Thread: Defender Coils

Originally Posted by rick130

Yep, 20mm taller than mine ATM at that point, and mine is measuring 105mm between the bump stops, it's dropped from it's original 117/114mm after the initial settling 8-9 years ago.

I've maximised droop with long travel shocks, raised towers and longer brake lines and I had to remove the front anti-roll bar as it fouled the front prop shaft at full droop.

Mate, would you be able to accurately mic the wire diameter of the new springs and accurately count the coils please ? (it roughly looks like 6.75 winds, including the closed and ground ends)

I really want to work out the rate, they look stiff.

[edit] and here's some more TDCi bump stop heights Puma suspension height

Which confirms my 125mm between the bump stops . I dont think I looking for an extream setup so I im happy where is sits now. May just add Polly Air's to the rear lets wait and see.

Yeah 6.75 winds would be close and its 16.4 mm including powder coating so I guess 16mm would be your closest .

I think what Rick is saying is that 125mm is more than + 20mm increase. My static height on oem springs was 75mm. This on a tdi.....

Originally Posted by uninformed

I think what Rick is saying is that 125mm is more than + 20mm increase. My static height on oem springs was 75mm. This on a tdi.....

I dont know about that , I take it as mine is 20mm higher from center of hub to guard than his and he has 105mm at bump stop , where I have 120mm .

Nice truck, You will notice prop shaft vibration very quickly and easily, with mine there was no loud noise or dancing girls. 80km/h take you foot off the accelerator and there is a slight shudder that goes through the vehicle. If you have this remove the prop shaft, put the CDL in and do the same again and it should have disappeared.

My recommendation would be the Tom woods, although I haven't used it, it seems to be the only one that hasn't destructed on anyone yet and the guys running them all seem happy with them. My Bailey Morris let me down after just 19,000km and I have yet to fit the replacement as it let go on Drover the other week and he is due to get Gibsons to look at it and rectify the problem.

As for the prop shaft bind on the front sway bar under articulation I fitted sway bar spacers (Daniel at mulgo has the measurements) and that solved that problem.

Regards
Iain

Originally Posted by Dockstrada

I dont know about that , I take it as mine is 20mm higher from center of hub to guard than his and he has 105mm at bump stop , where I have 120mm .

I was referring to post #25 by Rick with regards to his opening comment. Forget his hub to gaurd measurement. BTW you will notice he fitted +2 inch coils to get 117mm....so that leaves him at about 67-70 OEM BS space....a bit off the 105mm yours would have been to only get +20mm lift to 125mm

why measure center of hub to gaurd??? guards are flex deformed things and I doubt 2 would be the same, hub center by eye is also room for error. Bump stop clearance is bump stop clearance, no matter the tyre size, width, rim, gaurd deform etc.

A new defender may be 100mm BS spacing in the showroom, but that seems a touch high in my mind....So unless you had 100mm stock, you now have more than +20mm.

Regardless of lift, each vehicle is subject to its own behaviour. You may or may not get prop shaft vibes/problems... If you have how ever improved your flex and not just raised it, you will want a propshaft with more working angle

Bottom line is you have a hell of a lift without any other corrections.
Usually 100-105mm between the bump stops is the limit before needing to really address other things.

I'll be really surprised if you don't have front prop issues even though the TDCi has a longer front prop shaft than earlier models.
Of course LR may have upped their game and fitted a better flange and uni's after so many problems too.

The lack of Castor will reduce straight line stability (the car will wander a bit) and you lose steering self centring.
You now only have 70mm or less of droop (and even less articulation with the front anti-roll bar fitted) so you will cock a front wheel far more easily now.
Probably not a huge issue with TC, but it'll make it and the brakes work harder.

Originally Posted by uninformed

[snip]

A new defender may be 100mm BS spacing in the showroom, but that seems a touch high in my mind....So unless you had 100mm stock, you now have more than +20mm.

[snip]

I've seen/measured and read anywhere from 55 to about 75mm BSS for a stockie 90/110/130.
Some TD5's were at the low end of that, mine was 65mm with bar and winch. (and OEM HD springs, 15/15.5" free length, 225lb/in)

Few are 125mm or above.
I think Pete/psimpson's 90 is around 125mm or so from what he's said in the past but he's done the swivels, etc, and I think Low Ranger/Waynes is about there too.
Both have longer dampers/shocks/brake lines, etc, so they have the whole package to work together.

Interesting to hear you have no noise at 125mm bump stop clearance, It really seems to be luck of the draw and to how bad your puma suffers - probably something to do with the mounting angle of the engine/gearbox/diffs as they wont all be identical down with land rover build tolerances. Anything over about 115mm mine got noise, i run full airbags with no coils on all 4 corners so i can adjust mine quite easily, with the standard shaft in i was getting very nasty binding and vibrations, i put a locally made custom DC shaft in and now can run up to 200+mm bump stop clearance with no issues at all. This shaft was made by Gibsons, same as what Chook73 and drover now have but i had a super heavy duty DC put in mine and have no problems recommending anyone to use them for a shaft.

I have since modified the original shaft to allow a wider angle uni at the TC end so i can use it as a spare, this was cheap enough to have done and i have been running it as a test this week, while it works fine up to about 130mm bump stop clearance it still gets some vibs over this but it is way better then the stock setup was with no binding. The noise is just a vibration type noise, not the clacking noise of the shaft binding i was getting before - this suits me as it will only be used as a spare in an emergency - Chook73 and Drovers experiences with failing shafts on big trips prompted me to do this.

As for the clearance issues with the front sway bar, i run a spacer to help this as well, but its not really an issue because of the DC joint, infact running the DC joint actually moves the pivot point of the upper joint forward creating slightly more clearance for the swaybar, but this is negated by the fact the shaft is most likely larger diameter tube. If you are running longer shocks you are going to run into this issue anyway, the puma is really not well setup for modifying the front suspension without addressing the sway bar and shaft issues.

Chook73 do you know how much mulgo spaced your sway bar, i currently have 20mm under mine but still not enough so i am looking at shifting the sway be back about 20mm which should give me ample clearance.