[shandy92]

4x4ish wrote:

yeah 3 inch is alot and you need to mod other stuff to accomodate. do u know what would happen if i left it with 3"?

changing shocks in the rear is easy as and you dont need a spring compressor. all u need to do is undo the bottom bolts of the shock, drive up a ramp so that the rear flexes out and opens up wide enough to take the old springs out and slide the new srprings in. sort of like my avatar pic. be careful not to drive down without a spring in there thou.

once new springs are in see how much lift they give. then drive up the ramp again a bit at a time until the flex starts to go let go of the spring then back up a tad just enough so the sring stays in its spot. measure the shock length needed from the top to bottom shock mounting points. Choose your new shock choice from there based on this flex measurement.

yeah i know i dont need a spring compressor for removing the old stock springs and putting the lifted ones in, i just need a compressor to get the old coils out of the strut that they are in atm coming from the old car.

what have u done to the front end to keep it level with 2"-2.5" lift? i was thinking lifted king or lovells with a 15mm spacer, and eventually running OME struts.

Mitch

[4x4ish]

To get them out of the other car i see...

front i used a dobinson spring (30mm lift) and then a 15mm spacer to bring it up to 2" lift up front as well. its exactly 50mm lift. i have OME struts.

I've heard people breaking cv's easily if they flip the strut mount and use OME struts. its too much of an angle for the cv's to handle apparently. im happy with the OME as is. ill post up some pics of flex i took yesterday.

This is with OME stuts up front and Nissan Nomad shocks in rear.

[shandy92]

4x4ish wrote:

To get them out of the other car i see...

front i used a dobinson spring (30mm lift) and then a 15mm spacer to bring it up to 2" lift up front as well. its exactly 50mm lift. i have OME struts. yeah that sounds like what i will do, how do u find the the dobinson fronts? how much did they cost u? i can get kings pretty cheaply (trade price) so i might go these.

I've heard people breaking cv's easily if they flip the strut mount and use OME struts. its too much of an angle for the cv's to handle apparently. yeah i have heard this b4 and can understand why, the OME give enough travel as is. im happy with the OME as is. ill post up some pics of flex i took yesterday.

This is with OME stuts up front and Nissan Nomad shocks in rear.

cheers for that, those pics looks good, cant wait to get mine in now, got any pics of it sitting flat??

Mitch

[Jester]

for those nissan nomad shocks are they for the front or the rear of the nomad? guessing rear.

[4x4ish]

yep rear nissan nomad shocks 87-93 model. only thing i need to test is to see how good they go over corrigations, everything else im happy with.

here is a pic of it sitting level.

[Jester]

coolies, might need to get a set of those, got standard length in there still and they limit quite severely

[shandy92]

4x4ish, looks good level.

got the springs in not what i was expecting but oh well.

measurements from bottom of rim to bottom of gaurd.
After
LR- 700mm
RR- 710mm
i forgot to get measure ments b4 the spring but looks to be about 1-1.5"
chassic to ground is 260mm on both sides.

the stock shocks are useless only have about 1" of down travel with these spring in. i left the lifted coils in there for now as they are better than nothing, i will get the VN shocks with the 570mm open length when i get paid.
will upload pictures soon.

mitch

[atari4x4]

lol.... you really should have measured it before.

[shandy92]

atari4x4 wrote:

lol.... you really should have measured it before.

ahah yeah i know i also forgot the measurement that i took for the shock open length, im pretty sure it was 570mm but i just waiting for my mate to get back to me. hopefully he remembers lol. i can always undo the bottom of the shock and re measure.

[4x4ish]

mine(LWB) before the lift was 650 on each side so if yours was same you have spot on 50mm lift there so nice work...

did u do the drive up the ramp way or jack up the car way?

the Vt shocks are the ones with the 550 length, Vn have 330. Vt ones sound about right.

what will you do for the front lift?

