to properly balance big wheel and tyre combos. the other thing is your tyres may be slightly out of round, they can be perfectly balanced but if they aren't round they will never ride right.

[land8079]

make sure everything is tight - all suspension bushes and bolts, steering joints, kingpins, steering box adjustment, wheel bearings. everything that bolts together or is adjustable. if it feels like a truck to drive, it is mostly because things have got sloppy. my 80 has 5" lift and apart from slightly uncomfortable body roll around roundabouts, it is not unpleasant to drive on the road.

Just a question for you dumbdunce, do you get much feed back through the steering wheel? I got an 80 witha five inch lift and the feed back gets that bad somtimes it feels like the car will run of the road. Its had new steering joints put in, new panard rod bushes done and have just fitted drop arms. All thats left is the steering box. Any help would be good.thanks

define "feed back"? mine is a bit dead to steer, it doesn't self-centre as well as it could. it requires fairly constant adjustment to keep it straight but it has big tyres and truck style steering and suspension, it's not much worse than a stocker.

It happens if ya hit a rough surface in the road and the wheel can get pulled out of your hand then it will shake that bad that the only way to stop it is to pull over sa quick as posoble.

it will probably be one of two things.

the first culprit is panhard bushes. if you have aftermarket panhard bushes, replace them with the factory items. make sure the bolts are TIGHT, this goes double for all the bolts in the suspension.

the second likely cause is incorrect castor - the wheels are doing a shopping trolley wobble - even though you have drop arms they may not be providing correct castor, get it on the aligner and check. if you have aftermarket control arm bushes, replace them with genuine.



other causes can include excessive toe out, and on early model 80's cracking around the steering box is common. possibly bent axle housing resulting in too much or too little camber, causing the tyres to run on the inner or outer edges. if you have a return-to-centre style steering damper, remove the spring - these can contribute to front end shakes. it all needs to be tight but, if the angles are right, and everything is nipped up, it shouldn't wobble.

of course the other variable is tyres and wheel balance - a lot of shops are sloppy with wheel balance and it can be difficult to properly balance big wheel and tyre combos. the other thing is your tyres may be slightly out of round, they can be perfectly balanced but if they aren't round they will never ride right.

Thanks very much for your help, I will check all the above and go from there.

[MJ80]

It happens if ya hit a rough surface in the road and the wheel can get pulled out of your hand then it will shake that bad that the only way to stop it is to pull over sa quick as posoble.

This happened to me in my 80 and i mean exactly this, hit a bump and the steering wheel would shake so hard you had to pull over and stop.

The culprit was the bracket that mounts the pan hard to the chassis at the front end was nearly cracked off the chassis... its pretty fucking serious because if it fully cracks off you will be in serious trouble. its also common in the 80s when running bigger lifts, have seen a few guys on forums with it. so check your pan hard mount to the chassis very thoroughly