Lifting a Disco, how many inches?

[phippsey]

Looking at a 95 V8i disco Auto on LPG,

How many inches can I raise it, and how much difficulty. Maybe 4-6 inches? What needs to be done. Costs?

Also how hard is it to do a 1 1/2 inch body lift. My 78 RR was just too much stuffing around with those seats bolted to the chassis.

What about exhaust systems. 3inch OK for the 3.9, or some sort of dual system. It also has to sound good too

CYA

[GURU]

I wouldn't go bigger than a 4" lift on a disco (or rangie for that matter). don't even bother with the body lift, I'm not a big fan and you can easily fit 35's with a 4" suspension lift with very minamal cutting, trust me i've done it to a Rangie.


would advise new and stronger trailing arms and cranking front arms (suggest you fit some slotted bush's from Strangerover as well for flex)

[DiscoDino]

I'd go 3" sus and 2" bod for a RR/Disco, then flares for those you need more room...

[phippsey]

What about caster angles and UVs?

Hmmm

So you reckon no go on body lift, but 4in on the suspension.

I assume all the brake and fuel lines will need moving, what about steering box, etc.

[TuffRR]

I'd be more inclined to go 2" in the springs and 2" bodylift. Rovers require a fair bit of work to get a suspension lift above 2" to work well.

[GRIMACE]

4" in the springs isnt to bad but you definately need to crank the front radius arms and sleeve and crank the rear links aswell as a ball joint spacer in the rear (2" spacer is ok).

I am like DAS 35s with no body lift, but my springs are still abit to high (exspecially the front ATM). I will only do the 2" body lift when I want to go 38s

[TuffRR]

Anthony - how are your driveshafts coping with the 4" lift? Are your running the D2 Cardon joint ones or just standard UJ's?

[GRIMACE]

standard ujoints at the moment 5" lift and there not coping to well

[Slunnie]

I'm running 4" on the D2 and the DC front propshafts are as happy as larry. That said, I'd expect if you rotated teh housing to correct castor it will setup a huge vibration with that propshaft.

[GURU]

Rovers require a fair bit of work to get a suspension lift above 2" to work well.

what do you mean by work well??? I had a 4" lift and the only mod I had was stronger rear trailing arms and a disco Series I front prop shaft. No vibrations, no binding and no flogging out

I'd expect if you rotated the housing to correct castor it will setup a huge vibration with that propshaft.

why would you rotate the housing? leave the housing where it is and get the holes that hold the swivels onto the casing(with bolts) machined out/ elongated so you can twist them further around to correct caster Overkill Eng do them in Sydney). that way you keep good pinion angle and regain castor

[red90]

what do you mean by work well??? I had a 4" lift and the only mod I had was stronger rear trailing arms and a disco Series I front prop shaft. No vibrations, no binding and no flogging out

If you were really 4" above stock, you would have negative castor, which which would prevent it from self centering. Plus you would have very little extension travel in the shocks.

why would you rotate the housing? leave the housing where it is and get the holes that hold the swivels onto the casing(with bolts) machined out/ elongated so you can twist them further around to correct caster Overkill Eng do them in Sydney). that way you keep good pinion angle and regain castor

Rotating the whole axle gives a poor pinion angle and problems with the front propshaft. Rotating the swivels is simple and provides the best results.

[HSV Rangie]

To correctly set up the front after a 75mm + lift.

Front radias arms need to be modified:
1: return arm to chassy mount to stock set up as with the lift the bush is serverly stressed after the lift.
2: aftre correcting arm for correct vchassy bush alignment the diff pinion angle need to be corrected.

3: Once the above 2 are done then get a wheel alignment and see what c astor you have then remove the swivell housings and have the holes sloted or filled and redrill to give correct castor.

Once all done your car will drive like new.


Michael

[red90]

Plus relocated shock mounts or longer shocks, spring retainers, CV propshaft, longer braklines,

[Micka]

Go a 3" susp lift with a 1" spacer. Couple that with a 2 or 3" body lift and you will be laughing. Minimal cutting required for 35s and none at all for 33s.

No need to go higher than that - just fit some lockers and you'll have the girlie toyo and datto drivers crying in their drinks

[Aquarangie]

Sounds like too much work for me

I'll stick with my 30mm suspension and 25mm bodylift thast I currently have on. As you are all aware, I don't intend going any bigger than 32-33 inches anyway.

4-5 inch suspension lifts may work for some of you, but they don't do much for me. Good luck with it anyway.

Trav

[morkz]

you would be crazy lifting your disco any more than 4" total.

I.e i would recommend 2" spring and 2" body.

I saw one guy just did 4" spring & 2" body and he has dropped on it's side a number of times in the bush. he cant drive it well on the road at all.

if i was u just do 2" body and 2" spring and cut the guards, and get some offset rims and you'll be able to run 33-35 no problems...

But be warned you'll have to upgrade axels as well you chew your standards ones in no time. also u might even consider diff ratios as well

cheers some thought i believe in doing it right once and not wasting to much money trying different things this has been done so many times to disco's and the best is what i have mentioned.

cheers

[phippsey]

I mean now people are telling me at a 4x4 shop "you can't lift a disco 4in".

