The BIG Lift, dial-up warning tho......

[kiwipete]

Well I was sick and tired of the Terrano draggin its arse all over the show;


so a body lift was in order.


An ORE "Good Bastard" ELMO was conned into helping me do the deed this afternoon, sorry you missed the Waimak, not.

As it looked before work got too far on.

Who is that sad man?


Front end demolished.


Radiator cowling seperated from radiator.


Body block bolts removed from the drivers side and loosend on the passengers side.


This was the biggest jack I could find, no doubt there was a bigger one.


Half way there.



Houston, we have lift!


And just a wee bit of flex testing.......



Now I can get this sucker in the engine bay


The only things that caught us out were;
Both rear body block bolts wouldn't lign up, but the bottom of the body mounts here are supported with 4 studs on each one, that once loosend, allowed us to move the bolt around to lign it up.
The bottom radiator hose had to be shortend at the bottom end to prevent kinking.
Brake lines on the drivers side inner fender were binding on a breather hose bracket.
An AC line had to be placed under the rubber air cleaner piping to the turbo.
Slid the power steering hoses on both ends of the metal pipes, the smaller of the two may need lengthening.
Re aligned the top radiator hose.
Fuel filler and breather hoses were slid along the metal tubing and the plastic cover fitted back!
The radiator cowling fitted back in its origonal place, just a small 25mm wide rim that protuded on the bottom half of it had to be un-clipped and removed to allow the fan clearance.
Thre was bound to be something else, but my memory has gone numb!


There are still some mods to finish on it.
Find out why the front indicators won't go!
Raise the rear bumper,
Re attach the front bumper,
Lengthen the drive shaft U bracket,
Lengthen the handbrake cable hangers, they bind on full articulation,
Get winch mounted,
Get side bars manufactured,
And, finally, get it all certed.

This all started in a bit of a hurry as I failed my WOF this morning on my PC console up on the hood lining! I have to have it certed too!

Her are 3 final shots of the truck;
1) Brand new, no mods,


2) suspension lift,


3)and with the body lift.


Why are all my pictures chopped short?, grrrrrrr!

[Elmo]

Who IS that grumpy prick in the pic Pete?

It was a good day. Happy to have helped!

[kiwipete]

Here is the offending PC case they (WOF) failed me on. It runs from the rear centre light to the front (windscreen) light between the driver and passenger. Yes it is a wee bit on the buky side, but it had passed many warrants in the past.


I will bite the bullett now and remove it, replacing it with a factory case that will mount out of harms way. Just like this one.



It allows me to keep the slimline HDD and DVD in the same case.

[kiwipete]

Final update on the body lift.

Handbrake lines have been modified to prevent binding at full articulation.

The front bumper brackets were cut and re-welded to alow the raising of the bumper so it fits back where it was previously.
These will be modified again when the winch is mounted to allow for top bracing of the winch.






The floor-pan was modified to allow the Hi/Lo lever to enguage Lo ratio.





All done just the spots to mount now.



Here is the rear body mount showing the studs that can be loosend to allow better locating of the new bolt when the block is in place.



This one is of the rear bumper bracket, showing where it would need cutting and lengthening to rise the bumper to its origonal position. I probably won't do this as I would like to make a new tube bumper that will incorporate the towbar.

[De-Ranged]

so you'll be trimming the gards and putting bigger feet next

you might want a bit of bracing across the bumper mounts you re-aligned, those two weld spots wouldn't take much to let go

Just curious, have you lifted the front or is that just torsion bars screwed up
Looking good

Cheers Reece, De-Ranged Engineering
027 541 8794

[kiwipete]

Cheers Reece, the bumper irons are only temporarly welded until the winch is mounted. The bumper will bolt to the winch bracketry and the winch bracketry will bolt to where the bumper irons were.

It has new shocks and torson bars tweaked in front and long travel shocks with heavy duty springs in the rear.

[hosehustler]

Looks real nice Pete....guess you'll be ready for the godley/westport/poulter trips

[kiwipete]

Looks real nice Pete....guess you'll be ready for the godley/westport/poulter trips

I aint got a winch on yet, stil sussing the mounting detils out.