[shandy92]

4x4ish wrote:

mine(LWB) before the lift was 650 on each side so if yours was same you have spot on 50mm lift there so nice work...

did u do the drive up the ramp way or jack up the car way?

the Vt shocks are the ones with the 550 length, Vn have 330. Vt ones sound about right.

what will you do for the front lift?

ok, nah just measured it when it was on the jacks. looks like ill be getting some vt wagon shocks. not to self remember this "Gabriel part #81865"

when u say "metal sleeve in bush eye needs to be changed from a 15mm to a 12mm)" what did u do? is it hard?

for the front ill get some kings or lovells, and maybe a 15mm spacer to level it out. then later get some OME struts. after this ill then do a 2"BL

what do people recommend, kings or lovells?

cheers
Mitch

[4x4ish]

i like my dobinson springs and they are all about same price. kings are ok i heard but a little stiff and not sure about lovells.

coz i used the nissan shocks they came with 12mm sleeve and i only had to grind a little of the ends. see pics before. the original question of this thread was about swaping over the 15mm sleeve for a 12mm one. my advice would be to go to supercheap and have a look at the actual commo shock and make sure the eye ring that holds the bush sleeve is ok size and u know what u have to do before u buy the shock.

[4x4ish]

i filled up the petrol tank today and measured the front lift. it went up 1cm from having a full tank. that means 60mm lift in the front which is not what i want. ill leave it and see how it goes for now. hopefully i can ride them hard to get the springs to sag a little bit.

[shandy92]

does anyone have any pics of how they did the shock bush/sleeve replacement? i bought some shocks and want to try get them in. i understand things better with pics than words lol.

so am i try to get the vitara metal sleeve inside to commo bush?

cheers

[atari4x4]

it really depends if the OD (outside diameter) of the sleeves are the same.

[shandy92]

just had my 1st real attempt at fitting the VT shocks...i said attempt the inside diameters are totally different like you have been saying. but i found the commo ID (inside dia) to be a lot bigger compared to the vitara one.

got thinking about how to do it, and all we could think of was put a sleeve over the bolt that also fitted inside the sleeve. this proved very hard as everything was either to big or to small. 1st question - would there be much harm in having a small amount of slop between the bolt and the sleeve?

or would it just be easier taking it to a shop and getting them to swap over the bush/sleeve from the vit into the commo shock?

atari- yeah tru, i will have another look.

cheers
Mitch

[Mick70b]

Mate I think any slop, even a little bit, could/would/will cause you dramas in the way of breakages. I took my shocks to a suspension shop and just had them fit some nylon bushes with the right size pin and have had a problem. For a few bucks it could save you some heartache down the track

[shandy92]

Mick70b wrote:

Mate I think any slop, even a little bit, could/would/will cause you dramas in the way of breakages. I took my shocks to a suspension shop and just had them fit some nylon bushes with the right size pin and have had a problem. For a few bucks it could save you some heartache down the track

do u mean "have not had a problem" or are u correct in saying that u have had a problem...what was it?

tomorrow i think ill go to bunnings and see if i can get some kind of sleeve and make it fit. is there any materials i should stay away from? (copper, aluminum, brass, steel etc)

if all that fails then yes ill find some shop to do it for me.

cheers
Mitch

[4x4ish]

if it was me i would go to someone like pedders and say here do this for me please. they told me $10 over the phone but that was with me buying their shock. Just say someone told you $10 a couple weeks ago when u rang up. at least that way you wont have to grind anything.

[shandy92]

4x4ish wrote:

if it was me i would go to someone like pedders and say here do this for me please. they told me $10 over the phone but that was with me buying their shock. Just say someone told you $10 a couple weeks ago when u rang up. at least that way you wont have to grind anything.

well that failed, went to pedders and told them what i wanted them to do. and the guy brings out a stock vitara shock and says "here you go" that was b4 i explained to him that i wanted a longer shock. then i got some a very weird look from him when i said i wanted to run the VT shock in my vitara.

so basically he couldnt do it because he wasnt sure if he had the bush in stock and would take them the entire day to figure out if it could be done

ill give another place a call. If that doesnt work, ill be going to bunnings to find some kind of sleeve that makes the bolt a tighter fit. if i find something but its not a 100% perfect fit, so still has a small amount of slop. what will be the consequence??

cheers
Mitch

[Chop]

Go to a $2 shop and buy a cheap vice, and press them out with a socket!

