by dasnoboarder » Sat Jan 23, 2010 3:00 pm
All you need for a suspension lift is either raised leaf springs or extended shackles, and shocks.
Extended shackles are not legal in some parts of AUS.
In the Calmini kit:
The control arms are longer than standard, the same thing can be acheived with the standard arms with a ball joint flip (can also add a spacer if required).
Adding a leaf to your factory spring pack will lift it, but will make the ride much stiffer. The factory spring pack would have sagged hugely (just replaced mine with 2" lift springs, got about 4").
When cranking up the torsion bars to the right ride height, they also get stiffer. Because of this, you should only use the factory ones, any uprated ones will break your back. I lifted mine 2" and removed the sway bar, handling on corners is stiffer than standard, that's how much it changes.
The standard shocks are ok for up to 2" lift. It's easy to find extended ones for the rear, the front shocks don't need extending because of the design of the IFS
If putting in new leaf springs, new u-bolts and bushes are a good idea.
After cranking torsion bars and flipping the ball joint, a wheel alignment is needed.
Take a look at my 'member's rigs' thread to see what I've done recently,
Cheers,
Andy.