Group Buy L400 lift kit

[Big-Bird]

I have been in contact with a UK fabricator that makes aluminum spacer plates for the L400 suspension. He offers 25 and 50mm kits.

To get the shipping cost down I was thinking a group buy might work.

The ball joint spacer kit is 2 - 25mm plates at 30.00£
The coil spacer kit comes with 2 coil plates, 2 rear sway bar spacers and one brake distribution block spacer.
These come in 25 and 50 mm thicknesses and these are 48.00£ and 72.00£ respectively.

Now a standard Royal Mail is 15.00£ and he can pack 10- sets of the ball joint spacer plates.
Presume he can pack about half that many of the coil kits.

I can PM the link if you want to see this stuff yourself but in the interest of keeping this site fair I won't post it here.

[403delica]

You already know I'm in... If I can afford it :)

[Manitoba deli]

Personally I would recommend skipping the ball joint spacers, unless you live where there are no pot holes or wash board roads. Even the 25mm ones will crack the upper control arms. Up to 2 inches of lift can be obtained on the front by replacing the bump stops for the upper control arms with low profile ones available at any speed shop. They are at least half the price of the spacers you are looking at, and give you the added bonus of actual increased travel in the front suspension, while keeping all the geometry stock. I had posted a picture of these bump stops in another thread some where here, but can't remember whose thread it was. I usually get them from Energy Suspension, or Atomic Energy, and I think they are about $12 each. Usually no shipping unless you want them the next day. Anyways just my thoughts, I'm tired of replacing cracked control arms for people with ball joint spacers. I'd rather see you do things right and save a few dollars at the same time.

Jason

[Big-Bird]

Cracked arms huh? And this happens due to what? And yes I genuinely want to know what you have seen Jason.

Thats a problem that needs discussing.

[Manitoba deli]

When your wheels are being hammered up and down from pot holes or wash boards, the upper balljoint spacer gives the wheel added leverage pushing side ways on the ball joint, rather than straight up. Since the control arms were not meant to take stress this way they crack out around the mounting holes for the ball joints. I've got some cracked ones here I can post pictures of (from both l300 and l400's), but you'll have to wait a bit, I'm getting a knee replaced tomorrow and wont be home for a few days. If your plans are for pavement driving and you can avoid pot holes (or maybe you guys don't have them) then your fine with the spacers. The spacers also change the angle (camber) of the wheel through out its travel. I'll check back on this later. If I can fall asleep in the next 10 minutes, I can still get 6 hours of sleep before I have to drive for 3 1/2 hours to Winnipeg.

Jason

[Big-Bird]

Found the pics of the broken A-Arm.

http://www.delica.ca/forum/l400-upper-a ... ontrol+arm

[403delica]

by removing the bump stops are we not effectively just increasing suspension travel? how would we accommodate bigger tires?

Thanks for the ball joint tip jason!

[Manitoba deli]

Replacing, not removing, the upper bump stop does infact increase your travel, but it allows you to crank up the torsion bar, therefore raising the front end and allowing for larger tires. I have a picture of the low profile bump stop on my phone, just have to figure out how to attach it. This method of lifting the front requires longer shocks, and rerouting the brake hose if you go with the full adjustment, which gives you over 2" (50mm) However, you can just raise it 1" (25mm) if that's all you want

Jason

[403delica]

Jason you are a smart man! I like that