Offroad-Express

Disco1 that steers nicely enough at 90kph but is loose at 100kph.

Has 2" lift from when I bought it, put on new shocks all round, had the alignment done, put the rear sway bar back on, tightened the steering box adjustment a bit, had the ball joints looked at, they reckoned they were fine, steering is precise enough but sort of like driving without sway bars (even though it has them) my SIII SWB is better than this!

Now looking sideways at the Bighorn Maxxis 31x10.5x15LT, normally a disco would be on 16"s, my old P38 Rangy was on BFG MTs and it was perfect on the road. Could this wagon be floating around on those sidewalls?

Or almost like the diff is swapping drive from one side to the other and some slack is getting taken up, A frame issue?

Any disco drivers found a noticeable difference in on road tracking by swapping tyre makes?
Thanks

back to basics first 25;30psi all round then toe in/out 2/3mm depends on truck then on ya back under truck while some one wiggles steering etc check rod ends steering drop arm spline then suspension bushes /shock bushes etc
You need two people check to for play and trust No One, Do it your self and it will be a easy fix . My 110 drove pissed 50 kph and straight at 120 kph and all it was , was a loose drop arm spline nut .Must agree though bfgs are good but kumhos just as good where bouts are ya . cheers nick

2 inch lift... hows the castor looking in the front? I'd imagine with 2 inches you be looking at some correction bushes?

Caster corection .bushes are a waste of time unless you drive like a nanna.speak to marcell at mamaku 4x4 ,do it once and do it right or spend your life buying those castor correction bushes and fitting them.

When ever I have those sort of issues with the defender, which is essentially the same as your disco, I replace the bushes at the chassis end of the rear radius arms. Seems to cure wandering around on the road every time.

I think the angle change of a 50mm lift makes the bushes wear quicker.

Just a bolt off bolt on job, available from

www.landroverspares.co.nz

Thanks for the replies. I run at 40 psi, caster and toe are fine according to a proper alignment place (not a tyre seller)

Fitted new bushes to the front of the radius arms today, but didn't have any for the back of the radius arm where it meets the chassis, I think that's definitely worth doing next week just to know they are new. Made an 50mm brass pusher for the press and they came out and went in real easy so if anyone wants to replace theirs bring them out, its a 2 minute job (the pressing that is, not the taking the radius arms out!)

Looked at the panhard rod bushes but they were good as new so left them.

Of concern is the back track rod is a made up one, and there is not steering dampner at all, so will get one of those.

And the other bastard is the eccentric on the tie rod end that I had to take off to get the radius arm out now isn't back in the same place so my toe is out as well now.

Took it for a drive, bit windy here but didn't seem much different

Steering damper will certainly help and the panhard bushes need to be really good also check preload on swivel pins and maybe remove a shim some of the later steering boxes don,t give much feedback I run an older 3bolt box in my 110 and I like the heavier steering as it is easier to tell where the wheels are offroad .40psi might make front a bit skittery on the road , my y60 nissan on bfgs ats is a bit lite at 38 psi
cheers

flatsix wrote:Thanks for the replies. I run at 40 psi, caster and toe are fine according to a proper alignment place (not a tyre seller)

Fitted new bushes to the front of the radius arms today, but didn't have any for the back of the radius arm where it meets the chassis, I think that's definitely worth doing next week just to know they are new. Made an 50mm brass pusher for the press and they came out and went in real easy so if anyone wants to replace theirs bring them out, its a 2 minute job (the pressing that is, not the taking the radius arms out!)

Looked at the panhard rod bushes but they were good as new so left them.

Of concern is the back track rod is a made up one, and there is not steering dampner at all, so will get one of those.

And the other bastard is the eccentric on the tie rod end that I had to take off to get the radius arm out now isn't back in the same place so my toe is out as well now.

Took it for a drive, bit windy here but didn't seem much different

is the back track arm over size pipe? it may have had a pipe swaged over the top to strengthen the weak arsed landrover bit, how long you had the vehicle? got pics?

Did the swivel preload this afternoon, got it up to about 12lb and is driving much better as a result, still have to string the toe and get that back to where it was before I started.

Pedro, both drag link and track rod have a reinforcing bar over them, think I will fit a steering damper of some form as the preload on the swivels has made such a difference that I think additional load (from a damper) will also help. Blue disco from Kapiti, I think you will know it quite well, nice job! Off road side of it is very well sorted, but need a good highway ride as well as we have to do a fair distance to get anywhere down here.

Cheers

flatsix wrote:Did the swivel preload this afternoon, got it up to about 12lb and is driving much better as a result, still have to string the toe and get that back to where it was before I started.

Pedro, both drag link and track rod have a reinforcing bar over them, think I will fit a steering damper of some form as the preload on the swivels has made such a difference that I think additional load (from a damper) will also help. Blue disco from Kapiti, I think you will know it quite well, nice job! Off road side of it is very well sorted, but need a good highway ride as well as we have to do a fair distance to get anywhere down here.

Cheers

yeah i know it, everything I built for mine I had to do twice........ don't get rid of the reinforced track rods, if you do remove keep them, as you will refit them!!! the ride was always "interesting" on the road, felt like you were sitting on a wobbly bar stool, but that happened after the 2" lift kit was fitted, it was almost like the shocks were "loose" over small movements,


Pedro

Good to hear the swivel preload helped I learnt that trick when I changed from manual box to a power box just before driving to gisborne on my old 110 .
The most exhausting trip ever due to all the bump steering because swivels were still set up loose as to make old manual steering lighter , still put the damper on it wll help lots . cheers

I have some disco radius arms with castor correction bushes fitted. You can have them for a 24 of speights

I think disco's are setup with f-all castor from factory. With the 2 inch lift it might be enough just to screw it up.

PM me if your interested.

Cheers,

Pete

Will certainly be leaving the track rod protection in place, too much work has gone into those to take them off, will make some sort of clamp arrangement to hold the damper, should work okay.

The swivel preload worked better than expected, and I have a bit more to go before I'm at maximum so will take it up to that, took about .5mm of packing out so far.

PM sent re castor correction arms, will try that as well, interstingly I have always wanted to do that on a SIII SWB, as apparently the castor is factory set for crossplys and radials have a different point of contact on the road at speed, will have to do that with wedges under the springs I think.

Also will look at getting stronger/thicker sway bars made up, the effect of raising the wagon may mean it has more leverage on those bars and make them less effective, can put disconnects for off road. A common mod on certain cars with their engine in the back, is to take off the standard 19mm sway bars and put the 22mm turbo ones on to stiffen things up, they work well.

Cheers for the advice.

Update for anyone interested.

Have pretty much changed all bushes, set toe at 2mm out, sh*gged abut with tire pressures, put new damper on yadda yadda.

The big improvement came by accident.

The steering wheel was about 1/8th of a turn off plumb when driving straight, so though I would sort that by winding the drag rod in a turn or out which everway it went, as I had it off anyway.

What that did was present a fresh part of the steering box when the wagon was being driven straight at highway speed. Amazing difference, had heard that the staright ahead position can wear just in that position and be fine through the rest of the range and seems to be what happened here.

May be of use to someone else.

Cheers