By MA on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 06:14 pm: Edit

4 Rovertym 2" springs, 2 front Rancho RS9027 shocks, 2 rear OME Nitro charger shocks, and a OME front castor correction.
I am looking for something in-between a Rovertym and a OME lift for less then $700. Will I have to do anything else to make this work?

By CH on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 07:18 pm: Edit

OME castor kits are for manual trannys only. watch your brake and abs lines. If larger tires are also coming, consider an OME steering dampner as well.

By Gil Stevens (Gil) on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 07:52 pm: Edit

..why is the Castor kit only for manual trannys? Ive never heard that before......

By Blue Gill (Bluegill) on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 07:55 pm: Edit

castor kit is just wacko bushings on radius arms - has nothing to do with tranny!

By Mike B. on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 09:31 pm: Edit

I have the same setup you propose in front. It will work if you keep your front anti-sway bar connected. Are these the regular OME shocks? If so, they have about 1/4" less travel than stock so you will not have any problems in the rear.

Since you are adding 2" in height and not increasing the length of the shocks, you will loose 2" of down travel. It sounds bad, but a friend of mine has a similar setup to yours (uses stock shocks instead) and we could not find any conditions where that setup was worse than stock.

LoL,
Mike B.

By Mike B. on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 09:33 pm: Edit

After thinking on this one for awhile, I might suggest that you use the same shocks (OME or Rancho) all the way around. The valving between the Rancho and the OME is really different. You might get some really funky handling out of this setup. I'm no expert, but my seat of the pants tells me that the OME lets the small stuff go and tries to absorb the bigger impacts. The Ranchos tend to react to everything and puts more dampning on the up travel versus the down travel. If anyone knows more about this than my unscientific 'seat of the pants stuff', please jump in!

If cost is your main objective, you can put on the RoverTym 2" springs and keep everything else the same. You can replace the shocks at a later date when funds permit. We've done it on a 96 Disco will no side effects. In fact, it is a pretty nice setup (ride wise).

LoL,
Mike B.

By CH on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 09:34 pm: Edit

Gil-I know it has nothing to do with the tranny, but someone has not been reading their OME catalog. User notes specifically say that castor correction kits are for manual tranny equiped vehicles. look it up

By Mike B. on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 09:39 pm: Edit

While I am on the saving money subject, you might be able to hold off on the Castor Correction Kit. Wait until you get everything mounted up to see if you actually need castor correction. Some do, some don't.

How do you know if you need a Castor Correction Kit? If you don't have vibrations now and you have vibrations after the lift, remove your front drive shaft. If the vibrations go away, then you need to do something to eliminate/lessen the vibrations. Castor Correction is one way to eliminate the vibrations.

Also, after you put on the springs, you should get your front-end re-aligned. I hope that was in your original budget otherwise I'm not saving you any money!

LoL,
Mike B.

By Troy on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 10:30 pm: Edit

Correcting castor on a lifted vehicle may or may not eliminate vibrations. If the lift is tall and you don't do anything with the driveshafts (ie - cv jointed driveshafts, etc), correcting the castor may, in fact, cause vibrations by increasing driveline angles. Correcting castor will help your lifted truck track better on the the highway, etc. by ...well, correcting the castor.
Troy

By MA on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 11:04 pm: Edit

CH...I have a 5-speed so it really doesn't matter.
Mike...I guess that my idea wouldn't really be an upgrade, so maybe I should go for the full Rovertym 2" lift.

By Gil Stevens (Gil) on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 12:10 am: Edit

CH, I believe you, I just hadnt heard that before. Unfortunatly for me, I am not a holder of a OME catalog, nor do I plan on acquiring one, so I appreciate the information. Question still being, what difference would a transmission make to a suspension component? Why would it make any difference at all? Does anyone know why?

By Steve on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 02:10 am: Edit

Without seeing parts and part numbers I would surmise the following to be the reason for Castor compensator problems/limitations. Castor corection affects the angle of the diferential and as a result the angle of the driveshaft. The manual transmission is most likely not the same length as the automatic so the driveshafts are also different lengths. Changing the angle of the driveshaft can cause vibration or excess driveline wear if the angle becomes excessive. Raised Chevys have to deal with this problem. I suspect that the drive shaft angle which results from the Castor corection while acceptable with the manual may not be compatable with the automatic.

By Scott Tschantz on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 03:35 am: Edit

MA I have Rovertym 2in springs with OME shocks
and steering damper. All I can tell you Is that the ride is so much better on and off road and that with my 97 SD I had no drive line vibrations
or a need for the castor kit. I do have 245/75-16
rover RT on the truck and it tracks well also.

By A. on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 09:10 am: Edit

MA, did you mean RS9207? I can't find RS9027 in the info I have from Rancho.

Thanks.

By MA on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 11:04 am: Edit

yes, thats what I meant, thanks for the correction.