Nate's Down Under Build

[pfran42]

Here is how Carl from Just Differentials did his (he sells them so I am sure he knows what he is doing):

https://forum.ih8mud.com/jts-parts-...king-shocks-bumpers-s-c-more.html#post6888937

 

[moooooooo]

looks good mate. Once you've done the rear shocks can you do a review covering

• suburban driving
• highway driving
• offroad/dirt track driving

cheers

 

[natharmstrong88]

Rear Shocks are in! I'll get some photos up soon, but I pretty much copied Carl's reservoir positioning, as there really isn't any other option without getting extended reservoir lines.

Moo, I'll review all three of those in one post, once I've done them all. But initially, the urban driving is much more like a street car. Most of the roads here in rocky are terrible, so I feel the bumps a little more at the slower speeds, from stand still to 50 or 60km/h. But cornering is much better, with a lot less body roll.

A full write up on that shortly!

 

[moooooooo]

thanks mate..i havent been to rocky yet, but i assume there's a shopping centre strip there? that's what i meant about "urban/subarban driving".
Basically, does it kill your backbone or not? Given mine is my daily driver.
I'm getting a real job soon i hope so Daz will get it and we'll either do Bilsteins or Fox but i'll also need to talk to Daz about it too.
cheers
peter

 

[pfran42]

Rear Shocks are in! I'll get some photos up soon, but I pretty much copied Carl's reservoir positioning, as there really isn't any other option without getting extended reservoir lines.

Moo, I'll review all three of those in one post, once I've done them all. But initially, the urban driving is much more like a street car. Most of the roads here in rocky are terrible, so I feel the bumps a little more at the slower speeds, from stand still to 50 or 60km/h. But cornering is much better, with a lot less body roll.

A full write up on that shortly!

I spoke to Carl after posting this pic and he informed me that since this picture was taken, he has changed the mounting location of the reservoirs. He now runs them piggyback style on the main shock body. You might want to PM him to see if he has any piggyback adapters.

 

[natharmstrong88]

thanks mate..i havent been to rocky yet, but i assume there's a shopping centre strip there? that's what i meant about "urban/subarban driving".
Basically, does it kill your backbone or not? Given mine is my daily driver.
I'm getting a real job soon i hope so Daz will get it and we'll either do Bilsteins or Fox but i'll also need to talk to Daz about it too.
cheers
peter

It isn't that harsh no. Mine is a daily driver too. Good luck with whatever you decide to go with!

I spoke to Carl after posting this pic and he informed me that since this picture was taken, he has changed the mounting location of the reservoirs. He now runs them piggyback style on the main shock body. You might want to PM him to see if he has any piggyback adapters.

I sorta sat them up against the shock body and it looked like there was too much line hanging down. I'll have to PM him and firstly find out why he moved them, the adapters for mounting the reservoir to the body of the shock are easy enough to find.

 

[natharmstrong88]

Here are the photos of how the Rears are mounted at the moment.






I got under the car yesterday to investigate the cause of a loud rattle underneath the car, and found a different problem, of the silent kind. The driver's side rear shock is leaking oil! Now I'm sure this a one off thing, and is very rare for KING shocks. Sonny at Downsouth has been on the money with after sales support, by sending me a couple of seal kits which should arrive within a week or so, and offereing to pay for someone to do the work.

But I am thinking of undertaking the repair work myself, with the help of a friend who has a bit of experience rebuilding fox shocks.

One of the reasons I'm going down this path is to get pics of the step by step, to post up here, to hopefully help anyone who wants to know.

So more on that when I get to it!

 

[AutoCraft Aus]

If your driving it around with the shafts exposed like that, they will leak all the time, as all the dirt, dust, stones etc mark the shafts and they tear the seals.

You will need boots on the shocks, and we also run mudflpas on the control arms to protect them.

 

[natharmstrong88]

If your driving it around with the shafts exposed like that, they will leak all the time, as all the dirt, dust, stones etc mark the shafts and they tear the seals.

You will need boots on the shocks, and we also run mudflpas on the control arms to protect them.

I had wondered about boots for the shock but couldn't really find anything made by KING or any other manufacturer, what do you use??? I had thought of maybe using a motorbike shockie boot, but haven't really looked into it yet.