Now I'm sure this has been done, as discussed above, and without moving heaven and earth.

Surely if you had 4in spring you'd have to be unlucky to be flipping it all the time, or have questionable driving skills. There are that many datto's with 8in on them.

So to me the summary is 4in with 33s is fine with minimal mods.

[Aquarangie]

There may be lots of GQ Patrols with 8 inch lifts, but how stable are they

There is no point in having a 4WD lifted to the shithouse and not being able to drive it safely or for it to fall over off-road. 2 inch body and 2 inch sopriongs is a good combo for a Disco/Rangie and won't cause you too many headaches as far as castor , driveline angles, etc.. are concerned.

Regards,

Trav

[Slunnie]

4" and 33's works really nicely on a D2, so I would expect similar from a D1.

[phippsey]

Hmmmm.

I don't see any real dramas with a 4in spring. But everyone keeps going, 'nah, ya can't do that'.

Is there any 4x4 business in QLD that I can advise me on this stuff, knows what they are talking about and fit it?

It seams to just need castor, rear crossmember, hoses (etc).

There also seams to be added issues with body lift on autos. What happens as the body moves away from the stick, it's not like a manual where it can move.

Surely I cannot be the first man alive to lift a S1 disco 4in to run 33in?

[Maxtd5def]

Surely I cannot be the first man alive to lift a S1 disco 4in to run 33in?

Is this why you want 4"? To run 33s?

I'd say a 2" pring lift, plus some flares, will give you a more capable and stable rig, and without the dramas.

My disco at 2" plus 32s went just about everywhere.

Regards
Max P

[phippsey]

Yer, but it's too low. I would consder 2in plus 2 body if it is really that hard.

[CQ Davo]

Phippsy no need to worry about the auto stick. ZF's are a cable shift so as long as there is enough length in the cable you should be right. They are around 1.5m long from memory. The t-bar will just come up with the body.
Davo.

[TuffRR]

Yer, but it's too low.

For what?

[Slunnie]

re con at: http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modul ... 258#415258

I would expect you can lift by 4" if thats the route you're after. I think DAS and Grimace have both gone this route, and it gives better clearance under the belly and at the ends.

Lifting the D1 4" will probably introduce different issues to the D2 though as the D2 has a double cardin (non vibrating in these applications) front propshaft and the rear is a watts linkage setup, rather than an A-frame. I would have thought for you it would be a matter of
DC front prop shaft
A frame spacer
ext brake/ABS lines
springs
shocks
bumpstops
castor correction.

That said, Ive not done it.

[gordon]

re lifting an S1 Disco: I've done something similar with my 200TDI.

I used a 45mm spring lift, 50mm body lift and later added 35mm spacers - a cheap and effective lift. I run 33" (285/75/16) muds with no problem (although I still had to trim the rear guards slightly). No noticable vibrations on-road. I fitted +2" shockies in the rear (Tuff Dog) and used Defender shockies in the front. I didn't need to extend the front brake lines, just relocate the mounting bracket in the wheel arch a couple of inches lower.

Cheers,

Gordon

[phippsey]

re con at: http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modul ... 258#415258

I would have thought for you it would be a matter of
DC front prop shaft
A frame spacer
ext brake/ABS lines
springs
shocks
bumpstops
castor correction.

I was having a good look under it today on the hoist and reckon that's all there is to it. There's no rear crossmember to get in the way, I just see the brake lines, castor, A frame, etc as above.

This experiance has been, hmmmm, interesting.

Everywhere I go people say, "No, no, no. Go 2" body & 2" susp, anyway the C-O-G will be too high"

I said, "How is a 4" susp got a significantly higher COG than 2&2? (apart from chassis, etc, I know)

Basically when I spoke it out they said, "Oh, so you know a bit about cars? Well, yer, sure 4" susp isn't hard, but for the average joe 2&2 is easier so we just reccomend that"

And that my friends may be the problem

Call me Joe X


Soon I may break history and have a S1 Disco with 4" susp lift with 33" Coopers! Next step Maxi-drives - if they ever return my email

But British Off Road suggested I run 16" Sunraisia's. Apparantly they reckon they've had complaints from 15" owners. This has also been confirmed to me by another bloke.

Anyone else heard of this?

Also not happy that my snorkel is almost TWICE the price of a GQ Nissan one

[Slunnie]

Go on, break the mould and make it work.

[phippsey]

Thanks Slunnie!

You're Overlander article inspired me to greatness!

Damn it I want a set of those Santos 5 spoke alloys

I was quoted $400/each secondhand; to which I declined

[Aquarangie]

Soon I may break history and have a S1 Disco with 4" susp lift with 33" Coopers! Next step Maxi-drives - if they ever return my email

Give Mal a ring, e-mail you may wait a while.

If you pay cash, you will save quite a bit I just had my front maxi-drive fitted for $2350 cash (locker part, not the labour). Ricks 4WD at Nerang fitted the locker, but I actually picked up the maxi from Mal directly and this is where I saved a couple of hundred at least.

Good luck with the suspesnion lift. Hope you make it work.

Trav