Godley is a possible,
Westport, I wil be down south at Mt Burke for Easter,

Poulter, sure thing, Might even look at that scree this time.

[kiwipete]

Finished off a couple more mods left over from the body lift today.

Extended the driveshaft hoop, made a wee mess of the weding, but the trusty warehouse grinder came to the party here. My local engineering firm made some 5/8" spacers and drilled them out to slot the cut ends of the hoop inside. This ment my trusty Arc welder ate the thin section of the metal, hence my oopsie so to speak.



And fitted a Calmini Idler Arm Brace, had to trim the top corner of it a little to get it to fit, fitted it all in and realised thre was not enough thread for the nut to go onto the stud on the bottom of the idler arm. So off it all came again and i had to remove the bottom washer from the idler arm. This leaves just enough thread.
Will replace all those nuts with captave nuts sometime as the origonal ones were just locktighted.

[Jafa]

You know now you are on the slippery slope to.............SAS!!!!

[kiwipete]

No SAS for this truck, as much as i'd like to.
The expense involved would be far better put to a new truck if it ever comes to that.

I'll happily stay with the trusty old IFS, maybe if the Calmini steering kit is certable in NZ I might look a it one day.

http://www.purenissan.com/wd21_steering.htm

[d21]

hey just woundering if u shifted the radiator, i just did mine and all i did was take the bottom of the radiator shroud off
and it seems fine no overheting.

[kiwipete]

hey just woundering if u shifted the radiator, i just did mine and all i did was take the bottom of the radiator shroud off
and it seems fine no overheting.

Same, there was a protuding part of the bottom cowling that I unclipped, was about 1" wide.
I do have to make some form of spacers for the steering shaft UJ or what ever its called as it is all a bit tight, or look for a longer shaft with the correct splines.
Spacers might be easier me thinks.

[travis2ninja]

How much of a suspension lift did you get?
How much? $$

[kiwipete]

I have approx 2 1/2" suspension lift but I do not recall what it cost sorry. One tends to hide and forget figures from the bean counter at times.

[travis2ninja]

Okay, Thanks
I'm thinking of getting a 2" suspension lift and 31" tyres.
I cannot find any bigger then 2" . Does $749 sound about right?

[kiwipete]

A suspension lift comprises of ;
~ beefier springs in the rear
~ longer travel shocks all round
~ torsion bar crank or re-indexing.

All of which you can easily do yourself so all you need to source is a pair of rear springs and 4 shockies.
What that will cost you is beyond me sorry.

[lax2wlg]

Don't mean to sound like a dick but I don't believe long travel front shocks are necessary on independent suspension, the front wheels have a fixed range of movement that is well within the travel range of standard shocks.

Softer shocks maybe, since by twisting the torsion bars you are increasing the spring tension of the whole front suspension. Nissan says 1-1.5" of torsion bar twist is PLENTY. There are other ways of lifting the front 2-3" safely but it can get pricey.

Rear springs - if you dont want to pay trademe prices, I used the front springs from a V8 Jeep ZJ (Grand Cherokee), over 2" of lift and really soft. Long travel rear shocks are not absolutely necessary to gain lift, but will allow you to access the extra rear wheel travel the lift has created.

That $700 something includes the tyres, right?

[ChurchurDan]

Don't mean to sound like a dick but I don't believe long travel front shocks are necessary on independent suspension, the front wheels have a fixed range of movement that is well within the travel range of standard shocks.

Softer shocks maybe, since by twisting the torsion bars you are increasing the spring tension of the whole front suspension. Nissan says 1-1.5" of torsion bar twist is PLENTY. There are other ways of lifting the front 2-3" safely but it can get pricey.

Rear springs - if you dont want to pay trademe prices, I used the front springs from a V8 Jeep ZJ (Grand Cherokee), over 2" of lift and really soft. Long travel rear shocks are not absolutely necessary to gain lift, but will allow you to access the extra rear wheel travel the lift has created.

