Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

I've read a couple of times that some Pajero's suspension can be lifted by a touch of a button when needed out on 4x4'ing. Can this be installed seperately? Anybody have experience witht his? Price?

I have not heard of such a system on the Gen 3, but the top of the range Gen 2s (the Exceed trim level) could be had with this (none were distributed in SA via official channels, though).

The system can crank the front torsion bars up and down to alter ride height and does something similar at the rear using complicated hydraulic actuators integrated in the shock absorbers, if I am not mistaken. While it should be technically possible to retrofit such a system into a Gen 2, it would be difficult to source locally and probably quite expensive.

The Gen 3 uses a completely different suspension setup to that of the Gen 2, so I doubt whether any of the system could easily be transferred.

Hi

So how for interest sake would we do a suspension lift on the Gen 3 SWB??

Cause I definitley need one after rust de wiinter this weekend!!

You can fit front coils from Ironman/OME and Mitsu rear coils from a LWB. This will give you lift at the expense of suspension flex. You might need coil spacers to level the vehicle. This option should be good for 45 to 60mm of lift

You could also do a lift using spacers only. At the front they go on top of the coil-over-shock struts and at the rear on top of the coil springs. I am not aware of a commercial kit, so you will have to DIY to some extent. This type of lift will be much less than that obtained from changing the coils (perhaps a max of 30mm or so).

Andre, I also think that you will get a bit of lift by reverting to the original alloy wheels that run at the offset Mitsu designed the suspension to work at. It is a simple matter of levers and your current wheels place the wheels probably 80mm wider than designed...

Hi G

Thanx I already got the coils sorted, but what can I do to get the diffs higher, I had no problems with the body lift, it seems more to get more clearance for the diffs, or do I have this the worng(hehe) way around??

Because of the independent suspension, the suspension lift will lift the diff center portions the same amount as the rest of the body. The down side is that the clearance under the differentials also vary out on the trail as the suspension deflects.

This is different to beam axles where the clearance under the diff center portion remains essentially constant regardless of any suspension lift or of suspension deflection.

Andre, have you actually fitted those LWB diesel coils?

Hi Gerrit

I'm just waiting for my front coils, ordered from Van Zyl's. Sadly the front ones are exactly the same on the SWB & LWB. but it seems I will get a 35mm lift at the rear.

And it was such a mission to take out and fit and take out again, that I will definitely only do this when I have new shocks to fit as well.

Andre, were the coils you got out of a DiD or V6 LWB? The trick at the front is to get coils from a post 2003 DiD (LWB or SWB) and then to fit them to your 3.8. I think the DiD motor is heavier than the petrol and the springs are up-rated because of this.

The DiD front coils are made out of 17mm diameter wire and have a free length of 326mm compared to the 16mm diameter wire and 322mm free length of the petrol model's springs. The free length difference might seem small, but remember that the springs are pre-loaded in the coil-strut (the assembled free length will be the same regardless of the coil spring free length). The DiD coils should give you some lift in the petrol, but I am not sure exactly how much.

Have you actually fitted the coils or how did you determine whether you will get any lift and how much?

We measured the heights. Fitted the rear ones and measured the heights again. as close to 35mm as can be, so I took the car and gave the existing coils to Van Zyl's and asked for 35mm lift at the end of the day. They measured and did a lot of other things. Think they will using thicker coils as well.

Can one install the air helpers front and rear to lift the Gen 3 when need on a trail etc?