searching for our new suspension.. opinions please

Hey Tim!
You not at Landcruiser this weekend? I forgot you had a Paj so you would have first hand knowledge for us!
The front of the Paj already has the bullbar and there will be a winch going on at some point.
Mark said he was getting two inch higher springs. He is looking at getting Koni shocks, don't know what springs yet and wanted to get new torsion bars with them still being the originals and all. If Paul the mechanic says they are fine he won't bother with getting new ones, but I know he and Dave had their heads under the car the other weekend so maybe he saw something to make him think about getting new ones....not sure, that is his department, I ask the questions because he isn't a typer and leave the rest up to him!!!!!!! and I can learn along the way!
How are you all anyway? Once the new suspension is on we will be ready and willing for a good 4by drive! has been a while!

Cheers
Jo

Hi Jo,

No unfortunately I did not get up to Landcruiser. Between one of our dogs dying during the week and buying a new pup, softball for the girls on Sunday and all that sort of stuff it just didn't work out. I hope one of these weekends is going to work out for us again soon as I am having major 4wd withdrawal sysmptoms.

Koni shocks are good too and have a pretty good name for working well on the Pajero. I think it would be unusual for the torsion bars to go in a car that is not all that old unless they are carrying a lot more weight than standard so I would probably avoid replacing them until you put the weight on. They act similarly to a coil spring as they both work with a twisting motion but they are actually a much more solid piece of metal and should not fatigue as quickly as a coil can.

I've just remembered that the other thing that needed to be done to mine when the torsion bars were wound up was some shims and longer bolts to get the wheel alignment right. In fact this didn't get done till quite a while afterwards and probably caused a bit of extra wear. I also found out when I had a look underneath some time afterwards that they had cut the wrong bumpstops and the downward travel was restricted by that.

See you both some time soon I hope :).

Tim.

Tim I am so sorry to ear about your dog dying... I love my animals to bits and was devastated even when one of them went missing for a week.
We are the same with the withdrawels! the last time we did any 4bying was the last Imbil gathering, since then with the suspension shot we have not done anything other than normal necessary driving... fishing has taken place instead. but once the suspension is done...... fun times again!
I will remember your points when we take the car in. Mark did say that he would get Paul the mechanic to really check whether the torsion bars needed replacing or not. Like I said I know he and Dave had their heads under the car so whether they noticed something, or whether Mark was just thinking if I am getting everything else done then I will just get the torsion bars done as well while the money is there... I don't know... that is is department.
I did buy him one of those gregorys pajero manuals. He has learned a lot about the car from that, he and Dave last night had the book out and with their own knowledge I would go downstairs and find the car missing a wheel and bits nad pieces on the ground, I would just turn around and walk back up the stairs!! then I wold come down a bit later and find another wheel off the car etc etc.. I don't want to know !!!!! But seriously they both learned a lot out of that book already, Dave bought himself a 100 series cruiser a few months ago (his first 4by) he too got the gregorys book so both Mark and Dave want to have the knowledge of knowing the cars completely themselves, not always leaving everything up to a mechanic or whoever that will just tell you what they want to.
But I do know what they did to the pajero last night alone saved $500 odd bucks that a mechanic would have charged! so that has got to be a good thing!!!!!
So hopefully we'll see you on a track real soon!!!!!!

Cheers
Jo

Hey MrBitchi! I am glad you replied, have been wanting to catch up with you since you only live 15 minutes away from us!

We are definate on Koni shocks and were leaning towards King springs.
Price wise I am not overly fussed how much we pay, so long as we are getting good suspension the price isn't a real bother to me. But obviously what and where we can save just leaves more play money to buy some other toys! (roof racks.. basket..spotties...)
Cheers for replying hey, I will mm you about getting in contact.

Cheers
Jo

cheers Stan, will check it out also!

jo