OME plus a little more....

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

After seeing pcm120 (Paul)s Prado in action at Morgan over the weekend, I was so impressed with its rear wheel articlation I decided to pull my finger out and finish my mods.

Pauls done all the hard work on this so credit goes to him.

http://www.pradopoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=968

http://www.pradopoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=1059

Thanks to Paul for his advice, CAD drawings and front strut spacer.

My own Prado currently has OME 885 springs and N140s struts in the front and 896 springs and N142 shocks on the back.

This has given me 800mm at the front (Bottom of rim to arch) and 810 at the rear. Looking at the side step the car sits level (Maybe 5mm or so higher at the rear of step)

My plan is as follows:

-Fit Pauls strut spacers to the front and get 10-15mm more lift.

-Fit RockCrawler 20mm rear nolathane spring spacer.

- Refit rubber bushes to rear shock to help with the harsh initial effect of the shocks control.

-Fit shock spacers (Thanks to Pauls CAD drawing) to release some more articulation.

Here's the bits and pieces:



So who's gonna help?? :lol: :lol:

Stay tuned......Hopefully done this coming weekend.

Mick

[pcm_120 Member Find all posts View Profile Close pcm_120]

Hey Mick.

I'd love to, but my weekends are dead until some time in August :? but I'm sure Harvey would "love" to :wink:

Paul.

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

my weekends are dead until some time in August

I know how you feel.... :roll: first weekend in August till I can string a whole weekend together..... Plus I tend to get home well after dark during the week which isn't helping....


Mick

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

I had some free time this morning and took the opportunity to get into this little project.

I won't ramble on too much as most of this has been covered by Paul (pcm120) in his posts.
At this stage I've only installed the front strut spacers due to not only lack of time but also I wanted to let the front settle a bit with a few ks of driving to get as accurate as possible measurements.

So to begin with I parked the Prado in a nice level spot and marked the wheel position on the floor and made all the tyre pressures even ( so the before and after measurement conditions would be repeatable and accurate.




Using the accepted method of measuring from the bottom of the rim, through the wheel center to the bottom of the flare I got:

- 795mm (820mm at rear) and just for reference, from the bottom of the side step to the ground was 360mm front and 370mm rear so to the naked eye the Prado looks level.
Sorry about the poor pictures, they don't reflect the measurements as I took them from a poor angle.



Here's a shot of how the spacer sits on top of the strut. I didn't take the strut right out, just dropped it down, cleaned the contact faces and installed the spacer.


6mm spacer as engineered by Paul.


The spacer tucks nicely under the strut tower. You have to look twice to see it.


With the spacer installed and top nuts back on you can see the studs are just long enough. I've heard of 8mm spacers being used but I wouldn't be comfortable with them as 6mm just see the thread going to the top of the nut.


Here's a little tip. I've heard of all sorts of methods being used to get the bottom shock bolt back in, like using the jack to push the control arms down, or 2x4 to lever the bottom wish bone down. Here's a simple way, a small pinch bar or large screw driver under a spring coil and down on the upper control arm, this way you push the strut up and the arm down, easy, works, no sweat.
Wrap electrical tape around the end of the bar/screwdriver if you’re worried about scratching the paint.


So here's the end result:

:shock: :shock: Just kidding :lol:

Here it is after a quick lap around the block to settle everything back into place.


Having done the math earlier gave me a theoretical lift of around 10-15mm.

Actual measurements are:

- 810mm (no change in the rear)

Measurement at the side steps now is 375 front and 370mm rear, ever so slightly bum down. Once again hard to see in the angle of my pics.




So far so good.
Droop measurements stay the same @ about 885-890 mm

I can confirm Paul’s findings that the bushes seem to be the limiting factor to droop at this stage as the ball joint looks like it could cope with 20mm or so more down travel, However the CV joint angle is starting to look a little ugly (if only we could drop the diff a little :roll: )
The OME strut also has 20mm or so down travel left in it.

One interesting find was this:


On the drivers side the upper arm has been hitting a coil on the spring on full droop. Pity I didn't notice until after the strut was back in :roll: ....simple fix is to compress the spring and turn it on the strut into a position were the coil clears.

Also found this:

Thanks to ARB when I got them to change from 884 to 885 springs.
They chewed the bolt up by holding the nut and using a rattle gun on the bolt... rookies...

Seems I've rambled on....

Stay tuned for the rear.