That $700 something includes the tyres, right?

I agree, I cant see how an IFS truck could need longer shocks in the front unless you have some how increased the range of movement of the suspension components.
Winding up the torsion bars doesn't increase the spring tension, all it does is move the range of travel.

[kiwipete]

Ok ok so I made a typo and you are correct, I did not mean longer shocks in front, my bad for posting before proof reading.

[lax2wlg]

After 20 somethng years, I reckon most of these vehicles would benefit from new front shocks anyway... I thought that unless you are reindexing, ie preloading a torsion bar suspension at a certain height, then tightening them will increase spring rate, hence how the handling becomes progressively bouncier as you tighten, Ie before you tighten so much that downtravel becomes an issue. Thats what tech instructor taught, perhaps not, as sometimes americans can be full of shit.. please enlighten

[travis2ninja]

Okay at the moment i know nothing about Suspension/Body Lifts
I see almost everyone on here has at least a 2" body lift.
But everywhere i've been and read being Front Independent Suspension you can only lift by 35/40mm? And the prices locally were between $900 and $1500?? I don't want to pay that much just for 1 1/2" lift.
And other then that i have no one to help me

[keithal]

Okay at the moment i know nothing about Suspension/Body Lifts
I see almost everyone on here has at least a 2" body lift.
But everywhere i've been and read being Front Independent Suspension you can only lift by 35/40mm? And the prices locally were between $900 and $1500?? I don't want to pay that much just for 1 1/2" lift.
And other then that i have no one to help me

Suspension and body lift are 2 completely different things

A suspension lift is an increase in distance between your driveline (diffs,hubs etc) and your chassis

where as a bodylift is just a spacer put between your body and chassis to allow the clearance of bigger tyres

suspension lift you can do easily yourself with a good jack and basic tools

a bodylift is easy enough to do as well but WILL require certification and is a bit more work to do.

[travis2ninja]

Yeah, I don't feel like doing a body lift at the moment.
So would it be fine to do a 50mm lift at rear and 40mm lift at the front?

Or just 40mm for both?

[keithal]

Yeah, I don't feel like doing a body lift at the moment.
So would it be fine to do a 50mm lift at rear and 40mm lift at the front?

Or just 40mm for both?

in the front i would only be lifting the very minimum you have to to clear tyres etc because of the week steering the terranos have

in the rear 50mm will be fine as the springs will likely settle to lower than 50mm anyway
if your only putting 31" tyres on it you shouldnt realy have to lift it as long as you get the correct offset rims


i ended up putting UBS69 bighorn springs in the rear of my terrano which gave me enough room (about 20mm lift) to clear the 31's (had i had correct rims i wouldnt have needed this)

[ChurchurDan]

After 20 somethng years, I reckon most of these vehicles would benefit from new front shocks anyway... I thought that unless you are reindexing, ie preloading a torsion bar suspension at a certain height, then tightening them will increase spring rate, hence how the handling becomes progressively bouncier as you tighten, Ie before you tighten so much that downtravel becomes an issue. Thats what tech instructor taught, perhaps not, as sometimes americans can be full of shit.. please enlighten

The spring rate of a torsion bar is determined by by the diameter and length, neither of which are changed by winding the adjusters up or re indexing them.
Winding the adjusters up or re indexing just alters the position of the spring. think of it like putting extended shackel's on a leaf spring, you have not altered the spring rate you have just moved it.
I don't know why your one got bouncy with the torsions wound up unless your shocks are stuffed, as mine has no difference with them wound up.
If you wind them up until you don't have enough down travel you will have a detrimental effect on comfort and handling.

[churchill]

As the torsion bar is wound up the suspension geometry changes, the further from level a suspension arm is the more the vertical force required to compress it. This is could be why there was a rate change felt.

Another note, I had to increase the down travel on the front of my IFS truck as with a 50mm lift the shocks were close to the end of their travel. This improved the handling offroad by increasing the articulation. Probably one of the best changes I made. I suspect is very vehicle specific and my not be needed on the terrano front end.