Vehicle & Technical > Defender

Suspension question

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Jimbo:
My 110 has the factory-fitted 'heavy duty' option (vented front discs, twin rear coils etc).

Now, I noticed yesterday that when sitting on level ground, the rear shock top bushes seem to be being compressed upwards - it's as if the springs are pushing the chassis away from the axle, and the shocks are not long enough to cope. But, if I push upwards on the roof (rock the body), there's plenty more suspension travel, and the shocks extend ok.

So, are the bushes knacked ? (trucks done 12k miles), are the shocks knacked - or are both on the way out ?

In it's previous life, the 110 was a Leccy board vehicle and was fairly heavily loaded all the time - it now sits unloaded most of the time.

Budgie:
As the bushes are the cheapest things to change and least effort then I'd start there TBH.  :wink:
It could be that the rubber has gone soft, if you try & rotate the top of the shocker, is there any movement in the bush?

Jimbo:
There's not much movement on the top bush, but the bottom end of the shock can be rotated - is this normal ?

Whilst having a look, I noticed that the rear radius arm front bush seems to have a similar problem - it looks like the vehicle has been heavily loaded (I suspect it was) for a long time, and the bush has been compressed and once the weight was removed the bush retained the compressed shape. It's a bit hard to describe, and I don't have a digital camera...............so here go's in words:

Looking at the rear offside radius arm front bush from the offside of the truck, there is a gap at the top of the bush facing the radius arm - in other words, it appears that the axle end of the radius arm is now sitting lower (or the chassis is sitting higher), which does seem to tie in with the weight issue I mentioned earlier.

Do I need to think about new bushes all round ?

Budgie:
Yes, you can sometimes rotate the bottom section of a shocker, I don't think that's anything to worry about.

It maybe worth a new set of bushes, at least the rears.
If the vehicle is now mostly unloaded and you don't really need the H/D rear springs then you could also go back to the standard ones. This may reduce the height of the rear end and give a you a better ride.  :wink:

Jimbo:
Going back to standard rear springs had crossed my mind - is it just a case of changing the springs, or is anything else involved - as the ride is quite hard, and the rear has a tendency to bounce around a bit.

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