Modify Bottom of Struts
I was wondering if anyone has tried modifying the bottom of the strut to increase lift rather than cutting and welding the spring pan.
There are plenty of posts describing modifying the spring pan for lift and there are some describing cutting the strut in the middle and adding an extension.
I was thinking that it wouldn't be any more difficult to modify the bottom of the strut then to do the other 2 options.
There was a thread about making up spacer brackets for the bottom of the strut but that didn't end up working out.
I have attached a rough sketch showing what I was thinking.
The top part of the sketch shows a standard strut against on with the spring pan modified.
The top of the springs and shocks are in the same position and the spring pan is in the same position relative to the top of the shock.
The modified strut is longer giving more lift and has more clearance between the wheel and the spring pan but it also extends the shock by the amount of lift which reduces droop.
The middle of the sketch In blue shows an idea of how to extend the bottom of the shock.
it is simply a piece of pipe the same diameter as the strut and at least the same wall thickness.
The length of the pipe is determined by how much lift you want.
On one end is welded a strip of metal with a hole in it for the bolt on the bottom of the shock to stick through.
The piece of steel for the shock bolt may not be necessary but since the bottom of the strut is being modified, I thought that it couldn't hurt to reinforce where the koni shock bolts to.
The bracket on the bottom strut is to be removed and the extension piece welded on the bottom of the strut with the end with bolt hole against the strut.
The bracket then gets welded onto the bottom of the extension.
A socket and extension bar may be required to tighten the nut on the end of the shock as it will be up inside the extension.
The bottom part of the sketch compares a stock strut against one with the bottom of the strut modified.
The distance between the top of the shock and the shock is the same with both struts, so droop is not affected.
The distance between the spring pan and the wheel is increased by the length of the extension, so larger extensions will allow for larger diameter tyres.
A diff drop will still need to be done with larger lifts due to longer extensions.
I hppe this can be of help to someone, abd if I have overlooked something that makes this not possible, I'm happy to hear it as im no engineer and I just thought this may work.
Matt
Too Complicated
Although my idea of relocating the bottom bracket may work, after thinking about it a bit more it became obvious that i was over thinking it.
The simplest and best way to increase the distance between the spring pan and the bottom of the strut it to move the spring pan.
Then to correct the travel in the shock you just use a spacer, the same length as the spring pan was moved, in the bottom of the strut.
But as Claude IO suggested all this doesn't matter if there isnt a strut insert that fits.
One thing I do know though is that there are strut inserts for 45mm diameter struts.
There may be a set of inserts with the smaller diameter that will fit in the IO's strut.
Matt
Syndicate
strut work
If I understood, you will be removing the lower bracket, extend the bottom of the strut with a piece of tube, then fit the bracket back on again on his new lower section? then use a koni insert.
I was going to do something similar, at least using the koni insert. One of the main problem is while koni have listed a insert for our io, it doesn't fit !! the koni insert is too big for the strut. I know that it has been done in Europe (Greece) but I haven't heard or seen one done here (in Australia), lots of projects about it but no actual real life work done. Maybe the strut are a bit different in Europe?? maybe we have one that would fit in Australia but not sure :(
I recently saw another io, a 1999 with the spring plate lower than mine (2002 model) and the OD of the strut is the same. It doesn't mean that the ID is the same but I couldn't cut his strut to check :) The only way to know if the ID is the same is to find people that have dead strut (replaced) to cut their to check the internal diameter. If someone have such a strut with a suitable ID , I will be very happy to buy them.
This is what I found http://pajerio.com/forum/koni-insert-mcpherson-strut-video#comment-17911
Happy io
My io is now SOLD Thankshttp://pajerio.com/forum/claudes-io-2002-zr-built-thread-onlyhappy-io