Lifted P38 on air - questions

Just digging this one up again, now that I'm back home. Today I removed the front sensors and took some of the rubber meat off the lower arms to allow me to thread them as well. The job only took half an hour to do (including removing the sensors). Tomorrow ill cut them and take it all in and have a shop do the threading for me seeing as the rears gave me so much grief.

I have pics so I can include them in the final write-up once I've finished the lift.

Should (and I do say that with hope in my breath) be all done and dusted by Saturday arvo. I'm only able to secure an hour or two each day to play in the garage so I'm tinkering when I can!

Cheers
Keithy

Strange how you've had such trouble with the rear arms. I measured them with vernier at 5.9mm dia. The left hand die worked fine - this was the none adjustable type of die. The right hand die was the adjustable type and went down the rod fine again. The right hand die was borrowed - cos my own were naff and didn't get the thread started.

Reckon it comes down to quality of die. Oh and my mate showing me that dies have a lead in side! Good luck with yours.

That's odd! I wonder if its a quality control thing? I measure my fronts at 6.1mm as well. It shouldn't have been an issue, it's such a simple thing and thread dies have a taper to start the cutting for that very reason!

Could be my die I guess, although the whole set is brand spankers! One of my mates has a good set, finding the time to catch up with him is not so easy though! Ill make an early start today and see if I have any luck!

Interested to hear how you go. Like you say, frustrating given it should be a straightforward job. Can't believe the fronts would be different to the rears. I'm only threading the lower section of the rear arms and tubing the upper section.

From the front sensors I've made a bracket that simply raises the sensor attachment point on the radius arm by ~28mm. The arms are 1m long and the sensors are half way along on the front. Hence half of a 50mm lift = 25mm plus a bit more to allow a greater buffer on the e eas settings.

Good luck today.

So I have sorted the rear sensors! My die must be of lesser quality, my mate has a snap-on set and tapped the 6mm thread I was after with no worries at all.

The front sensors were a tad different. Even with some rubber meat removed there was not quite enough arm meat to grip and tap a thread, so what I did was buy two large bolts (m12 by 120 I think they were), I cut it to my desired length and then drilled a hole in each end, mixed up some chemi-weld and stuck each end of the sensor arm in and that was that. I'm letting it set properly overnight then I am going to drill a 2.5mm hole in each end and put a split pin through sideways to ensure security.

That all said, I snapped the little elbow half of the arm while nipping it all together (the rear arms that is), and will now have to tap a thread further down the little arm to be able to continue! I got heavy handed and it is my fault!

I expect that I should have it all fitted up by Tuesday arv.

Cheers
Keithy

Ok so it's 12:30am on Tuesday, and the rear is all done. I finished up the sensor arms at 9pm tonight (didn't start on them again til 7:30pm last night), then it took me 3hrs to muscle the new shocks in and properly fit the rear spacers, then put the extended sensor arms in.

Being so late in the night I decided against starting the engine and testing each height out - ill do that tomorrow (today now!).

The front will be a walk in the park as ill be able to see what I'm doing a lot better.

I lifted the diff as high as I could, keeping an eye on all moving parts as I went. The limit for up-travel is not the shock absorbers, nor the air springs as they fold nicely over the piston and spacer, but the height sensor arms are the bottle-neck for up travel. They only just foul on the chassis with the brand new OEM bump stop sitting 15mm from the pad. I would say it comes down to each individual's height sensor mod as to the limit here as I've extended my rear arms by 48mm and fronts by 23mm where others out there have not gone this far. I wouldn't imagine that a matter of 5mm in sensor arm will make much difference though - food for thought for anyone else doing their own lift kit.

This means that ill have to extend the bump stop pad height or get a different length bump stop. The aforementioned 80series land cruiser bump stop is a no-go as the base is metal and will not actually fit over the factory holder thingy. Ill search for more options as a replacement bump stop before I commit to welding a lump of steel to increase the bump stop pad.

So today some time ill hook in and do the front, take a few measurements and work out if I can get away with anything cheekily!

For those interested, I've gone with the Terrafirma TF144 all round (they are a P38 front +2" shock), and the shocks do not bottom out when used in the rear of a P38 that has been lifted 50mm. At a glance I'd say they still have a good 1.5" of up travel.

Will update again tomorrow!

Cheers
Keithy

Keith, regarding bump stops. I extended mine by 20mm by gluing together the base of the original (sawn off at shoulder) to a stepped poly bump stop to allow cutting at the desired height/length.

This allowed the existing button, push over attachment method to be maintained. If you follow my babble.

Regarding the rear sensors. If both the top arm and bottom arm are each extended by 25mm, do you think that would deliver a better result? Ie there would be less fouling?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by davidsonsm

Keith, regarding bump stops. I extended mine by 20mm by gluing together the base of the original (sawn off at shoulder) to a stepped poly bump stop to allow cutting at the desired height/length.

This allowed the existing button, push over attachment method to be maintained. If you follow my babble.

Regarding the rear sensors. If both the top arm and bottom arm are each extended by 25mm, do you think that would deliver a better result? Ie there would be less fouling?

---

Was gonna say the same. The angle of rotation should be less when pushed right up... Hopefully that will help a little, if you could be bothered with all the headaches you've had already.

Thanks for the idea mate! Might be worth doing I think! I have a whole set of OEM bumpys here that I'm replacing as I go, I can use 30mm or 40mm off the old ones and glue them to each other.

With regards to the sensor arms, I only extended the lower arms of each (top arms are still as they left the factory). The geometry of the arm at 25mm top and bottom arm would probably deliver less height to the ecu, but would also probably tuck up nicely.

It is possible for me to modify them again, the rears are a simple screw-on job and I can lower them easy enough, not sure if I will though!

Used gorilla glue. Good stuff.

And I made a circular hole recessed to appropriate depth, and same diameter as the bumpstop, in a piece of two by four wood to ensure I cut the bump stops level.