BEWARE GU owners !!!

[chunks]

Do you have longer lower arms or adjustable uppers to correct the pinion and shock angle? Is the exhaust actually touching the shock (saw the heat wrap)? Just wondering if something has been putting excessive strain on that upper mount like a bad angle on the shock. Its weird how where its broken some of the metal is rusty like its been like that for ages but then you can see the other part is a fresh break?? I've got an 06 coil cab too, might have a closer look at my mounts too.

[8UFF35T]

From the pictures above my post, is that a custom exhaust? Does anyone think that would've caused it because of the heat from the exhaust? Sorry im just very physics minded at the moment.

moose;
How long did you have this suspension set up for?

[nastytroll]

broken shock mount proberly caused from too short a shock. Shock topping/bottoming out work hardening and fracturing the shock mount.

[Wild_Beast]

and aslo

from the first picture u can see that the factory weld has not penetrated the surface of the crossmember basically a shit weld that just sat on the surface. one of the many negative to having robot welders on production lines.
the 2nd picture shows the rusty sriface of where obviously it has corroded over time until finally the other sides gave way under stress.
yes it is a aftermarket 3 inch straight through exhuaust of which i had to wrap my shock plastic cover with heat tape to stop it melting, but no way is there enough heat there to come close to weakening the steel.

i usually drive around with the shocks on about setting 3 and maybe 4 when i put my dirt bike on its own on the tray, as i rarely carry weight the weekends load would be the heaviest i have had on it almsot since i bought it ( 4 35 bias ply) 3 moto gear bags bbq paltes tent poles etc prolly bout 500 kg ide say, enough to make it sag in the ass on king springs. having put the shocks to the highest setting for this trip would have put a shit load more strain on teh shock mount assisting in its breakage.

But i have now measured since modifiying my lower shock mounts turns out that tough dog shocks dont have that great of a closed measurement they are 460 closed and 670 open. im stoked with the extra ground clearance of the modified lower shock mounts but now i have to raise the uppers to suit. as it sits the shocks are teh right length ( open length) but the closed bottoms out so ive got some measuring to do to raise the uppers enough to allow a big enough shock to still gain maximum downward.
( i measured with my 35's on and was good, trouble i have is i drive 95% time on stock wheels till there gone then will be 33's for highway and this is what allows shocks to bottom out only at full travel upwards )

also i do have approx 15mm longer strengthened lower control arms on the rear still running standar uppers though. wheni modified my lower shock mounts i fixed the pin angle on the lower but still had about 15 degree out at the top which wasnt too bad considering what it was. ive conseidred custom or aftermarket uppers but that woudl rotate my diff formward more and at the moment i have no vibrations at all with the current set up so im happy to elave it and modify the shock mounts as rotating diff forward woudl put tailshaft slightly closer to danger ( which i sstuffed one on weekend)

back to my main question anyone know a decent automotive engineer in brisbane that i can have a chat to in regards to getting modified mounts approved.??? ive loked everywhere cant find much info qld transprot site is useless and no panel shops i rang knew any engineers grrrr

Thnx
Andrew

[chicken]

my right hand side spring hanger has snapped off , cracked and pretty much well f^cked up and thats with stock suspension and not ever having heavy duty suspension in it .
ive welded it up but stiil waiting to get around to plating it up.

cheers , chicken

[Patroler]

You can actually buy a brace to reinforce the spring towers on the GU ute - nont sure if the same brace would fit a wagon - or GQ for that matter, mate bought one after reading about problems.
He got it from 4wd megastore, don't recall who made it, just bolted in.

22mm springs and polyairs!! probably time to get a bigger vehicle, trailer, or carry less.
Seen a photo a while ago of a GU ute had telstra style body, big springs and polyairs, had snapped the diff housing where it meets the centre, so even reinforcing towers won't fix everything.

Just looking through my stuff, and my GQ has a 2" hd lift, the rear coils are dobinsons (from suspensionstuff) with konis, wire diameter is around 19.2mm (i measured them) that gives me 3" unladen, and 2" with a few hundred kilos extra constant load, can't even contemplate what 22mm would be like, let alone polyairs!!

GQ's don't have this problem as the welds are much better

Also they are lighter and have similar underpinnings, meaning that they would be more over engineered from the start.

