I had a crazy idea about building my own strut assemblies. I have some concept drawings below. The idea is to fit an off-road shock inside of a tube and to find a spring that is better suited for the application.

 

 

 

Craig, most excellent idea

You must have some idea how to

correct for the camber change

Care to show it to?

I have not looked into the camber situation yet. My main intent is to build these instead of using spacer blocks when doing a body lift. Remember I'm just doing some concept stuff it maybe a year or more before any building happens.

Originally posted by GLCraigGT

I have not looked into the camber situation yet. My main intent is to build these instead of using spacer blocks when doing a body lift. Remember I'm just doing some concept stuff it maybe a year or more before any building happens.

 

As a though.

A Imprezza strut works in an XT6, XT6 5 lug swap works but theres a limited supply of donor cars, basic lift is at least three inches. Socket in an ea82 knuckle is 2.5"-3" deep. So Maybe instead of building a whole strut or a cumbersome plate we could just make a short tube with an extension out the top similar to the top of a leg/imp/XT6 knuckle. This would just be putting the spacer on the bottom but now you'd be able to use camber adjustable struts and you can order all kinds of set-ups from the rally people. Of course this does nothing for the issue of wheel travel but the biggest limit there is still the half-shaft so this would be good for the average lifted car but maybe not for the Rubicon machines.

How about building tubular upper strut mounts (or arches or whatever they're called.) I mean like forget the unibody strut towers all together and instead come off the crossmember or fabricated subframe if you have one or even extend the cage right through the firewall and forward to the bumper/core support.

How about these homebrewed units on the AirZuki? http://www.bc4x4.com/fv/2000/ben/ben-8.jpg I like that guys done with his rig...airbags on hinges, cool. http://www.bc4x4.com/fv/2000/ben/ben.cfm

Hi, the coil over idea looks remarkably like the shock set up on my Tamiya Hotshot. It seems to work the same way. I agree with the camber aproach mentioned above, this could be the start of a new/old way to lift things. Bradd

I too have been considering alternative methods of front-end lift, and camber adjustment. Considered the above mentioned idea of an adapter on the upper knuckle/strut mount, but haven't played out the camber adjustment part yet. Also considered building a tubular upper control arm to replace the strut itself, which would be mounted to a cross-shaft at the "frame area" where the lift blocks mount for the engine cross member. Could even be part of the lift-blocks themselves. This would allow for caster and camber adjustment both, by using shims at the attaching point of the cross-shaft for the upper arm. Coil-over shocks would be mounted above the upper control arm in place of the strut, using a sort of adapter at the upper strut mounting point, to attach the upper end of the shocks. Some of the older Fords were set-up this way, with the spring and shock on the upper control arm. Haven't worked out which knuckle style to use yet. Thinking that there may be a Ball-joint that would fit the recess for the strut of the knuckle type on the BRATs. Or, fab a ball-joint mount to attach to the adjustable type knuckles. Either would work, just which would be easier/better is the question here. Just more thoughts on the subject..............

I think PK Davis or BYB555 would be the people to ask about how to fix the camber issue. Shoot them an email and see what they say.

It seems like with more travel up front (I think that's the point), you would need axles that can take the greater angles for when it is fully compressed. Someone mentioned porche cv axles, or maybe cryogenic treatment like on that other post would solve the problem. The greater angles produce more heat right, so if the axles are tempered, or just stronger to begin with, (like the porche cv) then you could take off the sway bar and put nice and squishy struts on without going through axles . Seems like a great idea for the guys with the rigs that went to Rubicon and such. More articulation would be very cool to see on those old subys.

Nathan:headbang: