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  #22  
Old 09-09-2013
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Finally finished the lift-kit over the weekend. Drives a lot smoother now, but I need to get the arms for the front end to get it working properly. Will be getting a rough alignment today, and again when I get the Panhard and steering arms. Might need to lift the front a little more to level it out a bit when it's empty.

There's about 20mm of down travel on all four shocks, so I'll have to work on getting the control arms soon. Then I'll be able to build a fancy set of Blue monotubes to match the blue springs. :P





  #23  
Old 10-09-2013
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Finally got a chance to throw it up on the flex-ramp at work after fitting the springs. Disconnected the front sway-bar, and the rear is barely flexing yet.

  #24  
Old 03-11-2013
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Alrighty, haven't done much to the old girl lately, been too busy with work and the Sydney 4WD Show. But, now that it's all quietened down a bit, time for more mods!

Firstly - Sliders. Ordered a set of the RockCandy ones (just made it onto the end of the fab run). Then they sat in the garage for about a month before getting fitted up. Fitted them over 3 nights with lots of swearing, bloodied knuckles and broken drill bits.

Next - Steering Bits. Replaced the Tie Rod and Track Bar with HD units from Wooders, and the Steering Damper with a HD Foam Cell from Lovells. Then got a rough alignment (castor is still WAY out).

Finally - New Bump-stops and coil-spacers. 30mm spacers from SuperPro for the front, and RE 1" bumpstops from Wooders. Took a little creative thinking to get them fitted, but all in now and good to have two bump-stops again.

Here's how she sits today:




On the list now - Front and rear shocks, shackle relocation brackets, ext. shackles (around 1") and long arms
  #25  
Old 05-11-2013
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Little bit more today: Managed to finish building the front shocks at work today. Machined the cross-bar for the lower mount after work, and pressed the bushes and cross-bars into the shocks before I left. Got home and started to pull out the original monotubes. Got them out without too much fuss thankfully, as this was only the beginning.

Out with the old:


Compare the pair:


It wasn't until I fitted the new shocks to the vehicle that I realised my mistake - I'd forgotten to measure the size of the lower shock eye.


The eye is a little too big for the mounting bracket, so the shock won't sit down properly. I spent so long making sure I'd grabbed the right cross-bars and was getting the lengths and valving right, that I'd forgotten to make sure the lower eye would actually fit and just assumed it would.

Missed it by that much...


I'll grab the dremel from work tomorrow and grind out the mounts where necessary. On the bright side, the new bump-stops look like they'll limit the up-travel just enough for the shocks to work on full up-travel. Down travel isn't an issue, as these shocks have more than enough movement in them with the standard control arms (620mm/375mm open/closed).

Also managed to pick up an old alloy non-winch bar from work for very cheap. Currently painted white, but I'll be sanding it back and painting it in grey hammer-tone before fitting it to the xj. Will also be modifying it a little to get the approach angles as good as, if not better than standard.

I'm now at a point though where I'm tossing up whether to go short- or long-arm again. Short-arm is cheaper and easier, but long-arm offers better/more flexibility with a smoother ride. Seeing as I won't be taking it too much higher than where it's sitting now, is there much advantage in going the long-arm upgrade over the short-arm? It's sitting at a full 2" over a standard sport with 300kg in the boot, so around 3" over a limited/classic.

Any opinions/ideas are greatly appreciated.
  #26  
Old 08-11-2013
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Ground out the lower shock mounts on the front and fitted the new shocks. Aren't Dremel's wonderful things?



  #27  
Old 09-11-2013
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How much are you allowing for bump stop compression to stop bottoming out your shocks and causing damage?
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  #28  
Old 10-11-2013
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gojeep View Post
How much are you allowing for bump stop compression to stop bottoming out your shocks and causing damage?
Hey, only just saw this. Measured up the shocks and bump-stop clearance while I was fitting them up, and it looks to be okay.

Shock Length (in vehicle): 515mm
Shock Length (Closed): 375mm
Bump Stop Clearance: 90mm

So I've got about 140mm of shock up-travel with 90mm of bump-stop clearance. The 50mm of bump-stop compression should be more than enough, especially with them being polyurethane.

Anyway, I ran the original monotubes and the custom shocks on the dyno at work yesterday, and the valving is just right. On compression the new ones are a little softer to acommodate the higher spring rate used to get the lift, while being about 1.5x heavier on rebound for the same reason. A little more gas pressure than OEM for stability, and it's riding really nice.
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