While I don't dispute the need for some sort of protection for the shocks, the driver's side rear is the only one to leak, and has done from when it was fitted, so the seal is definitely the culprit here, and not wear and tear from dust etc.

Sonny also said that there could be up to a tablespoon of oil trapped in the second lip of the seal, from when they were built. If this is the case I'm assuming that the leak will be gone either by now, which it isn't, or at most after a week or so. So fingers crossed that's still the case, if not, the seals are on thier way.

Did I mention I found the cause of the rattle.........



The driver's side rear UCA mounting bush on the diff had vanished. I only heard the rattle from Friday last week, so that happened quickly!

I couldn't by a bush on its own from toyota, they tried to sell me a whole arm, and a bush kit was all I could find elsewhere, and that was well over $100. So here is a side by side of the replacement.. the Snake Racing UCA's I had fitted on my old 105

 

[natharmstrong88]

KING 2.5" Remote Reservoir Shocks, Bolt in 100 Series kit, Evaluation.

Urban Driving:
Around town, the change from what I had, TJM shocks in the back and a no name el cheapo brand in the front, to these Kings was noticeable to say the least. The car handles a lot better in the corners. However, a lot of the sealed roads around town here are pretty shocking, so I feel the pot-holes and sharp bumps a lot more. I'll come back to this downfall, and the solution to it if you're thinking of running this kit, or something similar when I get to the offroad evaluation.

Highway Driving:
On the highway, I love it. At the higher speeds the shocks control the car so much better and make for a much firmer, yet smoother ride. With no noticeable downsides in the change from the old shocks.


Offroad Driving:
Now, this is the nitty gritty part. IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON GOING OFFROAD WITH THIS KIT, GET THE COMPRESSION ADJUSTERS!!!! Bearing in mind that I don't have my rear bar on yet, and the car wasn't loaded up at all when I did my test drive last night, the shocks were just too stiff, and unless I was doing over 80km/h, the ride was too rough. I think that once I have the rear bar on, with the spare mounted as well, it won't be quite so harsh. But still, the added advantage that the compression adjusters would give by being able to change how firm or soft the shocks are, is well worth the extra money. The fronts are fine, because I've got the bullbar on with a winch, so I would say that the rears are the only ones that really need it, as the loads carried in the back can vary greatly.

If there is a noticeable difference in the rears after I get the rear bar fitted, I will post up what I find. Hope this helps anyone considering a shock upgrade!


​

 

[TheFuzz]

Not to hijack your build thread too much, but what is the general consensus on the Iron Man shocks over there? I've been hearing good things, and their foam-cell shocks for the 100 look like they would dissipate heat a little better than the OME offerings (not as good as King or any other remote res shock though, obviously). Just curious if you have an opinion on them one way or the other.

 

[AutoCraft Aus]

You can get the boots from King, by ordering the shocks with them, or try Bursons or similar for the right size.

Ironman, not even if they were free.......

 

[natharmstrong88]

Not to hijack your build thread too much, but what is the general consensus on the Iron Man shocks over there? I've been hearing good things, and their foam-cell shocks for the 100 look like they would dissipate heat a little better than the OME offerings (not as good as King or any other remote res shock though, obviously). Just curious if you have an opinion on them one way or the other.

Fuzz, the general feeling about ironman shocks over here are pretty negative I think. This could be for a number of reasons. I haven't ever been in a car with Ironman shocks fitted, so I can't say either way. But I'm going to assume Darren's (Autocraft Aus) statement is based off some sort of testing or experience with them. I think maybe because they aren't widely used or proven, people might tend to presume they aren't as good as other brands such as OME.

You can get the boots from King, by ordering the shocks with them, or try Bursons or similar for the right size.

Ironman, not even if they were free.......

Thanks, I'll look them up! By the way, any word on the rear bar yet? I rang a week ago and the lady I spoke to said that two containers had turned up and one got left behind, and she wasn't sure whether the rear bar was in one of the two that had turned up.

 

[natharmstrong88]

This weekend I got my extreme valve body for wholesale automatic transmissions fitted, and also my Timbren front bump stops.

