Axle shims - making & measuring

[Jordi]

Looking to move my front axle forward but im fairly sure it will kill the diff angle.

How do i measure up accurately for correction shims?
How will it effect the steering geometry
Is it an easy job?

Had a quick search and found a few on the internet but no DIY write ups, anyone got any links?

Cheers

[Jordi]

Or.......

How do i know if a small lift shackle (+10/15mm) would correct it?

[turbo-tom]

any good?

http://forum.suzukiclubuk.co.uk/vi ... 2&start=10

cant find much more to be honest bit of a "grey" area!

[Jordi]

Not much use Tom i'm afraid.

My angle already looks a bit iffy but now the springs have been on a few months they've settled a bit so it's not as bad as it was.

I think with the 33s moving it forward would be quite a benefit.

I've seen some pretty dodgy examples and would like mine to last more than a bounce off a curb.

[ScottieJ]

Don't worry about it all it will do is add a little bit more caster, sometimes tits good to run a bit more with large tyres as it helps them self centre, I run more caster than the stock +3.5degrees only downside of running a lot of positive caster is a slower steering response (but is that a bad thing with big tyres?) and a bit more camber change during steering from what I've noticed with mine, I do run a bit too much though now though. On my old axle I moved the perches to keep the caster correct with my YJ set up (still ran a bit more than stock though) but the new front axle has stock angle perches giving me more caster so I'm going to change my front set up slightly to reduce the camber to about 4-4.5 degrees, either by running longer shackles or making some new chassis extensions with lower shackle mount.

Best way to check is measure the diff flange angle on the face on level ground, it should be 10 degrees from vertical tilting up towards the Tbox slightly.

I would measure the caster now, then move the axle and measure the change, if its only a degree or so I wouldn't worry, if its more than you want then a simple bit of trigonometry can be done to work out how much longer to make the shackle to move the caster back to stock, it won't need to be much longer than stock.

[Jordi]

Think i'm gonna need pictures / diagrams on this one.

[ScottieJ]

Think i'm gonna need pictures / diagrams on this one.

ill sort you out, basically I'd just do it and not worry too much though!

[Jordi]

Ha ha, sounds like a plan till i start destroying prop shafts.

[turbo-tom]

Atleast someone knows what there doing!

[Jordi]

Yeah, what we do without Scottie?

Cos' when it comes to anything too technical i am