Chop

[Mick70b]

Sorry mate, have NOT had a problem ... my fingers type too slow for my brain

[shandy92]

Chop wrote:

Go to a $2 shop and buy a cheap vice, and press them out with a socket!

Chop

and do what? swap the old vit bush for the new commo bush? so putting the vit bush in the commo shock?

the guy at the shop said that it would more than likely ruin the bush as they are glued in and also would need heat to do it?

mick70b - ok thanks, did u get the shop to put the vit bush in the commo shock??

cheers
Mitch

[shandy92]

4x4ish have u had any prob with ur rear diff breather coming off? mine comes off when i do a test flex for the shocks. also my break lines are a bit tight are urs?

Mitch

[Chop]

shandy92 wrote:

Chop wrote:

Go to a $2 shop and buy a cheap vice, and press them out with a socket!

Chop

and do what? swap the old vit bush for the new commo bush? so putting the vit bush in the commo shock?

the guy at the shop said that it would more than likely ruin the bush as they are glued in and also would need heat to do it?

mick70b - ok thanks, did u get the shop to put the vit bush in the commo shock??

cheers
Mitch

Sounds to me like he wasnt interested in your business and is a lazy bugger! more likely if your not buying anything from him he wont help you.
I think you'll find a few on here have done the vice and socket method
I know i will soon when i put some commo shocks in the rear of mine.
chop

[shandy92]

Chop wrote:

shandy92 wrote:

Chop wrote:

Go to a $2 shop and buy a cheap vice, and press them out with a socket!

Chop

and do what? swap the old vit bush for the new commo bush? so putting the vit bush in the commo shock?

the guy at the shop said that it would more than likely ruin the bush as they are glued in and also would need heat to do it?

mick70b - ok thanks, did u get the shop to put the vit bush in the commo shock??

cheers
Mitch

Sounds to me like he wasnt interested in your business and is a lazy bugger! more likely if your not buying anything from him he wont help you.
I think you'll find a few on here have done the vice and socket method
I know i will soon when i put some commo shocks in the rear of mine.
chop

i cant really do that method tho, as the commo sleeve is a lot bigger than the vit sleeve. the only thing i can do is swap the commo bush/sleeve and bin it for vit bush/sleeve. but that will prob ruin both them.

so im going to bunning to try find a sleeve that will fit.

cheers
Mitch

[shandy92]

bunnings suck major D*** i dont know what im going to do now.

any one confirm if this is what needs to be done? (swap the old vit bush for the new commo bush? so putting the vit bush in the commo shock?)

cheers
Mitch

[Mick70b]

Quote:

ok thanks, did u get the shop to put the vit bush in the commo shock??

Yeah mate, it was about $30 by memory and done in 20 minutes, I just asked him to put 2 new nylon bushes and Vitara sleeves in ... did it no problems.

[shandy92]

Mick70b wrote:

Quote:

ok thanks, did u get the shop to put the vit bush in the commo shock??

Yeah mate, it was about $30 by memory and done in 20 minutes, I just asked him to put 2 new nylon bushes and Vitara sleeves in ... did it no problems.

hmmmm thats interesting, might have to give some other shops a call and see what they can do for me.

cheers
Mitch

[4x4ish]

shandy92 wrote:

so basically he couldnt do it because he wasnt sure if he had the bush in stock and would take them the entire day to figure out if it could be done

cheers
Mitch

he is Full of Sh!t, they are experts at what they do and id bet my car he knows exactly what to do now but said that to try and charge you$$$ for time. They were on ACA a few weeks ago for majorly ripping people off by saying things are broken when they are not and fixing them with new expensive ones. their $14 inspection test is what brings the suckers in.


Anyway, next time you go in try to sound like you know what you are talking about and not let them push you to the side. say things like this is exactly what the others in the car club have done and when i rang up here to check someone here told me no problem.