So it seems I ordered a 1.5" body lift kit from Milner in UK. It came with 10x body blocks/bolts and 1x steering spacer/bolts.
First step was to loosen all the body block bolts. The first pair are in front, hidden by my bull bar:
There's 3 pairs below the 1st and 2nd row seats:
And 1 pair in the rear (oh, and that's the rear air con unit for those how don't have one):
I disconnected the battery, steering shaft, and rear bumper, then started lifting. It's amazing how high you have to lift the body before it starts parting from the chassis. Probably 2" just for suspension expansion, then another 1.5" for the lift.
Fast forward, here's the steering spacer:
And the installed body blocks:
^ Note the rear bumper is connected to BOTH the chassis and body. I disconnected the chassis bolts, and temporarily zip tied it in it's new location.
Whilst lifting the body, in the engine bay it has the effect of lowering the engine. There's a few issues here which I'll explain at a later date:
In the rear wheel arch, we can clearly see the gap between chassis and body:
Which would make changing rear shocks an absolute breeze compared to normal!
I found the steering was very stiff after the lift. Readjustment improved it, but it still wasn't quite right, and some clicking sound was evident. I eventually tracked it down to a flaw in the steering block design. The original unit has rubber which is meant to flex in both up and downward directions, whilst the new spacer block actually prevents downward movement.
Someone asked about the steering spacer, to which I replied:
The Milners spacer has two issues which obstruct the rubber from moving;
The missing curves on the spacer, which takes some work to correct. Try to keep the mod curved to maintain strength. After cut grinding and coarse grinding, I used a flap disk to finish it off.
The large holes are not deep enough to allow that steel rod/bolt (on the rubber piece) to move in. I lacked big enough tools to drill the hole out, so I ended up shortening the steel rod.
Yesterday, raised the bull bar by modifying the brackets. Photos then show before/after - note the gap between body and bar is gone.
Before & after the bull bar gap has been corrected. Also changed from 265/75R16 32" tyres to 255/85R16 33" (skinny 33s).
Someone asked why not leave the bull bar with the gap, I replied:
As for the bar, it's a difficult decision. For looks I'd rather lift it, but for safety and strength, I'd rather leave it. Engineer says ask ARB. ARB says lift it to prevent the round bar obstructing the lights. ARB also says; don't install a winch because of the increased leaverage. sigh
And a new radiator went in with modified radiator brackets, to lower it 1.5" inch in line with the engine driven fan. Sorry, no bracket photos..
Now the body/cargo bump stop. Due to space constraints an extension or drop bracket was either too weak or difficult to make. The engineer wanted something strong, so we ended up with this:
The design looks more complex than necessary, because of RTA's rules for chassis welding.
Rear bumper. It's primarily connected to the body, but there's a couple nuts underneath which connect to the chassis via a bracket (impact bar?). I had to raise this bracket, but with limited time in the workshop it's probably not quite as strong as the original. Not too worried though, anything that hits me that high wouldn't be stopped by an impact bar anyway.
After the body lift, the positive harness couldn't quite make the battery terminal. Stretching it out and unhooking some brackets helped, but something had to be changed to solve this properly. First thought is to extend the cable, but a soldered or clamped extension is a bit dodgy and won't last long term.
My local auto electrician advised the best options were 1) rebuild harness (labour intensive, expensive) or 2) relocate the positive terminal (cheap)... hmm, #2:
Seems a bit over the top but it makes connecting accessories easier
(oh yes the battery terminal is missing it's plastic cover, but it'll return soon)
Someone asked about the cargo bump stop. I replied:
Body bump stops: Get a friend to climb into the cargo area and jump around. You'll notice the bump stop move up/down a little. Now imagine having 500kg of gear in the back, doing 60-100km and going over bumps (we get some nasty corrugations in Aus). The body is meant to move up and down by about +-6mm, not +-30mm, so without this mod you could fracture the body.
I was expecting to have issues fitting this as the 90s Prado (auto) has two speed sensors, one on the rear of the transfer, and one in the auto box. At an attempt to find one sensor to connect it to, I unplugged and tested each sensor one at a time. Without the transfer = no speedo. Without the auto box = no gear changes. So I proceeded to hook it up to the transfer sensor temporarily, and take it for a test run. Took it on the M4 through those 2k speed check signs and it worked beautifully (set to 1.07%).
Tyre comparison:
BFG MT TA KM2 255/85R16 versus Mickey Thompson MTZ 265/75R16 (with about 20,000 km use)
On the rear, not bolted on tight, but enough to see that it fits. I had to use my existing ~18mm spacer to keep it away from the plastics and wiper. Later, I found a 5mm spacer was enough.
Only issue found is when opening the tailgate all the way. The tyre pushes against the rear lights (upper ones). If the tailgate is opened quickly it could break the light plastics. EDIT: over the years I've never found this to be an issue, I'd be more concerned about breaking the actual hinges and sliding bar when letting the door open to hard.
Tight fit below:
Comments
Front diff issues and diff drop
August 2011
Ever since the front diff repair I've had knocking in the front, I finally located the source to be missing diff mount stoppers:
Due to them being missing for a while, the diff movement has broken the rubbers which are fixed into the mounting arms.
I have mechanics to thank for the missing stoppers and broken rubbers. They have agreed to pay for the stoppers, have yet to ask them about the arms.
