Thread: 130 on portals

thats a nice looking 130 brendanm might have to move down south so i can fit portals to mine. As far as i have found Qld wont let me have them

Originally Posted by brendanm

The Engineer I used is Robert Elliot,located in the south west of Sydney at Bringelly(0403328574). He has done a Bushranger before I spoke to him, so he was fairly comfortable with the modification. The Portals are Maxi-Drive, which have a 5 inch lift and I am running 35 inch tyres. He was happy with the stability and would consider a 37 inch tyre, preferably on a 17 inch rims- pending a swerve test. I asked if I need to come back, if I was to lift the suspension 2 inches. He walked over to the headlight and measured to the ground and said "no, you're OK". This indicated to me that he was more concerned with the limit of headlight height legalities, not total limit of lift. Other things you will need to consider are the width of the front bumper bar which must cover the width of the track. The rear trailing arms will more than likely need to be cranked to not rip the rubbers at the chassis.
Brendan

Glad to see you got it a together Brendan.It looks great.Perhaps either you or Robert could answer the following.
I've never done portals on radius arm suspension. Mine have always been 3 link arrangements with less compliant bushings. Because the extra leverage of portals exaggerates axle torque reaction and 'bouncing on the bushings' under accelleration and braking, did you notice any adverse affects in braking tests during engineering evaluation? It obviously passed and was deemed acceptable when everything is new and tight, but I'm interested in determining how sensitive portal/radius arms setups are to gradual bushing deterioration. I still have vivid memories of a very scary drive home from work in traffic one evening when a set of aftermarket radius arm bushings suddenly chopped out on a non portalled vehicle I was driving.
Wagoo.

The braking was one of the biggest hassles. The set up came with series 1 Discovery brake calipers and solid discs. With 35's the stopping was not as good as I had expected. I die ground out the center web of the Defender Calipers which are considerably larger to fit the Portal casting, machined the hub to take some slotted discs. It is better/passable to the Engineer. I think it still could be better. In the future I will look to fit a second set of calipers all round as there is provision on the casting to house them and look at replacing the Master Cylinder or bore out the current one to double the capacity so brake pedal travel isn't doubled in the process.
The shock rubbers got replaced on the rear lower as they had compressed, this was after 90,000kms and 15,000kms with the current set up. $10 was a good bill to get to keep the set up tight and vibration/ knock free. The car handles drives as good as new.
Brendan

Originally Posted by brendanm

The braking was one of the biggest hassles. The set up came with series 1 Discovery brake calipers and solid discs. With 35's the stopping was not as good as I had expected. I die ground out the center web of the Defender Calipers which are considerably larger to fit the Portal casting, machined the hub to take some slotted discs. It is better/passable to the Engineer. I think it still could be better. In the future I will look to fit a second set of calipers all round as there is provision on the casting to house them and look at replacing the Master Cylinder or bore out the current one to double the capacity so brake pedal travel isn't doubled in the process.
The shock rubbers got replaced on the rear lower as they had compressed, this was after 90,000kms and 15,000kms with the current set up. $10 was a good bill to get to keep the set up tight and vibration/ knock free. The car handles drives as good as new.
Brendan

Do you have room to swap to the large pistion defender calipers? (or are you running them already?)

Anyone know, or of someone or would be up for fitting my portals and getting all the CTIS to work etc? I'd also need the 1.003:1 high range gears to my transfer case.

I'm looking for a competent mechanic who would be aware of any issues and would make appropriate improvements or changes to the car as required.

i.e. stronger draglink/trackrod etc

--> Brendan, who did yours?

What does it cost to convert a 110 to a 110 on portals with all the bells and whistles?

--> Prith

No idea yet.

I'll tell you in a few months what it ended up costing to do my 130...

Originally Posted by prith

What does it cost to convert a 110 to a 110 on portals with all the bells and whistles?

I think it is about $8k just for the portals so I'd hazard a guess at about $15k all up.