Offroad-Express

hi everyone,

i have a 1991 lwb vitara. it just failed a wof on worn rear shocks. now seems like the perfect time to lift the old girl a bit higher. what is the best/cheapest way to do this? Would it be better to do a suspension lift or a body lift? i know i will have to replace the two worn shocks anyway. any help would be great as i really dont have a clue. thanks james

Well if you do a body lift it will be best to add a strut brace as it will be more likely to twist. I would do suspension lift as it will keep it nice and comfy on road and you dont have to replace the shocks twice. Suspension is better than a body lift, its more useful.

Hi there, have a look at these two threads, they cover doing a suspension lift, body lift, bigger wheels, A-arm spacer etc. on my LWB Vitara. Mine is the V6, so has a few differences, but most of the concepts will also apply to yours.

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/ ... 23&t=23440

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/ ... 69&start=0

Good luck
Hein

I've got a set of V6 LWB springs that supposedly give the smaller vits a good lift if your interested (might pay to google this) and I used commadore ute rear shocks to give 50-60mm more down travel. Be careful when you do this as you have to make sure that thins like the diff breather, handbrake cables anything else doesn't get over streached due to the extra down travel.

Definatly check out Kernels threads to find out what you need to do.

hey great, i was going to ask same questions, im doing suspension lift on my 1995 Escudo V6 short wheel base. i have a contact for dobisport springs, the SWB ones will lift me only 25mm but if i use the LWB ones it will lift me 40mm. Anyone done this before?? Ive got aftermarket shocks, Monroe 4x4 adventure's. Should be a good match.
Any tips on the exhaust on the V6 i want it a little louder, theres currently a Coby where the Cat converter was if i remove this and only have the standard muffler inline wil that increase mt exhaust tone?

Hey Rugard, I used Cobra springs from Chamberlian suspension in CHCH and got a 50mm lift. They cost me $450 which I thought was a good price. They're firm but still seem to flex well offroad and keep the truck from rolling too much without the sway bar on road. I don't know anything about dobisport springs sorry.

About the muffler, I think you'll find another resonator in the tail pipe section of your exhaust so you might be ok removing the Coby. I gutted a cat in a Honda Civic years ago and didn't notice any difference in sound or power so from that I suspect that the coby is quietening you exhaust even more than standard. If it does become too loud you can always put the coby back in if you don't mind the stuffing around.

Finally near completion of my lift, looking for rear shocks that give me around 50mm extra down travel is a mission. Ive found some monroe adventure 4x4's meant for a prado, have the same down travel as Vit standard ones but 50mm more up travel.. These should be okay in the back ? whats everyone think? they feel about the same to push down on as the standards.. also making a 50mm thick Heim joint spacer, is this too thick? ive lifted it 45mm all four corners using the cobra springs meant for a LWB V6, mine being the SWB V6. the shocks are more or less a perfect fit.

Before committing to shocks that are only 50mm more travel, remove your current rear shock and start jacking up the car until the spring is only just touching top and bottom, now measure how long the max length is of the shocks you can get. Basically the rules say that at full suspension travel the spring must not be able to rotate, so get shocks that give you MAX travel.

Hope all that made sense, what I'm really trying to say is that you might be able to go more than 50mm longer. I called up the guy at Wairau alignment when I did mine and he hunted around until he found some that would bolt in in the length that I wanted. Good guy.

Hey Rugard, you'll find that your bumpstop will not allow you to use that 50mm extra up travel. Once you have surpassed that you might have to do a body lift as my tyres 30.5" rub with standard up travel and no body lift.

churchill wrote:Hey Rugard, you'll find that your bumpstop will not allow you to use that 50mm extra up travel. Once you have surpassed that you might have to do a body lift as my tyres 30.5" rub with standard up travel and no body lift.

sorry churchill, thats down travel mate, up will be about the same so no rub, Oh thanks for that Kernal, i will do that tonight. Im putting in a 50mm Heim spacer to concide with the extra 50mm of down. If i get shocks that are longer still will that not damage that joint? also are there any tips for puttin the spacer on? do i have to support diff at all? Im still nervous about that cap flip now its done, would hate it to fracture the cap at some stage!! mind you no one else has any probs.
Bugger just did my after measurements from spring lift and my rears lifted 45mm and fronts only 9mm so ive rung supplier and sending me new ones of a diff brand, maybe they gave me the SWB 1600cc ones. I ordered the LWB V6 ones even though ive got the SWB.

Yeah, from memory I just used a jack under the rear diff to support it when I fitted that spacer. Wasn't a big deal, did it in about 30 minutes. I also changed the bushes on the chassis side while I had it out.

kernels wrote:Yeah, from memory I just used a jack under the rear diff to support it when I fitted that spacer. Wasn't a big deal, did it in about 30 minutes. I also changed the bushes on the chassis side while I had it out.

How thick is your spacer? Mine is 50mm is that too much?

The spacer should be roughly the same thickness as the height of your lift, I only did a 30mm suspension lift, had some 1" aluminium blocks around, so just used that - close enough.

kernels wrote:The spacer should be roughly the same thickness as the height of your lift, I only did a 30mm suspension lift, had some 1" aluminium blocks around, so just used that - close enough.

Oh okay so not the height of the downtravel your diff will see from new struts?