One of the new upper diff stoppers:
Original with missing stopper:
New stopper installed and while I'm at it, a 1" diff drop:
Testing the locker
August 2011
Back to where I blew the front diff, to try again with front locker.
Original attempt, open diffs - jump to 5 minutes!
New attempt, with front locker:
Bodylift
September 2011
So it seems I ordered a 1.5" body lift kit from Milner in UK. It came with 10x body blocks/bolts and 1x steering spacer/bolts.
First step was to loosen all the body block bolts. The first pair are in front, hidden by my bull bar:
There's 3 pairs below the 1st and 2nd row seats:
And 1 pair in the rear (oh, and that's the rear air con unit for those how don't have one):
I disconnected the battery, steering shaft, and rear bumper, then started lifting. It's amazing how high you have to lift the body before it starts parting from the chassis. Probably 2" just for suspension expansion, then another 1.5" for the lift.
Fast forward, here's the steering spacer:
And the installed body blocks:
^ Note the rear bumper is connected to BOTH the chassis and body. I disconnected the chassis bolts, and temporarily zip tied it in it's new location.
Whilst lifting the body, in the engine bay it has the effect of lowering the engine. There's a few issues here which I'll explain at a later date:
In the rear wheel arch, we can clearly see the gap between chassis and body:
Which would make changing rear shocks an absolute breeze compared to normal!
Bodylift issues
September 2011
I found the steering was very stiff after the lift. Readjustment improved it, but it still wasn't quite right, and some clicking sound was evident. I eventually tracked it down to a flaw in the steering block design. The original unit has rubber which is meant to flex in both up and downward directions, whilst the new spacer block actually prevents downward movement.
Movement restricted:
Some good old grinding will fix that!!
Remaining bits to correct:
Someone asked about the steering spacer, to which I replied:
Bodylift - additional mods
September 2011
Some updates on the body lift customisations:
Yesterday, raised the bull bar by modifying the brackets. Photos then show before/after - note the gap between body and bar is gone.
Before & after the bull bar gap has been corrected. Also changed from 265/75R16 32" tyres to 255/85R16 33" (skinny 33s).
Someone asked why not leave the bull bar with the gap, I replied:
And a new radiator went in with modified radiator brackets, to lower it 1.5" inch in line with the engine driven fan. Sorry, no bracket photos..
Now the body/cargo bump stop. Due to space constraints an extension or drop bracket was either too weak or difficult to make. The engineer wanted something strong, so we ended up with this:
The design looks more complex than necessary, because of RTA's rules for chassis welding.
Rear bumper. It's primarily connected to the body, but there's a couple nuts underneath which connect to the chassis via a bracket (impact bar?). I had to raise this bracket, but with limited time in the workshop it's probably not quite as strong as the original. Not too worried though, anything that hits me that high wouldn't be stopped by an impact bar anyway.
After the body lift, the positive harness couldn't quite make the battery terminal. Stretching it out and unhooking some brackets helped, but something had to be changed to solve this properly. First thought is to extend the cable, but a soldered or clamped extension is a bit dodgy and won't last long term.
My local auto electrician advised the best options were 1) rebuild harness (labour intensive, expensive) or 2) relocate the positive terminal (cheap)... hmm, #2:
Seems a bit over the top but it makes connecting accessories easier
(oh yes the battery terminal is missing it's plastic cover, but it'll return soon)
Someone asked about the cargo bump stop. I replied:
Speedo Correction
September 2011
Speedo correction courtesy of Marks 4WD adapters:
I was expecting to have issues fitting this as the 90s Prado (auto) has two speed sensors, one on the rear of the transfer, and one in the auto box. At an attempt to find one sensor to connect it to, I unplugged and tested each sensor one at a time. Without the transfer = no speedo. Without the auto box = no gear changes. So I proceeded to hook it up to the transfer sensor temporarily, and take it for a test run. Took it on the M4 through those 2k speed check signs and it worked beautifully (set to 1.07%).
New Tyres, skinny 33" 255/85R16
September 2011
Tyre comparison:
BFG MT TA KM2 255/85R16 versus Mickey Thompson MTZ 265/75R16 (with about 20,000 km use)
On the rear, not bolted on tight, but enough to see that it fits. I had to use my existing ~18mm spacer to keep it away from the plastics and wiper. Later, I found a 5mm spacer was enough.
Only issue found is when opening the tailgate all the way. The tyre pushes against the rear lights (upper ones). If the tailgate is opened quickly it could break the light plastics. EDIT: over the years I've never found this to be an issue, I'd be more concerned about breaking the actual hinges and sliding bar when letting the door open to hard.
Tight fit below:
Tyre Clearances (with stock wheels)
September 2011
Now to test clearances with the new tyres. They are BFG KM2 255/85R16 on original +15 rims.
With the 1.5" bodylift there's no rubbing - just - without modifications to flares and mud flaps.
Test case: to load the front as much as possible, I reversed up my cousins MX jump ramp.
First, the passenger side:
Passenger-rear, compressed, it might look like rubbing but it definitely doesn't:
Same tyre, looking up inside the wheel well to where my old setup did rub (265/75R16 without body lift):
Next, driver side:
Front driver side, under significant compression and wheels turned to find the tightest location:
Same tyre, it's 1mm from the front mud flap, damn close!
Same tyre, looking up from underneath:
I now want wider offset rims (-0 to -13), but it'll definitely rub, so wheel arch mods are on cards.