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2” Suspension
Lift on a Series B Frontera
Source the
parts
After
deciding to lift my B series Frontera I First
needed to find the parts to do so, the shock
absorbers are straight forward and easy to find
but it was the rear coil springs that I soon found
out were going to be a problem. I E-mailed about
six company’s asking for a price for rear coils
for my Frontera 1999 on +2” and received replies
from all but one saying either cant help me or yes
they can but only +1”. I then started posting
messages on the Frontera Owners Group website for
advice, one particular piece of advice was to fit
Isuzu Trooper 5 door 6/94 on coils to my Frontera
stating it would lift a B series 2”. At the same
time I was surfing the internet I came about a
Forum, and on this site was an Isuzu Rodeo with a
3”suspension lift and a 3” body lift belonging to
an American called Randy Doerfler, so I E-mailed
Randy asking his advice. He told me he had used
Old Man Emu 912 coil springs and they had lifted
his Rodeo +3”, I then contacted a company here
that supply OME springs but was told I was wrong
about the springs I needed OME 913 coils but they
would only give me +1”. I contacted Randy again
and he explained the company was right but the OME
912 coils are for an Isuzu Trooper but to keep
cost down these are what there are fitting in the
States. So now the Trooper coil idea had being
confirmed by someone else, but more importantly I
now have a choice.
·
Old Man Emu 913
+1”
·
Standard Isuzu
Trooper 6/94 on +2”
·
Old Man Emu 912
(Trooper) +3”
I went for
the standard Trooper 6/94 on coils and opted for a
set of ES9000 shocks, +2” for the rear and +1” for
the front, the fronts could of being standard size
as they don’t limit the drop of the front end, I
bought all parts from Explorer Pro Comp and the
Price was £210.10p. When I contacted Explorer and
explained about the Trooper Coils he said he would
check it out and after a couple of hours confirmed
that the Trooper coils had the same footprints of
the Frontera coils and gave me another option,
- Heavy
duty Trooper coils + 40mm, that equates to a
total of +3.5” as the standard coils give +2” if
I am doing my sums right for around £30 more
I decided
against this as the ride would be too hard and the
lift would be too severe for me.
Frontera
Preparation
Three
times a week for two weeks I sprayed WD 40 on all
nuts and bolts that I was going to have to adjust
or remove when it came round to fitting the new
coil springs and shock absorbers, don’t forget the
torsion bar adjusting bolts. I would also advise
you to jet wash the under side of your Frontera
and wheel arches. Also with the vehicle on flat
level ground I went to my local supermarket car
park, measure the height of your vehicle from the
ground to highest part of wheel arch and write the
figures down, this is important as your front
suspension is independent and one side might not
be level with
the other, you will need to know this to work out
how many turns you adjust the torsion bar
adjusting bolts to lift the front end to make sure
it will be level.
Tools Needed
Below is a
list of tools I used.
-
Hydraulic Trolley Jack
- Pair
of Axel Stands
- Wheel
Brace
- Coil
Spring Compressors with tool to adjust
- Angle
Grinder
- Mole
grips
- Hammer
- Large
Screwdriver
- Drill
- 14mm
Drill bit
-
12mm,14mm,17mm,19mm Spanners
-
12mm,14mm, 17mm,19mm Deep Reach Sockets
- 1 and
1/16 inch or 27mm socket
- Ratchet
- Crack
bar or Torque Wrench
- Junior
Hacksaw
- Tape
Measure
Problems
Encountered
Rear shock
removal,
Although
the nut and bolts came out of the shocks bottom
eyelet fixings ok (19mm socket) the top was
another story, there is a flat on each side of the
topmost part of the shock to put a spanner or in
my case mole grips on to stop the shock spinning
as you undo the nut (14mm spanner), because of
corrosion the top sheared off forcing me to cut
the protective sleeve of shock and grinding two
flats onto the rod of the shock so my mole grips
could grip and not spin, a nut splitter is another
option but because of the position of the nut
don’t know if it would be possible.
Rear coil
spring removal/refitting
Although you only have to
remove one coil with compressors as when one is
out the axel will rotate upwards allowing the
removal of the other by hand, the problem is space
its rather tight to fit both compressors and
compress them.
