Thread: HELP! Anyone raised a PUMA? Big TROUBLE!!!

Hey Povman, glad you've got it back. I'm up in Skycity Darwin sat next to the pool reading Australian 4x4 test of a Puma 90 and guess what they suggest - a set of muddies and wait for it........... a two inch lift. Bet he doesn't read this forum! Glad it all worked out for you.

Allan

Originally Posted by Allan

Hey Povman, glad you've got it back. I'm up in Skycity Darwin sat next to the pool reading Australian 4x4 test of a Puma 90 and guess what they suggest - a set of muddies and wait for it........... a two inch lift. Bet he doesn't read this forum! Glad it all worked out for you.

Allan

Ha Ha, yeah thanks Allan, I read that last night at work and thought the same thing...
If only they knew the potential for damage, quotes like that should really have a warning attached to them..

Povman.

The whole article on the D90 in 4x4 Australia was poor, probably written by someone who had never driven a Defender before that week. The vehicle was almost certainly one of the LRA vehicles tarted up for the release during the surfing contest earlier in the year. Maybe the author could answer the question why you would want to give it a 2 inch lift. I might add I believe there are situation where you may want to lift the front (or back) of a Defender, to return it to 'normal' levels from a situation where the vehicle has dropped in consequence of adding a bullbar and winch, or similar. With the D90 in the article that situation just does not exist. My 2010 D90 has the identical setup with OEM winch and A-bar. I have standard front springs and it is dead level, with no front drop.

That aside, I am very pleased Povman that it has worked out for you in the end. The out come could have been much worse. I do hope we all learn from your trial.

Cheers
KarlB

Pov glad you held out and got somewhere you felt comfortable with.
There appears to be this horrendous attitude to aftercare in any product one buys these days.
It'a not just LR either I have read similar events on other marques.
Are we such consumers these days manufacturers assume we will just suck it and see? don't they give a rats regarding return trade? that has got to be a very blinkered viewpoint in a customer facing business.
I hope you have many adventures in your puma mate.
Regards Andy.

Read most of this thread with interest. I have an xtreme and I have given it a "real" 2" lift. This means that I have machined aluminium spacers under the spring plates on the front and corresponding spacers for the bump stops. This means that the car is raised from the axle without compromising suspension travel in any way. It also means that the axle moves downwards under full suspension extension another 2" in relation to the transfer case. Under full extension the uni at the transfer end bound up slightly. Grinding a small amount of metal off sorted it, although it should have a hooks(double cardon) joint fitted. It is inevitable that the puma, with its more angled transfer case, is going to have excessive uni angle with any lift and I reckon standard the unis are going to be operating ouside manufacturers spec.

On tailshaft vibration in 130's and defenders. Mine did it as soon as I initially raised it 25mm with King springs. I noted the front unis were at 45degrees orientation not 90 as you would expect. I had the the tailshaft balanced with the unis at 90degrees and alls well. I have since found this is a common fix.

Cheers,

Dave

Glad to hear that it is fixed! It is good that ARB came to the party. It would have been nice if the salespeople/store owners were better informed so this didn't happen in the first place.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Glad to hear that it is fixed! It is good that ARB came to the party. It would have been nice if the salespeople/store owners were better informed so this didn't happen in the first place.

I agree 100% with you Ben but they were informed in the first place, but chose not to follow the documentation from OME.
The problem only occurred because they have raised many in the past with no drama and became complacent about checking the vehicle properly before handing it back to me!
It would be good to know that a big global company like that would take the time to inspect their products and workmanship before handing it back to their customers.. Surely it would only have been a quick inspection and the problem would have been apparent, according to OME fitting procedures! Time is money so they say, but maybe taking the time to do the job properly in the first place may have saved them and myself a bundle of time and money!!!!

Cheers,
Povman.

Originally Posted by farmport

[snip]

On tailshaft vibration in 130's and defenders. Mine did it as soon as I initially raised it 25mm with King springs. I noted the front unis were at 45degrees orientation not 90 as you would expect. I had the the tailshaft balanced with the unis at 90degrees and alls well. I have since found this is a common fix.

Cheers,

Dave

The 45* phasing is because the diff pinion points up at the t/case, it isn't parallel with the t/case output as it should be for a normal 90* universal joint phasing.

It's not uncommon to find people with front shaft vibes have had the uni's phased as a 'normal' driveshaft at some stage in their lives and changing it back to 45* fixes things.

A few here have mentioned that sometimes it needs to move a spline either way to really sort things too.