Urgent Help needed-Front Diff Drop

[BritVX]

I'm right in the middle of doing a suspension lift and have come to fit the new plates for lowering the front diff but I'm having difficulty removing my half shafts.

Can anyone help with instruction

Col

[SPAZZ]

you must remove the hubs, then the snap ring, then the front axle shaft from the front by the diff and the rear by the t-case. don't just try to remove the frpnt by the diff because you will find out you will have to remove it all and waste your time by not just undoing it in the front place. it is easier to loosen the two vertical front axle mounts to give a little play. then undo the four bolts on each side retaing cv's to inner axle part and yes a snap ring also. if you undo the lower ball joint, tie rods, and steering linkage you can jack the upper control arm up after the lower control arm has dropped..you must manover the lower undone balljoint over the lower control arm...be patient and put some M.A.N into it and slowly and VERY carefully as nott o damage cv boots, ball joint boots or axle bearings .....have someone turn the steering back and forth to find the right passgae for it to drop...you might have to VERY SLIGHTLY jack up on the steering linkage. and it should slip out...I found it way easier to undo the passenger side shock and then you can actually remove the short shaft through the side in the opening. A real pain...just remember what you undid and how to do it back...don't turn tierods or your alignment will be out of wack...just undo them and do them back the way you undid them.

[BritVX]

Thanks very much for the reply.
I couldn't work out what was holding the shafts in. I stopped working on fitting the drop plates and went on to doing the ball joint flips and torsion bar adjustment. I'll have to leave the plates a couple of weeks until I have my new garage with more room. My overall lift is 3" and it looks really good with 265/75/R16 BFGMT's, I wanted to go wider on the tyres but couldn't get cheap steel rims to suit and can't afford $500 each for 10" wide alloys. I'll take things easy off road untill I can drop the diff.
I'm just happy to have the only lifted VX in England.
BTW
Did you fit urathane cups and if so how the h*ll did you get them in? I dropped the back axle by undoing the shocks but I still didn't have enough room for the cups and new springs I guess i have to drop everything down?

Thanks again

Col

[SPAZZ]

if you only lift your VX 3 inches ...then you do not have to be very careful offroad...just do not abuse the front end...just look at my photo gallery and you can see all the stuff I have done, and that is with a 3 inch lift and only 32x11x17 inch super swampers. if you ahve the 18 inch rims you can put up to 12.5 inch wide tires...no problem.

I just went with 305 70 17 inch GoodYear Wrangler MTR's...quite expensive they are, but that is the equal of like 33x12.5 and I love the extra lift and more stability from the width and they feel great so far. But, I had to crank the t bars up another inch and a half to get em to fit. now, I have to be careful offroading. I need hi angle drivelines to replace cv's...then it should be stronger. Although, unless you have a locker...I have not heard of anyone thrashing the front axle or cv's very easily. You can do some awesome things over rockpiles and boulder fields, just disnonnect one side of the front and rear swaybar links before you go offroading...allowing your swaybars to remain stiff for the streets and giving you WAY more articulation especially in the front which has like none unless you do this. But, onle one side...the other side holds swaybar in place. Very bad if you undo both sides, unless you have the swaybar pushed up and wired in place by something else.

[BritVX]

Again thanks for the help.

I decided to raise my VX after viewing your gallery. There's not a lot in this country that's as radical as some of the stuff your doing but once I have my winch I'll being trying my luck at some of the more severe stuff I've seen.
I'm really pleased with my lift and think the VX looks better proportioned for it.

Col

[Maugan_VX]

as the Isuzu guru Joe D once told me, if you have your tbars cranked and value your CVs then while they are cranked, take care not to bounce at speed with them.

Bad things happen when you start bouncing with high-angle CV's.