Feroza front lift question.

[Mantamac]

I've had some new springs made for the rear of my Sportrak (Feroza).
The truck sits about 3" higher than standard at the rear. The front sits a little lower, and is almost at full droop. I'd like a little more lift if possible.
I have also welded the front diff and I'm now a little worried about the lifespan of the front CV's because they run at such an angle, especially the O/S front.
My idea is to lower the front diff mountings by about 2 inches to help with driveshaft angles in the hope it will give the CV's an easier life.
I would then like to make a spacer for the top ball joint to allow a little more droop and then wind the front torsion bars up a bit more to even the ride height out.
I think I may have to flip the front track rod ends, as they might start to bind at full droop.

Has anyone done this already? If so how succesfull was it? Any other hints and tips?
Has anyone got a better idea? (apart from SAS as my other tuck is having one of those)

Thanks in advance.

Mac.

[HotFourOk]

Heaps of info on this type of thing for the US 4Runners.. I was contemplating the same thing lately.
I can't see any negatives in spacing the diff down.. would be great for CV angles. I don't know why more people havn't attempted it.

If I can find the links i'll post them up for you.. try google for the time being

got some http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.php?t=82771
http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2357
http://sonoransteel.com/store_tapered_diff_drop.html

[murcod]

Crowey has got spacers on his front end ball joints. Haven't seen him on here recently though?

[Mantamac]

I had no idea, it had been done before! Just shows how poor the UK off road scene can be for information on modifications. If it isn't a Land Rover or a Zuk, then it doesn't get a mention!

The diff drop is a yes then.
The ball joint spacers look like a good idea, so I'll make them.

How about a ball joint flip on the front steering arms. Has anyone done that to your knowledge??

Thanks for the replies so far.

Mac.

[MightyMouse]

Not absolutely certain what your goal is for the front lift - ifi ts for tyre clearance only ( not ground clearance ) then you can space the body up at the front. which means you dont have to crank up the front bars and loose all your ( very limited ) droop.

I have done this using tapered spacers - lift at the front tapering away to nothing at the rear as like you I have different springs.

A word of warning however - watch out for shock length with new rear springs and consider bump stop spacers. Also might want to consider a tailshaft spacer to correct for the different spings.

[Mantamac]

I want to lift the car to A) level the car up because of the new rear springs, and B) to improve ground clearance as it drags its chassis rails everywhere.

I am using Pro-comp +3" shocks on the rear and have now fabricated longer bumpstops to stop the rear springs from sagging too quickly because of negative flex.
I will be making new shock mounts about 2.5" higher so that the shocks still don't bottom out, but I get the extra 2.5" of travel.

In therory, if I lower the front diff, flip the steering arms and fit a balljoint spacer to the top wishbone, I should be able to take advantage of a little more droop....I hope.

On the rear, I drilled the spring perch to suit the new longer springs so that the axle sits exactly the same distance from the gearbox output shaft as standard.
I will be making some new folding shackles to suit, so might need to fit a driveline spacer due to the amount of rear droop I should have available.

Does anyone sell a driveline spacer to save me having to get one machined up?

Cheers.

Mac.

[Mantamac]

You can see below by looking at the wheelarch clearance above the tyres, it sits quite a bit lower on the front.



Paul.

[rockzilla]

i was repairing my front diff this morning and was thinking about attempting the same thing, i was also thinking about tapping a bolt hole in the rear tail shaft to 'fix' the slip portion of the driveline then having a slip shaft driveline fabbed up, that gives a shit load travel depending on how log the slip is and if you bust up a u-joint (or worse) you can still drive with the rear shaft out and not lose your diff fluid.

[Mantamac]

Thats a good idea!
The cost of getting a spacer made over here is probably about the same as getting a prop modded.
I've got a spare gearbox and prop, so I'll look into getting that done.

Mac.

[MightyMouse]

Have to agree about the TCase output - am putting a Vitara TCase in and am locking at leas the rear yoke onto the O.P shaft and using a slipe joint in the tail shaft - its worth the effort apparantly.