Let me start by saying this job isn't difficult at all, but you will want half a day and a hoist to do it. The auto in my car is the 5-speed (A750F). I'll do a run through of the fitment, with some pictures, however a fairly decent set of instructions are provided with the kit.

After you drain the oil, and pull the pan off, hold it under the auto to catch any oil that will come out of the filter body. You will want to leave an oil drain tray under the auto the hole time as fluid keeps leaking out as if it will never stop.



A quick before and after filter removal.







After removing the valve body, there is 19 bolts holding it in, I sat it beside the replacement, and began swapping the solenoids over. NOTE - be ready to catch the check valve and spring that will fall out of the auto housing when you pull the valve body out.



There are 4 solenoids held in like these two below,



Once you remove the plate, you need to remove the pin for each solenoid CAREFULLY! I only mention this because I pulled one out by hand and it slipped out and fell into an oil passage in the valve body and took me a while to eventually fish it back out!



Once you've done all that, you need to replace the 3 o-rings that go in the recesses along the bottom auto housing.



Then, get a friend or some assembly jelly to hold the check valve (where the pinky finger is) and one of the accumulators that fell out (index finger) in place while you fit the valve body back in place.

Once it was all fitted back on, with a new filter and pan gasket (supplied with the new valve body) I only had to fill it, now I should've known better, but I just went off the service book which said it takes 3.4 or something liters to fill after a fluid change. So I only bought a 4L tin from Toyota to do the job, of course a lot more than 4L drained from the auto in total, so I had to use the synthetic auto oil we had out on the property. It's dexron 2 so it is fine to use, however I may do a flush and replace it with the Toyota stuff when I buy a bit more.

I havent finished my comparisons between this one and the old one yet, but will have them soon.

 

[tarmacblack]

Nice write up, do they offer a shift kit for the older 4speed?

Do you have a link to their site?

thanks

Found the link to their site, thanks again for the write up

 

[natharmstrong88]

Yeah, you'll see on their site they have a few different options for the 4-speed. Rodney is the fella who runs the place. Here is the site for anyone else interested.

www.automatictransmission.com.au/

 

[natharmstrong88]

The timrens were about the easiest mod to install. You just undo the existing bump stop (they say to replace the rear stop of the two, if there are two on each side) with a big shifter, or stilsens, and screw the new one in with an 8mm Allen key. As you can see, they are bigger, but they compress a fair bit, so you still need to space them down to stop 35's from hitting the guards, as I have since discovered.



As mentioned by Autocraft in an earlier post, 10mm should be sufficient for spacing.

 

[natharmstrong88]

OK! Time for a review on the new valve body, after now using up both main and sub tanks of fuel.

FUEL CONSUMPTION:

I averaged, over both tanks, 18.6 L per 100Km (about 12.6 MPG). That was with just over a quarter of the time on the highway, the rest were around town Km's. Compared to 20L per 100km (about 11.7 MPG) with the old valve body and exactly the same trip and around town driving. So it's a noticeable improvement.

DRIVE FEEL AND QUALITY:

Overall the new valve body is better in every aspect. Whilst driving normally, the shift is not harsh at all, infact you probably wouldn't notice the difference at all, but the gear changes are much more precise and quick. Then when you get on the gas and give it some, it changes quick and hard, like you would expect. The old valve body seemed to really rob a lot of power from the engine in the higher rev range, when you had your foot flat it would rev and not really go anywhere. Now however I can feel the car pulling right up to when it changes gear.

I think there was more than just the valve body swap contributing to these results, as the auto has 250,000km on it and has never had an oil or filter change. So this was an additional factor to the results for sure.

I have a couple of videos that I need to edit yet, but they are of the acceleration comparison between the two valve bodies. So i'll hopefully get those up soon.

 

[tarmacblack]

Good feedback, it looks like westcoastcruisers here in the states carries the valve bodies and transmission upgrades from wholesale automatics. They aren't however very inexpensive.

http://www.westcoastcruisers.com/transfer.php

I look forward to the videos and further updates.

 

[AutoCraft Aus]

All good, bar on its way to your depot.
You should of been emailed a con note No.