Rear Suspension Upgrade

[Lee]

beautifully done bruce. please continue to post info and pics as you make progress and test it out on the trail.

[BruceTS]

ACOS is designed for coil sprung jeeps, makes it easy to adjust ride height. The actual spring is an Ebach 150# 8", the top hat between the 2 springs I fabricated. When the inner spring compresses, the inner bumpstop touches the bottom of the hat assy. Without the Bilstein shock attached, ride height is at the same height, but shock attached it lifted 1/2", which is ok since I was about a 1/2" low in the back. The outer spring is an OME 891, which I've been running and like. I will eventually build another bumpstop which will attach at the axle end, that or run air bumps.

As for the rear links, I have a Spider Trax "Bathke" lowers. The stock uppers, they need to be replaced before I fully articulate the suspension. I'll make them up in a few weeks.

[locked up]

Awesome Bruce, One last question... Are your lower Links longer than stock, and if you extend either your uppers or lowers, doesn't that push the axle back toward the rear fender and like someone mentioned earlier, might have to extend the driveshaft... or add a spacer at the end of the pinion flange... And like you mentioned eariler and I agree, the driveshaft swings in the same arc as the lower link movement allows... I have thought long and hard about the application (for my 02')of trying to come up with a plan to achieve greater articulation in the rear besides using a rear leaf spring set up but you could have a winner here!

[mastacox]

That's looking very cool!

I'm curious, are you going to retain the panhard bar, or are you going to end up trying a triangulated 4-link up top? It seems that with "extreme" articulation that panhard will just mess things up...

For project Baja-Runner, I haven't decided whether to go 4-link or 3-link for the rear, but one thing's for sure the panhard's going to have to go.

[BruceTS]

The lower links are of stock length, you can't extend them without having problems with the top link brackets hitting the crossbar on the frame.

For now the panhard bar stays, in the future, the plan is to relocate the fuel tank and go to a double triangluated 4-link. The reason, it's safer on the street, if one link fails the suspension won't be as affected. The ultimate goal is to get everything above the frame rails, so nothing can get hung up on the rocks. If the rear suspension performs well, I may just suspend any further major modifications and proceed with my new project vehicle for the extreme stuff and keep the 4Runner for the high speed and expedition ventures.

With the rubber in the joints, the panhard will allow some distortion, but the stock upper links can't twist as far, so they need to be changed. At one point I thought of removing the panhard and installing a cross linked designed upper system, but the stock mounts are too weak to handle the additional loading. With the 5-link you can't change out all the joints to heims or you will have some serious binding. That's why it'll probably be a few weeks before I make my new links. I'm tossing around the idea of using johnny joints, but if they won't fit between the stock mounts, then I just might redo the whole upper link system.

[Jerm]

wow looks good, I cant wait to see this done. I hope I can do cool stuff like this someday.

[Intrepidyota]

I didn't see it already mentioned so...I know you wanted a longer shock, but is creating a rock anchor hanging that low under the axle really a good idea?

[BruceTS]

It would be a rock anchor, if I didn't run a wheel...... actually the lower links drag against the rocks more. I do expect to scrape it against those occasional surfaces, but it won't hang it up.

BTW the lower shock pivot point is 1" higher than the stock location....

[Cheese]

BTW the lower shock piviot point is 1" higher than the stock location....

What? Not sure I follow that.

[BruceTS]

The shaft where the stock shock used to attach to is located 1" below the new pivot location. The difference is I extended it out a bit further so there is clearance for the shock body at full compression. I didn't bother to cut the shaft off, so I wrapped the bracket under it. If I had cut the shaft off I could have made it smaller.

ok I photochopped a picture together for comparison
[img width=800 height=488]http://bruce.calrockx.com/4runner/rear/DSC05987.jpg[/img]