Suspension mods, part 1

[SteveG]

So yesterday I finally got round to starting suspension mods. Plan was to do springs and shocks first so I sourced the following..

4x NRC4304 Range Rover Heavy Duty Springs - from Mansfield4x4

4x DeCarbon plus 2" performance shocks - from Mansfield4x4

2x Rear spring locators - Devon 4x4

2x Front spring cones - Scorpion

4x Spring retainers - Scorpion

2x Range Rover Rubber Spring Isolator Thingy! - Scorpion

2x -2" Rear shock mounts - Scorpion

2x -2" Front Shock Turrets - Scorpion

Here are the two sets..

Rear

Front, sorry I hadn't got front cones out yet..

The 'Standard' 90 from the factory comes with following springs (plus length and poundage)..

RH Rear NRC9448 Blue/Red 15.31" 225 lbs/inch

RH Front NRC9446 Blue/Green 15.19" 175 lbs/inch

LH Rear NRC9449 Yellow/White 14.80" 225 lbs/inch

LH Front NRC9447 Blue/Yellow 14.80" 175 lbs/inch

I measured it all before hand. I used centre of hub to wheel arch. It was cold and wet so I couldn't be arsed to measure better measurement of axle to bumpstop!

RH Rear 52.3cm

LH Rear 50.4cm

RH Front 52.3cm

LH Front 51cm

So why did I choose the NRC4304 springs, well they give roughly 2" of lift and I personally like their ride characteristics I prefer the softer springs in the rear and find that in the shorter wheelbase 90 this works well on road. They are also supple off road and compress well. Oh and they are cheap too, they cost me about 16 quid a spring inc VAT

The NRC4304 springs are 17.71" long and 170 lbs/inch. To get the same sided effect of the factory 90 I used the RR spring isolators on RH Front and Rear springs. Here is a NRC4304 side by side with the std RH Rear spring..

Why did I pick early Jan to do this Really encourages you to a day outside when you see this ..

Anyway here are some before and after shots of the rear..

The Devon 4x4 spring locators work well, better than the rear cones..

Everything on the rear was easy to fit and took about 40-45min per corner. I won't be getting the full articultaion benefit of the 2" shock drop until I buy and fit the kinked rear radius arms I plan to buy from Gwyn Lewis.

The fronts weren't so easy as I couldn't get the axle to drop enough to get the springs in, so I had to borrow some spring compressors..

It's the first time I had used these so I was a bit wary handling a compressed spring, probably overly so. The fronts took about 1hr 15-30 min each corner. Here's a completed front..

Again, with the standard radius arms, I'll get no benefit of extra articulation. The plan is to save up and fit a 3-Link.

So here's how it looks ...

As expected the front sits slightly higher, but with a winch and winch bumper hanging out front I think it will be roughly about the same. Using the isolators works really well to give the side effect.

Here are the new measurements..

RH Rear 56cm plus 3.7cm about 1.5"

LH Rear 55cm plus 4.6cm just less than 2"

RH Front 58.5cm plus 6.2cm about 2.5"

LH Front 57.5cm plus 6.5cm just over 2.5"

Extended brake hoses are still in the garage as it was bloody cold and I ran out of light!!

I'm pleased with ride, no 90 choppiness from the stiffer std rear springs which is good. There is a slight vagueness in steering at motorway speeds due to castor angle change which will get corrected later. There is a small vibration on lift-off from the front prop, which is to be expected with the 2.5" lift. I'll see how this changes when winch eventually gets bought and fitted - not for a long while though. Solution will be to fit a DC jointed propshaft.

I'll see how it performs off-road on Sunday

By the way I didn't fabricate anything myself because I can't and it keeps people in beer tokens if I buy theirs!!

Cheers

Steve

[Exmoor Beast]

Nice so far Steve.

Doesn't that CB aerial annoy the hell out of you though? It would drive me potty.

Will

[TJ101]

Steve,, the new !! hard top looks better !!,, now i have a few miles on the hybrid, i get you point re the 3 link!!

