My Grande suspension conversion..not without dramas.

[Lenny1967 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lenny1967]

Hey,
My mechanic of 20 years has just done a 2” Amada remote shocks - Airbagman conversion on my 03’ Grande bush limo, all went well apart from a rare leaking bag during the install, in and out 3 times, with a leak near the upper plastic plate. ABM were great about it and a new one was sent, its in and holding pressure now.

The Amadas are soaking up the road bumps nicely, I’m yet to go off road while we are still tweaking it. The drivers side airbag has me concerned with what ive read here, it blew its top lid during the install for some reason and that’s got me nervous. I have 3 kids and and extensive injury list so getting under the car in the bush aint gona be easy now.

Now im gona throw a few questions out here and any help would be appreciated thanks.

Looking at the photo of the coilovers, the thread at the bottom of the shock, do I wind it up or down to increase height? Im guessing up but wana be sure before I git under there,,now the fronts both measure 790mm and the drivers rear is 810mm, this seems high??
The passenger side measures 800mm, I have 11mm of washers in the sensors both sides and the car looks good from the rear, level wise. Looks ok from the side level wise, the sidesteps seem dead level with road.

Im concerned about articulation in the rear with the airbags and wonder whether they should have some restraint on them to minimize the droop. Im only 4wding 5 years now so not an expert but learning lots here. Ive used the raise and lower function on level road idling and its all good though the rear is way too high when its set to high…which I wont be doing for any reason.

I hope this reads ok and makes sense, not a regular poster..so please go easy. Gxl makes more sense only for the rear coils to me, I like the other gadgets…sort of. The fridge and leather are goo for the filthy kids..pearl paint is cool too..the little leds on Sahara bar are just boosters cause the streetlights here in Lake Macquarie are pathetic. Not meant for bush…they are incredible btw.

Anyhoo I hope my photos load ok..

Regards, Lenny.

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Nice to have something different to read on PP. What was the cost for the Armadas?

The front coil overs should be wound up to increase height. Once the fronts are level side to side, the rears should also level itself out.

Your front to rear height is spot on. The rears is meant to be 20-30mm higher and when the side steps are level, you know you've got it right.

I don't set the height to high unless absolutely necessary.

I have added spacers under mine to retain the bottom of the airbag to the diff. It also corrects the angle of the airbag so that it is straight at normal ride height.

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

As Andrew has said wind up for more pretension on the spring and more height. Front is good now anyway and front to rear balance is fine. Much higher at the front and you start putting the CVs through too much angle. About 790 - 800 seems good. Winding up the spring will be fairly hard to do, do you have the C spanner? You need to turn down the locknut to wind the main nut up then lock it all again when you have finished adjusting. Where have you mounted the remote reservoirs at the front? Some wider shots would be nice to see how it has been done.

[Lenny1967 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lenny1967]

Thanks, glad to hear the measurements are good..more confidence there for me. Spacers under, im concerned about changing Airbagmans engineering by adding things. Although I've changed Toyotas I guess. How high are they amts? Ive just been out in the Prado and it behaves very nice on road and cornering has improved dramatically with it losing nearly 20mm from the awful lift that it had, and the 25mm bolt on spacers to widen my track (I know) The wife cant roll it now and more fun for me at my mates farm on the fence in the lower Watagans...wow theres some insane tracks in the lower parts.

My $$$$ BFG's were wearing wrong because no one could align the wheels properly. The Cv's look like they have a much better angle now, if any angle at all. I stupidly didnt take photos before but the cars dynamics have changed for the better, it feels lighter in the steering, much lighter. With no wheel alignment yet. They provided 2 C spanners but no paper instructions at all which didnt help. All up I think it was $2300 delivered from Qld to Newy, 4 Amadas and the Airbagman kit, which the passenger left bag has to go back next week for them to test.

So all good so far, early days and i'll post up another photo later that'll have some blokes here frothing...haha. Surfing term!!



I'll stress again Airbagman were very good on the phone about it. Daniel at Superior where I got the package from was also very good. Shite happens, and it saved me 80 in petrol as my mechanic went on holidays for 10 days the day we found out it had a leak! All good..

Lenny.

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The spacers are about 1.5".

Your steering is now lighter cause there is no more caster when you do a lift. To get caster and camber adjustment back, you will need some new UCAs.

[Lenny1967 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lenny1967]

Ok, i'll see what my wheel guy says on Tuesdee...this is my answer to the locked gate drama. Whole lota fun and low risk..sort of.

[Lenny1967 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lenny1967]

I'll spray the rego on sarvy, that'll keep me outa trouble.

[macaroon1 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close macaroon1]

Im concerned about articulation in the rear with the airbags and wonder whether they should have some restraint on them to minimize the droop. Im only 4wding 5 years now so not an expert but learning lots here. Ive used the raise and lower function on level road idling and its all good though the rear is way too high when its set to high…which I wont be doing for any reason.

Lenny, I've got a carrier just like that....it'll be for sale soon as my driveway is steep as. (Apart from the restraint of the bags from the weight of the bike and carrier) there is no physical way to retain/restrain the ABM airbags.
This thread is very good:
http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...0-Grande/page3

Lots of great pics and from >p.3 should answer your question about the retaining, or lack of. If you bought the 'newer' version they are retained from the plastic top housing anyway. On a big droop the rubber would pull way from cross hatch anyway, like a pic shows on p.5 (from the top) so really another form of retaining I don't think will help and the bag is rubber and plastic!! FWIW they are longer than the oem's and stronger so should be able to travel further anyway!!You can buy the ABM non lifted bags ..I'm assuming you bought the former..??

Only 100% solution is to convert to coils but know nothing about this..good luck with it all..

[Lenny1967 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lenny1967]

Thanks macaroon1, bike rack was $288 I from a mob in Canberra I think?? Bargain I reckon. I have the 2" lifted bags from ABM. Its spends most of its time on the road here so I didnt wana go too high. We dont get too wild when we go bush so im sure its gona be fine. Thats what the Gas Gas is for! But thats another forum. My lotto vehicle is a Patrol coil cab so i'll wait till that for the coils! Man i've ploughed too much cabbage into this car as it is!

Regards, Lenny.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

I'm running the earlier unretained Airbagman OA6011's in my '04 Grande which have been great and cant fault them. I am not using any spacers under the airbags but have of course used the panel washers under the height sensors to bring the rear end up. Currently riding at 810mm at the front and 835 in the rear. My Prado's suspension has been working really well for me and having the traction control and the rear locker to boot, the slightly lesser flex than a a coil sprung Prado has been a non issue.

Here's a video of last weekends Sundown NP trip showing how well the suspension works when heading up a fairly steep rocky climb.

[Lenny1967 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lenny1967]

Nice mate, thats about as hard as i'd wana push it. I might cross it up on some rocks in my yard tomorrow and see how it goes.

[wholesalesuspension Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wholesalesuspension]

Hi Lenny, i was just looking at your pics & the Amada gear looks great.
I was just a bit concerned at how offset that bush is for brand new. The bolt appears to be almost at the top of the bush already, which usually only occurs over time as the bushes sag.
Were the lower eye bolts left loose until the car was back on the ground?
-Maybe its an illusion from the angle of the photo, but it can't hurt to check it.

Regards, Jason.

[Lenny67 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lenny67]

Ok mate thanks and i'll run that buy my mech, wheel alignment was almost spot on so was happy bout that. Feels great on road, no more dollars on this car for awhile...i really want some different rocksliders though so any suggestions?