Suzuki Club UK

on my SJ410 im fitting a calmini lift kit and was thinking i should extend my shock mounts while im at it? i asume that this is better because of bound and rebound,

also having sudden brainstorm about fixed rear leaf lifts ????
if you catch the drift, kit came with shackles for the rear, but seeing the front kit lifts both ends of the leafs and reverses the fixed mounts has its benefits on the front so would assume it would on the rear too? any comments or suggestions would be cool, thanks

if your buying the kit it should have longer shocks with it, it did at least when i bought my calmini 3.5" reverse shackle lift unless your on about moving your shockmounts on board as in using one of these......

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUZUKI-SJ-SAMURAI ... m153.l1262

but you would need new longer shockers

moving back to the kit itself, i dont really see what your saying, the reverse shackle works (on the front) by changing the way the spring flexs's

i.e. normaly
as the spring flexs upward (with recoil), the spring extends forward pivoting on the shackle, the problem with this set up is that if anything other than exactly upward force stops the axle and doesnt allow it to move

with the kit ( on the front)
the pivot is on the back so it allows it to flex better from forces that come at the axle diagonally or from the front of the sj as its moving.

with the shackles, the problem with homemade ones are they arent strong enough and end up cocking over, shackles arent liked on the front because they make the springs stick out and reduce the angle of approach, wheras shackles on the rear are fine.

so thus reversing the rear shackles would be pointless because also it would change the angle of inflection to an undesirable one,

good links
http://forum.difflock.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=

http://forum.difflock.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=

Hope I've Helped

Luke

looking at your post again, the shackle from the rear springs are different from the shackles on the front springs, the shackles on the rear provide 2", fitted with 1.5" lift springs (on mine at least) making the 3.5" on the front, the shackles are smaller and thus the leaf tower provides the 2" and the spring provides the 1.5"

Luke

OK lets forget the shackle ideas then? ta for the input luke, and lets get back to the shocks, is it worth lowering the mounts 2inches to bring them inline with the new lower axle position?
sorta like these things

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUZUKI-SJ-RANGE-2 ... 240%3A1318

i have the materials to make the allterations and its cheaper than new longer shocks, sorry if i dont make much sense sometimes i type how i think it.

I would personaly get longer shocks! If you are strapped for cash get the extensions as a tempory measure but they reduce your upward travel which you have just gained by fitting the lift kit! The suspension setup I have is bedford rascal springs on the back (which lift 2") coupled with shocks from the rear of an astra, and on the front rear SJ springs with dislocating shackles (again 2" lift) and they are couples with defender rear shocks. both sets of shocks are longer than standard sj ones by about 2" the astra ones were about a £15 and i think the defender ones were about £30. although to make the astra ones fit you need to make sleeves to fit as the eye on the ends are bigger, to do this i cut some hosepipe to lengh, put some large washers on the inboard side of the sj mounts, then put the hosepipe bits in boiling water to soften them up then forced them on to the SJ so the standard astra bushes would fit, put another large washer on the outboard side and tightened them up!

The rear is abit had but this is probably due to the springs being new and quite stiff.

Hope this all helps, Dan

like i said if your getting the kit, the dampers should be provided (or mine where at least!) like dan said,fitting the spacers just move the working range of the original damper to that of the lift, and they dont really provide any axtra damping for the flexyou are looking for, as a cheap method of making your kit work yes they are a good idea, in the long run probably best to get some better dampers, llama 4x4 provide good units, and id advise pro-comp for there life time warranty, but seen as though they have just gone bust id stick with the llama 4x4 ones
http://www.llama4x4.co.uk/
if you use the 'on board' shock mounts you would need some massive dampners but it is supposed to give reallygood flex.


hope ive helped

Luke

i bought the calmini from ebay, 80 notes for shackles n bolts, extended bump stop mounts, and 2 prop spacers that i dont need,

Longer springs looks best from what u peeps are saying, Cash is tight (lost my job today) (more time to work on SJ) so gona extend the mounts,

have any of you ever tried to extend them from the leaf end of the shock

Please tell me if my ideas are beyond stupid???? i have plenty off them