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Steve,

not wishing to be negative or anything, everyone to there own, but do check that on full rebound the shocks +2" and the lowered mounts don't cause the shocks to implode......

Nice hedlining BTW, where is that from ?...never seen one of those ?

Nige

[landrover598]

The fronts weren't so easy as I couldn't get the axle to drop enough to get the springs in, so I had to borrow some spring compressors..

Yes, it's a bit of a tight fit getting HD rear springs in the front. Was doing it my self last night

one guy standing on the end of the axle, bottle jack, big trolly jack, crow bar etc etc and we finally got them in

[SteveG]

Steve,

not wishing to be negative or anything, everyone to there own, but do check that on full rebound the shocks +2" and the lowered mounts don't cause the shocks to implode......

Nice hedlining BTW, where is that from ?...never seen one of those ?

Nige

No they don't Nige, so no worries. BTW I had same set up on Hybrid too with kinked rear radius arms and front 3-Link and no problems with shocks there too.

The headlining is LaSalle, LaSalle

Cheers

Steve

[RocKeR]

Very tidy Steve. Nice job. Can't wait to see it all get muddy on Sunday! B)

[Mo Murphy]

Looking good Steve !

Mo

[will_warne]

Steve, your 90s gwetting alog very nicely!

[Ant]

Nice one Steve, it does look good. I must get around to doing something similar on my 90.

Were the Range Rover HD springs you used the same as the RR 'police spec' ones I keep seeing for sold cheap by craddock? I was tempted by a set of those, byt have heard mixed reviews of them.

[JST]

Steve

looks good.

I am running +2" shocks and -2" rear mounts and they dont bottom out either. i did fit extended bump stops though.

I was going for cranked rear arms until i found that i get max articulation (that is the spring top moves to the bottom of the locator without them) so have stuck with std ones. (bushes wont last as long though!

i think if i fitted bent trailing arms the spring would come too far down and could miss the relocator going back up.

[SteveG]

Wow! I see what you mean James The hybrid was running the same set-up with cranked radius arms and although it would get near the edge of the cone there was no risk of it coming out.

What length are your springs, the red/white's are quite long at 17.7" under no load so this may be the reason why. The OME 764's for example are 16.9"

I may have to change out the fronts for something shorter. I won't be putting a winch and HD winch bumper for a while so the heightat the front is too much I think for now. Especially when the rear is loaded up. Maybe put OME 761's on in the meantime.

Were the Range Rover HD springs you used the same as the RR 'police spec' ones I keep seeing for sold cheap by craddock? I was tempted by a set of those, byt have heard mixed reviews of them.

Yes they are called RR 'police spec', although they are rear only springs - the Craddock ones I noticed in the pic have a shorter set of fronts. Not sure what spring they use for those.

Cheers

Steve

[Top90]

Steve

If you go for the front castor correcting arms you may well need to change the front prop as well.

My 90 was fine with the extreme kit which gives about a 3" lift until I fitted the arms, then it vibrated badly until a bouble decardon prop was fitted.

Now it drives great.

Richard

[Mark90]

I may have to change out the fronts for something shorter. I won't be putting a winch and HD winch bumper for a while so the heightat the front is too much I think for now. Especially when the rear is loaded up. Maybe put OME 761's on in the meantime.

I put red/white's all round on Alf but found the front too high too. Swapped the fronts for HD RR fronts, green 150lb/in and they leveled it out fine with about 2" lift all round, although these might be a bit short and soft with a heavier engine.

[tuko]

"I put red/white's all round on Alf but found the front too high too. Swapped the fronts for HD RR fronts, green 150lb/in and they leveled it out fine with about 2" lift all round, although these might be a bit short and soft with a heavier engine."

Mark,

did you have any problems with your bushings?

I have 110 springs on the front and 90 standard (plus 1" spacers) on the rear of my hybrid and all of the frame bushings are all ready stressed while sitting level.

Following this tread, I'm thinking that If I went to cranked arms, it should help with articulation and free up the suspension a little. Did you have any problems with ALF's suspension ?

Todd.