Others who have done this have has some problems drilling the O/P shaft as its HARD but not certain if they used carbide drills.

AS for drop shackles ( revolver shackles ) all I can say is DONT. Apart from being illegal in many countries - and with good reason they do no provide adequate or predicatble suspension control. Have a bit of a read on the subject before you go down this path.

[Goatse.AJ]

Mighty Mouse, please keep us posted on your Vit T/case mods.....I'm seriously considering doing a whole Vit engine/Gbox/Tcase swap further down the track.

[murcod]

I'm seriously considering doing a whole Vit engine/Gbox/Tcase swap further down the track.

Yes, that thought has crossed my mind before too - late model four cylinder Vitara engine (2.0l?) would be a good gain.

[rockzilla]

Have to agree about the TCase output - am putting a Vitara TCase in and am locking at leas the rear yoke onto the O.P shaft and using a slipe joint in the tail shaft - its worth the effort apparantly.

Others who have done this have has some problems drilling the O/P shaft as its HARD but not certain if they used carbide drills.

AS for drop shackles ( revolver shackles ) all I can say is DONT. Apart from being illegal in many countries - and with good reason they do no provide adequate or predicatble suspension control. Have a bit of a read on the subject before you go down this path.

x2 on that. have seen some nasty unloading incident's from scissor shackles on a few rigs around here, one including a friend super flexy toyota pickup making a sudden stop in a traffic situation resulting in a rollover(should have been on a trailer, dumbshit), same truck, earlier in the day on the trail, descending a kinda steep trail, hung up his left front tire just a bit on a rock gave just enough resistance for the weight to shift, shackles unloaded, then ass over teakettle down the ravine. i thought they would've been a great idea, but thats some freaky unpredictable shit. i would, however, try the boomerang style seem to add a little flex and are easy enough to fab

[MightyMouse]

OK time to tell the whole story re the TCase, the conversion has a vitara auto AND Tcase with a supercharged intercooled HD at the front and a toyota (air locked) rear axle.

Axle almost complete, engine started, TCase - waiting on low range gearset, auto 2 engine started ( but only just... ).

Just as well its a hobby.......

[murcod]

Did you think about using the Vitara engine too? A supercharged 2.0l that started off with 96kW would surely beat the older HD-E with similar mods?

[r0ck_m0nkey]

Did you think about using the Vitara engine too? A supercharged 2.0l that started off with 96kW would surely beat the older HD-E with similar mods?

Or just go with Toyota. With the different gearboxes available in Hiluxs, with the right bellhousing etc, you can adapt a whole range of Toyota motors directly to them.

[MightyMouse]

Each to their own - but the HD is a challenge. As for potential I know of a Charade that has 246kw @ the wheels from a HD engine ( wild ).

And for those that doubt - its in "Zoom" issue 97 page 32

The HD is much underated and let down by lousy details. The detomaso version has a few minor changes and makes an extra 20kw - so a lot can be done.

If we were all logical we probably wouldn't buy Feroza's given the lack of extra gear to make them work off road.

[HotFourOk]

Just wondering if anyone has found info about the diff spacers??

I was looking at 4runner/Tacoma kits, and they space the front mounts down, but leave the rearmost mount stock.
This causes the diff to pivot, so you gain a bit of drop, but it keeps the uni angle stock.

Just a question about the diff angle, can this cause the diff to be not lubricated correctly.. Is it something like crown or pinion angle?
6 degrees rings a bell for some reason..

But overall, lowering the diff an inch will put less stress on the uni than the solid axel rigs doing a 2" leaf suspension lift. (As the diff stays the same height in these) And they dont seem to have any trouble at all.

In my Rocky, it's only 3 spacers and 3 bolts to lower the diff... fairly easy job to do... and it might save my CV's some more

Any info appreciated

[Mantamac]

I'm just testing my set out at the moment. So far so good.

I'll post a few pics and a review when I'm 100% happy with it the mods to the front suspension.

Mac.