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7" coil springs falling out of GU Patrol

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:33 pm
by rippin
Hi I have recently put a 7" coil lift in a GU series 3 3.0TD with 35's. I put 32" pro comp shocks in the rear and I am getting that much travel with the rear shocks, that the rear springs can fall out. Rather than do the obvious and swap the shocks for smaller ones, which would be 29.5" loosing travel. I want to keep the 32" shocks to get max travel. Problem need to fix spring some how to upper or lower mount or both. Tried tieing in the top of spring to top mount with cable ties, however when flexing the spring didn't fall out but more importantly didn't align proply with bottom mount. Need to fix this problem any ideas would be muchly appreciated.

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:46 pm
by beretta

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:23 pm
by Willy Hilux
:bad-words: :twisted:

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:38 pm
by sudso
For the rears, you could buy some shocker eye pins and get them welded up higher on the x member.
On the front, raise the shock towers if the fronts fall out too.

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:54 pm
by MART
I use U-bolts to retain my springs , but I made them to suit U-bolts when I was making the mounts , can you do the same or are you relying on spring seperation to get more travel , my springs stretch under tension , maybe yours can do the same , Cheers Paul.

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:34 am
by Micka
Why on earth do you need 7" springs? :roll:

Your best option for stability is to retain the top AND bottom of your springs. That way on cross slopes, your uphill shock wont unload totally and make your stilt car go turtle.

Re: 7" coil springs falling out of GU Patrol

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:55 am
by mickyd555
rippin wrote:Hi I have recently put a 7" coil lift in a GU series 3 3.0TD with 35's. I put 32" pro comp shocks in the rear and I am getting that much travel with the rear shocks, that the rear springs can fall out. Rather than do the obvious and swap the shocks for smaller ones, which would be 29.5" loosing travel. I want to keep the 32" shocks to get max travel. Problem need to fix spring some how to upper or lower mount or both. Tried tieing in the top of spring to top mount with cable ties, however when flexing the spring didn't fall out but more importantly didn't align proply with bottom mount. Need to fix this problem any ideas would be muchly appreciated.
Is the spring coming out under compression or at max travel. 32's suit my 7" springs fine and they dont come loose under travel conditions however i did have some trouble with them popping out under compression. Passenger side worse than drivers as the axle moves a lot further that way bowing the spring and allowing it to 'pop' over the lower spring mount.

Bolt the bottom in as Willey said and you may also need a long bumpstop to limit compression.

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:56 am
by love ke70
i picked up a set of those coil drop outs for $45 on ebay this weekend. not necessarily superior ones, but theyre gonna do the same job :)

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:35 am
by Tapage
Micka wrote:Why on earth do you need 7" springs? :roll:
with 35" ..?

can you post pics of your rig .?

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:32 pm
by ZOOK60
Micka wrote:Why on earth do you need 7" springs? :roll:

Your best option for stability is to retain the top AND bottom of your springs. That way on cross slopes, your uphill shock wont unload totally and make your stilt car go turtle.
x2
Why is it so hard for all you patrol drivers to understand this?

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:56 pm
by badger
lol its not just patrol owners.
2 rover drivers in my club argue with me all the time because my coils are tied in and it doesnt flex like there rovers.
its 3 times as capable and 2 times as stable

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:36 pm
by Nelso
Willy Hilux wrote:On your bottom spring mount you have a hole in the centre. Make up from a piece of 25 x 8mm flat a clamp to hold the bottom of the spring down. kick the ends down to maximize clamping. drill hole in centre of flat (12mm clearance) You should be able to get a nut between housing and spring mount. Use 12mm bolt and nyloc nut.

For the top - go to a plumbing place and get 2 - 4" to 3" reducers (heavy pipe ones) Weld these to the top hat. 4" fits nicely into the hat.

Cheap and looks good.

Good luck
Mine are retained at the bottom of the spring the same as this, but the top are retained with a couple of U-bolts each side. From memory they are 32 Nominal bore x 8mm and you only have to drill one hole either side in the upper spring mounts to fit them. IMO retained top and bottom is much better than welding in locators and having the springs drop out.

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:02 pm
by rippin
Thanks for all the replies guys. I ended up welding a 4" to 3" pipe reducer on the top rear coil mount and flatbar with centre bolt to retain bottom of spring to diff mount. Works a treat, getting so much flex. I also welded 65x65x5 RHS 100mm long on top of diff bumstop bracket. This is perfect setup with compresion, tyre not scrubing and ripping the shit out of wheel arch. Will post some pics soon.

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:58 pm
by bushy555
Could have pulled the 7" coils out and shove some 10" babies in. That'll fix it.


...or do a Gonads and weld the coils in place.