[Mark90]

The bushes at the chassis ends of the arms where under a little more strain than I likes when sittng level especially the rears. Cranked arms would have helped, but having said that the travel was limited by the +2" ES9000's.

[honitonhobbit]

Just fit the SuperPro castor corrections. No worries and they will last a damn site longer than anything else

[darthdicky]

David, why are these better than Polybushes or LR bushes? Surely the castor corrected ones can't be as flexible as non-corrected ones as the center isn't in the center? Do you know of anyone who's fitted them and done any before/after comparisons?

Richard

PS. How much are they paying you?

[SimonPearson]

Steve,

I put Red/White's on the front of my last Tdi 90, using the same RaRo rubber/plastic cushioning rings that you have but both on the front. I had an 8274 in Southdown bumper, both of which are heavyv and the car sat level front to back.

On teh rear - and you may wish to look into these - I used Red/Yellow springs. These are from a Discovery, are also cheap and easily available. I used them because they are almost exactlly the same length as the Red/White ones but are 150lbs rated... therefore 20lbs softer. With the weight being at the front of the car 99.9% of the time I searched for a softer spring at the rear and found the Red/Yellow's.

[BogMonster]

After much faffing around with mine over the last few months I eventually settled on using the standard 90 springs with the following extras

Front: Discovery isolator rings fitted to both top and bottom of the spring, giving 0.6" lift

Rear: Discovery isolator rings fitted to the top of the spring, and 1.5" Mill Services lifters under the spring plate at the bottom, giving about 1.8" lift

Monroe Adventurer gas shocks all round.

It sits quite tail-high when empty but when fully loaded sits about level which is what I need, enough room for articulation even with wide tyres fitted. No prop vibrations from either end, I did have problems with the front when I had it a lot higher than that. I have a set of 1" Mill Services lifters which might go on the front at some point in place of one of the pairs of isolators, to give it a little bit more and see what happens, but rather oddly most of the noise from tyres rubbing seems to come from the back despite the extra inch of lift

[JST]

Steve,

not sure on lenght of springs. i am running ES9000 +2" shocks alround and Procomp srpings. MPN are:

18528N/S - +2" +15% Front N/S

18528D/S - +2", +15% front O/S

rear

18458 +2", + 20%

% increases are on std LR Springs for each position. (i dont know them without looking them up)

Excellent ride ht and easily support the vehicle weight wise front and rear without being too stiff that they limit articulation.

Richard - i concure with your comments on the off set centre bushes - how can they work and provide cushioning to the vehicle with limited 'rubber' on some edges? Agree they prob sort the castor issue though.

I am running Bearmach blue bushes alround, fitted last year, had about 11 mths use on them 80% offroad time wise and no problems with them to date, plus they are soo cheap and can easily be changed. i only went for poly style ones over OME as they are easier to change.

DSN is running Craddocks RR police spec springs alround. these give a good 2 - 2.5" lift on his motor easily and seem to support the 8274 in a bloody big bumper no probs, however the back does drop a tad when loaded (like with his old TD engine in it)

Good comfort and articulation with them although it does have quite a bit of body roll, enough for the rear tyres (255/85) to catch the std archs on corners at speed (well speed for a rover!)

Disco tdi rears on the front of 90s seem to work well from my experience, good lift (2") and retain good articulation.

[Niall_CSK]

Agree they prob sort the castor issue though.

It won't sort the castor angle as the axle is still canted. All they do is run with lower stresses on the bush itself but there is also less "rubber" on droop articulation. Waste of money IMHO.

[SteveG]

I put red/white's all round on Alf but found the front too high too. Swapped the fronts for HD RR fronts, green 150lb/in and they leveled it out fine with about 2" lift all round, although these might be a bit short and soft with a heavier engine.

I think I'll give those ones a go then Mark. I think the red/whites will be ok once I add bumper and winch but for now it's too high at the front.

Cheers

Steve

[Daan]

Nice set up with the spring rates: I use the same springs at the rear of mine and very pleased with that. One question: what are you trying to achieve with the shock absorber drop brackets? With the rather low spring rate you have, I would like to see a bit more bump travel, to stop it bottoming out.