I'm so very confused about the next step in trying to sort out my County. The love is still there but the relationship is a bit strained....
So long story short, purchased car of my dreams, got her on the road and did a 7000 km road trip with some mild/moderate off road. On the last leg home I'm starting to hear rattles and feel vibrations I'm not sure were there before. I can feel them through the steering wheel most of the time at all speeds but with a definite harmonic type hum at exact 104km/h. Also the car wanders a fair bit at anything above 95 km/h.
On the trip the radiator developed a weep (it was damp but didn't use any water....), in the end made it home without any dramas. No luck sourcing a replacement so this is on the to-do soon list but may be able to get it repaired given how minor the problem is. Only other drama was a leaking front diff seal, gotta love being able to replace a $4 seal on the roadside, very happy with this.
So the County has a 2 inch lift, just replaced the original OM Emu shocks with the same (can't afford Koni's right now). All uni's replaced prior to the trip, with a little slop in the front prop shaft spline. Changed the tyres to Kumho MT51 (235/85R16), they're half way between a mud and AT pattern....hang in there...I'm getting the point.....
On inspection after the trip one of the uni's on the front pro-shaft is very loose, no play, just loose.
So my objective;
1) Fix the vibrations before things start to break
2) Sort out the steering at freeway speeds
OR
3) Confirm the that this is all a County thing and live with it....
I've spent a few days trawling through the forum
I've removed the front prop shaft and the vibrations have dropped marginally I think but not gone away. Discovered a bit of a clunk (backlash?) in the transfer case.... So my dilemma is;
Keep the lift ?
- I've fitted cranked rear radius rods to help with articulation
- Considering fitting front castor correction bushes (I've read this could make the vibration worse. I have a pair of front radius rods, Terra Firma I think, that have a bend in them to suit a 2 inch lift but they are too wide for my diff).
- Keep the lift, fit a Disco 1 front diff so I can use the modified front radius rods ?
- Put a D2 double cardan front prop shaft in (I think I only have to change the transfer case flange)
Take the lift out ?
- Not sure if I need the lift, the car looks great with it but does it really help with anything else ????
- Stock handling, stock steering geometry, nice
However
- My shocks have slightly different specs to stock and I'm not sure if this is going to cause problems;
Front Open Front Closed Rear Open Rear Closed
OM Emu 559mm 339mm 560mm 346mm
Stock 548mm 330mm 553mm 346mm
My gut feeling is go back to stock height springs to improve stability and be able to run a stock front prop shaft but I really don't want to have to shell out for another set of new shocks, equally I'm happy to mess around and keep the lift if i can get something that works, just not sure of the right path....anybody help before I go insane.
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