Boing (Part 4)

The final frontier ... not space, but the Front Anti Roll Bar

Katy didn't have a Front bar so a whole fixing kit was needed

The first part was fairly easy - undo the Drop link and bolt on the bracket. only one problem the bolt at the front would have had the nut just half on so we decided that a new shiny longer one would be better.

Then as we would be needing the spacing to decide where to fix things the next job was to assemble the bar and fittings loosely. This is the new 25mm bar in all it's glory, and the last time it will be clean

The bar was held in place with the front drop links and a bottle jack as you can see. The kit came with rivet nuts (more about that later which needed holes so we set off and drilled them

Unfortunately we discovered that the rivet nuts were just not going to work on Katy's Chassis.

The chassis has been plated with extra re-enforcing along it's full length as part of the strengthening to create a 127 chassis. It made the section too thick, and probably meant we could have actually tapped it and screwed straight into it, but we'd already drilled larger holes than would have been wanted for that so

After consideration of whether to go and try and find some even larger rivet nuts and tools (and the cost and delay) it was decided that the best option was to weld these brackets in place as they were never going to be moved anyway

Luckily Steve is a wizard with a welder so all I had to do was sit back and take pictures of the nice pretty sparks whilst waiting with a water spray just in case (Katy leaks oil and we were not going to be able to clean it all up)

So here it is in place, just a job of going over all the nuts and bolts and tightening them all up

So hopefully that's the end of the suspension upgrades. The improvement has been significant already and I feel that it's been really worthwhile.

The cost of the whole exercise has been about £1200 as. I've gone for high end components that should really stand the test of time. I've learned a lot I'm a lot more confident in being able to work on the suspension should we have any trouble again and most importantly the driving experience is already significantly improved so I can enjoy the view out of the window rather than worrying about every bump in the road

Boing (Part 3)

In prior posts I wrote about my attempts to stop the Body Roll when cornering and driving on uneven roads
I changed the rear springs and shocks, and I changed the front ones too, and I replaced the Anti Roll bar linkages with new stiffer ones and polybushes

Everything made a little difference, bu nothing made enough of a difference so I have continued with the improvements so today I fitted a new28mm thick Anti Roll Bar with Polybushes from Extreme 4x4 to the back of Katy

Here is how it looked when I stated (there is a very similar shot of after the upgrade later on in the post)

The 1st job as usual was to get the old one off which was fairly straightforward as I'd been oiling all the nuts and bolts in preparation for this job and everything came off easily

As you can see

Next there was some adjustment as the new bars are narrower across than the old ones so the linkages needed turning around to fit.  As I had fitted new ones recently with new polybushes these were not being replaced. it was a simple case of knocking them out...

And turning them around ...

Soon the new bars were in place. If you compare this to the one at the top you can see it;s much thicker  as it has a larger hole in the bushes) as well as the different bar profile

And everything looked good for a test drive

Which went very well and I really do think these have made a lot of difference (maybe I should have stated here, but I'm happy with all the upgrades)

I have a new bar for the front which has not had one before. Whilst the difference has been significant I will still fit the front bar because I am told that it improves steering responsiveness and I still think everything that can help should be done

Frankly I'm surprised that Land Rover ever let these go out with just the standard Anti Roll Bar given the size and weight

Anti Roll Bar Linkages

Tonight I did a bit more of the suspension upgrade by fitting new Anti Roll Bar linkages

Getting them has been an adventure in itself, I  tried buying them from Bearmach who were out of stock and then found myself after getting a hole in the radiator in my Suzuki just 100m from the main Land Rover main dealers in Cardiff and was offered them for a cool £44.00 +VAT EACH! which I declined and picked up pair from Unipart for less than half of that

So to summarise the job...

Remove the split pin and the castellated nut that holds the linkage to the chassis

Removing the Anti Roll bar from the linkage with 2 sockets

Putting the new one back with plenty of copper grease on the screw in case I ever need to remove it again

And once tightened up as much as you can insert the split pin into the castellated nut as shown below and once pushed right into place bend one side over to lock it in place

Then put the new bushes in place. The ones I had chosen were the blue polyurethane ones in the middle below. To be honest the old ones on the left and the new ones that came with the new linkages both looked OK, but everyone tells me the polyurethane ones will be stiffer and for £8.00 that's a good inexpensive addition that makes sense  

Tightening things up again and then a quick final shot of copper grease to keep things tidy until I get a chance to coat things in something more permanent

 

 So here it is all together. In this view you can see the linkage at the end of the bar and it's attachment to the axle and where it attaches to the rear chassis

And in this slightly wider view you can see the complete anti roll bar running acroos the fuel tank