I apologize for the questions below, but I tried the search and found bits and pieces but nothing to actually answer my specific questions. 1. What is the stock spring hanger lengths for the rear? Mine appear to be homemade and seem long. Maybe ~10"...does this mean it is lifted? 2. There are no blocks added between the rear springs and axle housing. Does this mean there is no lift? 3. For the front do you just adjust the torsion rods to raise it? 4. Do you need aftermarket longer struts? 5. I was told this truck has a 2 1/2" lift. What would be the biggest tire(in ATV sizes; 28x10x12 for example) that I can use without cutting out the wheel wells? It has a set of Honda Rancher tires on it now but I want to go with a more aggressive tire like ITP's. I'm not using it at highway speeds so I'm not worried about that. 6. And lastly, what is the highest you can lift without putting the CV joints and drive train in a bind? Thanks, cdover73
I know how you feel, sometimes you have to read through 20 different threads on here to find the gem of knowledge your looking for... I'll try to answer some of your questions to the best of my ability, but I am no expert by any means. I bought my 92 S83P well used and it already had a lift on it so I cannot speak to the length of the OEM shackle length, but it does sound like yours does have a lift already. There are no torsion bars to adjust ride height in the front. The most common lifts have spacers on the front that go between the strut and the body, and longer rear shackles. Most will tell you that you shouldn't go over 2" or you run the risk of wearing out the CV joints on the front especially the left side which is the shorter shaft. Im not sure what size tires you can fit with a 2" lift, but I have heard that your typically ok with a 23" "turf" style tire that seems to be popular. Personally I have removed the lift that was on my truck (I think it was 2.5") and installed heavier 250lb springs in the front. I kept the longer shackles in the rear for now, but ill probably re drill them to drop the rear level with the front. I guesstimate my lift in the front to be around 1.5". The tires I'm running are pretty aggressive and howl at all speeds on pavement or gravel, but they look cool, and they grip like crazy. They are GBC GrimReapers in 23x8x12. The fronts of the wheel wells have been bent in for more clearance by the previous owner, (its ghetto, but I'll trim them properly later) and it will still rub right there in the front when I'm running down the road or trail and hit a decent dip. Im thinking I may go with 275lb springs instead and maybe a 1" spacer to alleviate that. Ill try t attach some pictures of what I have going on. Hopes this answers some of your questions at least! View attachment 13600 View attachment 13601 View attachment 13602
Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I've been burning up the search feature and, like I said, only finding bits and pieces. I have a couple other posts, but it seems like nobody likes to reply much on here. I'm not being an a$$, but looking through the entire board there seems to be very little reply-to-view ratio, so I know it's not just me. Just gonna take some getting used to. It would make it a lot easier than trial and error if more people would contribute. I have been given some very good tips by the fine people at cajunminitrucks and G&R. They have been more than helpful and both companies took time on the phone with me to help where they could. I wouldn't be this far without them. Anyway, I have since found that I have a busted right outer cv, torn left inner boot, and a lot of camber on the front. I did figure out the lift and yes, I have a 3" lift as measured on the strut spacers. The rear spring hanger brackets are 9" overall and 7 1/4" bolt to bolt. The front spacers are also not of the quality kind and do not offset the strut for camber adjustment. I plan to cut them down to 2" and slot the bottom bolt hole on the strut so I can adjust the camber at the spindle. I will also redrill the rear to compensate. As far as tires, I haven't decided which ones I will use, but they will be 23x8x12 front and 23x10x12 rear. Probably a very aggressive mud tire as I will use the truck mostly at my camp here in southern Louisiana. That gumbo mud doesn't take hostages... Thanks, cdover73 I have a couple other issues that I'm about to make a new thread on to keep the topics seperate. Watch for them and by all means, give me any feedback you got. It is all very much appreciated!
I have to say that I don't look @ the forums as much nowadays as I did when I first got my truck last fall and had issues with it that I needed to resolve, and I'm willing to bet that that is probably the case with many of the members on here. That may explain what seems to be a low response rate. I will say that I'm not a huge fan of the search feature on the site, however a lot of the time just wording things a little bit differently will bring completely different results, and any issues you are having have probably been experienced and resolve by other members and documented on here somewhere. Its better than nothing! As far as your tire combo, I think you should be ok, but I know that mixing tire sizes on a 4wd is typically not a great idea and may result in some undesirable driving characteristics and premature wear on your drivetrain. Even though the diameter of the front and rear are the same, the wider tires in the rear may actually end up changing the diameter unless you are running a wider rim in the rear as well. How much it will adversely affect it, I don't know... maybe not at all, just a thought... BTW, and I'm sure if you have been searching the forums you have noticed, Fupabox seems to be the go-to S83P guru. Read through some of his posts and check out his YouTube videos...
Personally I stay at 1 3/4" on the standard lift on daiahtsu's and 2" max on Suz/Mazda. We learned very quick 7 + yrs ago that anything above 2" will damage cv jts. if you are in rough country. Better safe than than sorry, price up some boots and cv jts lately? You will understand. As for membership not posting yes the numbers have fallen off big time. Guys have come and gone. There are still a few that have been around for awhile that still contribute. Myself I have cut back to two or three days a week at the shop because my bread and butter comes from other doings. No question I still believe bang for the buck a mini truck is still best gig out there. As long as they stay cost effective I'm in.
I hear ya Trax and Horns! Im excited to get it going. I havent been in my shop this much since I built my 67 Coronet 440. As far as posting, that makes sense. Guess im used to other boards that have numerous members and lots of feedback. Still, every bit I get is much appreciated because trial and error is costly! I prefer to learn from others mistakes. I get my cv joints tomorrow so should have it together this week. Still gotta take it outside and paint it. Going with bedliner black, but gonna let the current camo peek through along the midline. Should look sweet... Thanks, Cdover73
I just put a two inch lift on my s83p with new progressive front coils, and new shackles on the rear. It works very well, with a 175 70 13 inch wheel it is 27 inches to the top of the wheel opening. When I put my quad wheels and tires on, it is 30 inches. There is no interference. I did have to cut open the inside edge of the original strut mounting hole to get enough room to get the camber as close to zero as I could get it. I will refine that later to get 3 degrees negative camber.