Fitting of
new rear shocks
the only
problems I came across was my shocks came with two
poly bushes for the eyelet (bottom) end one fitted
and one loose and one set of steel sleeves, the
problem I had is the mounting point on the axel
has a 14mm OD (outside diameter) and the sleeves I
had had a 12mm ID (inside diameter) and the second
set of poly bushes that came with the shocks had a
16mm ID. Because it was bank holiday weekend I did
not know where to get the right size sleeves so I
fitted the larger poly bushes and opened the
sleeve up with hammer and screwdriver to 14mm ID
as the sleeves are not welded where the two ends
join. The other problem was when the shocks were
in place was because of the increased thickness of
the heavier duty new shocks they were sitting very
close to the axel so I used the dished washer that
came off the top mount of the old shock and
drilled the hole out to 14mm and with the grinder
ground a flat across the top edge to stop it
fouling the shock in the future if the bush ever
flex and fitted that onto the mounting point first
between the axel and the shock. But now knowing
this I would ask the supplier for both these items
at point of ordering parts stating mounting point
OD (14mm).
Front shock
removal
I had the
same problem as I had with the rears but because
of the easier position of the top mounts on the
front it allowed me to just cut through the
nut/rod with the angle grinder or a nut splitter
would work here if you prefer.
Fitting of
new front shocks
The bottom has the same eyelet
bush set up as the rears but the bolts are the
right size OD so no problem with the steel sleeves
to bolt fit, but I would suggest trying the sleeve
into the mounting bracket to check it fits as mine
had squeezed together slightly, but a few taps
with the hammer realigned the brackets to allow
the sleeve to fit. Also the poly bush looks too
wide to fit in the bracket but it does go in its
just very tight.
Rear
removal/refitting
Firstly
slightly loosen the wheel nuts on both rear wheels
jack the vehicle up and place onto axel stands
then remove wheel nuts and wheels. Remove the bolt
that attaches the rear anti roll bar to the drop
brackets on both sides you will need a 12mm
spanner and socket for this, now remove the nuts
and dished washers from the bottom shock mounts
19mm socket, now remove the nut on the top mount
of the shocks if your lucky a 14mm spanner and a
pair of mole grips if the top flatted area where
you have placed mole grips shears off see problem
encountered write up you can now remove the
shocks. Now put spring compressors onto rear
passenger coil spring and compress once compressed
you can remove the coil, the reason I picked this
one is the exhaust runs close to the driver’s side
one limiting the space for the compressors, you
can now remove the drivers side coil spring by
jacking up passenger side of axel this will cause
driver side of axel to lower allowing removal of
coil without compressors.
Fitting is
the reverse of removal but you have to make sure
the coil springs locate into there mounts
correctly on both top and bottom, the top ones are
rubber and should be fitted to the new coil before
refitting, the mounts are shaped to accommodate
the end of the springs and don’t forget about the
extra dished washer you are fitting to the bottom
shock mounts if needed like mine.
 
Front
removal/refitting
Like the
rear place vehicle on axel stands and remove front
wheels, the top mount of the shock is the same as
the rear 14mm spanner and mole grips, if top
shears see problems encountered write up, now
remove nut and bolt from bottom mounts 17mm
spanner and socket. Refitting is reverse of
removal.
Now for
the torsion bar height adjustment you don’t have
to have the front wheels off but you will need the
car on axel stands to take pressure off the
torsion bars, under the vehicle around about where
the rear of you front doors are is a large cross
member with a large bolt head on each side of the
vehicle, these are the adjusting bolts for the
torsion bars. Rule of thumb is four complete turns
on this bolt equals 1” of increased ride height so
if you want to go up 1.5” that’s six turns, you
will need 1-1/16” or 27mm socket and a crack bar,
torque wrench or ratchet with bar slid over
handle, I used a torque wrench as it is easier
with the ratchet end and I also marked the socket
with a black marker pen to make counting the turns
easier. Adjusting the height by the torsion bars
does adjust the camber setting of your wheels, the
more you adjust the more the camber will go out so
if you go to far your wheels would look like \ /
if looking straight on from front this can be
adjusted back with the use of spacers but I
suggest to get a qualified person who knows and
understands about wheel camber to do this. I
adjusted mine 1.5” and I can tell my steering is
slightly lighter and quicker to respond and my
wheels still look like / \ .
I done
this work to my Frontera alone but It would of
being easier with two people and remember to
double check all nuts and bolts are tight, I
personally think my Frontera,s ride quality and
body roll is much improved but this is a personal
judgment and not a professional
one.
Adjusting the ride
height by the torsion bars does adjust the camber
setting of your wheels, the more you adjust to
increase the ride height, the more your wheel top
will tilt in, this is called “negative
camber”.
This can be adjusted back with the use of spacers
but I suggest getting a qualified person who knows
and understands about wheel camber to do this. I
adjusted mine 1.5” and I can tell my steering is
slightly lighter and quicker to respond.
Suppliers of
parts listed
Old man emu
Standard
trooper springs 6/94> Heavy-duty trooper springs
and ES9000 shocks
-
Explorer pro comp 01925 757588
submitted by george
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