[Wild_Beast]

yes well the right hand side shock tower is sitll in tack, doesnt even have any signs of stress or bending. appears to have better welds, my brother is a ticketed welder ( not that its hard to see ) and just looking at it that dodgey weld is what caused this bracket to start stressing the materials on the other sides of teh box section.
mates an engineer and he looked at it and said basicaly it was going to break just a matter of time as that weld would hold more than half the distrbuted loads and stresses on its own and having it being in-effective was just spelling disaster. im glad it broke here not up the gulf when i end up getting up there. easier to mig or tig it here than arc weld it with jumper leads off the battery in the bush ahhaha
well ive decided to go bit further with it now, trays coming off and both mounts are being modified stronger and also to suit longer shocks, and bracing the spring towers at the same time. A 10 - 15mm tray lift so the 35's dont rub all the rust proofing off everytie i go out and shoudl be good as new.

[Suspension Stuff]

The bad welds are a common problem on GU's but if you change anything on the vehicle Nissan takes no responsability. A major company who has heaps of GU's with the problem tried.

We sometimes forget but everyone who has 22mm wire coils should be told to strengthen the spring towers on a GQ or GU because as the above states it is pretty common.

Shane

[Wild_Beast]

yea i havnt bent a spring pirch as yet, but this weekend trays coming off and im going to modify exhuast out of the way so i can brace the towers properly and also fabricate new upper shock mounts so i can fit a 6 - 8 inch shock for a 3 inch lift. so i can get a full travel out of my springs. (i.e hits bump stops and also allows max drop out)

ive enquired today with alot of engineers and also blue plating people/companies and they all said there is no certification that applies to modified shock mounts as there is no certification required to fit coil overs in cars. thats coming from a racing fabrication shop thats local to me thats does specilised suspension modifications.

i will be looking into it further but at this stage will have custom shock mounts on the way this weekend.

Andrew

[Lace]

Re GU rear spring retainers its common on std GUs on driver;s side and sometines pass too.
My Gu only set up for touring and RH side cracked after 300 thou.
Had replacement and major strengthining gussets both sides.
Was told more prone of polyair bags fitted.
When I collected after repairs there were four (yes four!) clubbies in workshop being repair, one with a mjor chassis rebuild needed.
Piss poor factory engineering as cracks start from end of gusset.

[AFeral]

Andrew you said you modified your lower shock mounts. Did you fit them higher on the axle? If you did the shocks would be bottoming out before the coils. This would put all the load on the shocks and mounts which would then rip the mounts off or damage the shocks. Looks like both have been damaged in your case. When raising the shock mount on the axle the chassis mount needs to raised a simuler amount.

[burleygu]

about the spring perch problem guys supererior engineering does a rear coil tower brace that bolts directly on the top of your spring perch's using existing holes fits nicely under your brake lines etc aswell. if you already have bent spring perchs a little heat from an oxy will bring them back down then you simply bolt the brace to each spring perch and shes all done. no welding no drilling of holes required. reasonably priced aswell i think from memory $120.00 cheap insurance.

[A.J.]

This is my coil hat brace, obviously pretty easy to do once you've cut the back of a wagon

It's 50x50 SHS in 3mm wall welded straight across (the black painted bit).
The blue SHS is actually the tray, which is mounted to the brace.
In my case (dual cab) the brace also incoorperates 2x additional body mounts which push the brace "down", again strengthening against the coils pushing up

[bigbluemav]

about the spring perch problem guys supererior engineering does a rear coil tower brace that bolts directly on the top of your spring perch's using existing holes fits nicely under your brake lines etc aswell. if you already have bent spring perchs a little heat from an oxy will bring them back down then you simply bolt the brace to each spring perch and shes all done. no welding no drilling of holes required. reasonably priced aswell i think from memory $120.00 cheap insurance.

Hi burley

I just checked the Superior Engineering site and your quoted $120 is spot on. What I was wondering (to you and all), is that the site states that a 50mm body lift is needed. By the look of it, the brace doesn't LOOK like it's 50mm high fitted. Could you get away with removing/loosening the body/chassis bolts, jacking up the back of the body (off the chassis obviously), sliding it in and bolting it up and then bolting the body back down?

It looks like a GREAT product, like you say, cheap insurance. But without THAT many GU's with body lifts (due to air bags), surely this could be an option?

Look forward to opinions.

[burleygu]

bigbluemav i only have a gq coil cab and a gu coil cab so i know they are both easy to fit simply because you can just remove the tray. i cannot remember the exact reason why they specified you need a 50mm body lift. perhaps they say that out of precaution for there own benefit incase ppl who install these themselves have issues. a simple phone call to superior should give you all the answers you need the guys there are very helpfull.

just a guess tho maybe the floor between the spring pirchs sits lower then the tops of the pirchs. that would be my guess its been so long since i owned my gu wagon i cant speciffically remember.

but 120 bucks for a quality bolt on product zinc coated or as other member have suggested bit of steel and a welder.