Mick

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

looks good so far mick.
good find with that bolt :?

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

Great write-up and detail pics Mick.

Cheers
Chippy

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

good find with that bolt

Yeah... the other side was the same... You just can't trust anyone to do a decent job these days :roll:

Mick

[jcas24 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close jcas24]

looks good but I dont get how you get 10-15mm lift with just a 6mm spacer. Did I miss something?

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

good find with that bolt

Yeah... the other side was the same... You just can't trust anyone to do a decent job these days :roll:

Mick

Seems like a lot of damage to the bolt just by doing it up incorrectly? Wouldn't it be more likely to be caused by the bolt being loose or incorrectly fitted and flogged out over time?

Oh and good work on the extra lift, it's looking awesome.

Crammy

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

A free Sunday afternoon had me getting into the rear modifications.

A quick re-check of my measurements after driving the Prado for a bit showed the front stayed at 810.

At the rear it measures 820mm



I planned to refit the stock Toyota rubber bushes to the top of the shock but I seem to have misplaced two of the steel washers/retainers (my shed is a pigsty at the moment :roll: I'm sure they'll show up)
so this part of the plan is on hold for the moment
I'll keep the OME nolathane ones for now.



With the shocks removed I started playing around to find what was limiting articulation.
At this stage the sway bar seems to be the main culprit. By dropping the axle to the point of the spring just being held in the sway bar is well past its range... it's maybe limiting down travel by 30-40mm or so.

The upper mount binds up due to the sway pulling on it at an angle as the axle droops... replacing the top with a ball joint like bottom may help, I'll think this through and see what I come up with.
Sway bar disconnects would of course solve the problem completely but I don't want to go this way at this stage.



And now for the spacers... I bought these online. They are made out of nolathane and are from Rockcrawler.




They simply fit between the upper spring perch and bump stop.




Another interesting find... thanks to ARB again.. drivers side spring not in is perch correctly... you can see in this pic where it was sitting, the next pic shows where it should have been sitting.





Ok... on with the shock spacer...





and reinstall......




Everything back on the ground and back together...20mm higher





The rear now measures in at 840mm.

I'll drive it around for a week or so and then get a wheel alignment before adding final measurements to the suspension measurements thread.


Mick

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

Seems like a lot of damage to the bolt just by doing it up incorrectly?

They were both tight (seemed over tight)

I was thinking they put the bolt through the mount and shock and due to lack of room held the nut and spun the bolt tight with a rattle gun.

You can see the score marks right along it, its just worse at the thread as it bit into the bracket.

Mick

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

Finally got around to getting a wheel alignment done today.

I had it done by Gregs Alignment Solutions at Croydon Park, he's the guy ARB Regency Park use. He also does installations of suspensions for ARB when their workshop overflows.

Top bloke, happy to have a chat about 4wds and Prados, also let me look over his shoulder while he worked and crawl around under the Prado while over the pit.

He uses his own settings from years of working on 4wds.

End result:

Camber: (left and right) 30" +

Caster: (left and right) 1' 45" +

Toe in: 0.5mm

I also have some adjustment remaining (Paul/pcm120 ran out on one side with the same mods)

Mick

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

Re: OME plus a little more....

Hi Mick,
Where the coil locates on the upper part of the chassis. Is there a plate or locater of some kind or do the coils sit inplace with the large hollow bump stop between the coil & chassis?

Regards Castoy

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

Re: OME plus a little more....

Castoy,

The bump stop sits inside the top of the spring with about a 10mm thick rubber lip, this rubber "lip" is between the spring and top spring mount.
The top spring mount is simply a plate on the chassis with a reccess pressed into it that the spring/bumpstop fits into, the whole lot is then held in place by the weight of the vehicle.

In the photo's above I have refered to the thop spring mount as the "top perch" there is also a pic of the spring with the bump stop inside it.


Mick

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

Re: OME plus a little more....

looks good but I dont get how you get 10-15mm lift with just a 6mm spacer. Did I miss something?

Sorry not to answer this.. I didn't see your question until just now when I read through this post again because TP asked a question.

The bottom wish bone swings in an arch from it's mounting point. The strut is attached some distance back from the end of the wish bone that the wheel is attached too. By adding the spacer the point that the strut is attached to gets pushed down by an amount equal to the thickness of the spacer. Because the wheel is mounted further out the distance it moves down is slightly more.

Kind of hard to put into words.... Hope it makes sense...

Mick