Absorbers / Suspension

[VX KAT]

This exact topic has been discussed MANY times here. I put several of these posts together for reference. Sorry for the long post, but there's lots of info on this.

You NEED to read up on this so you'll better understand what others have tried, what worked, what didn't, etc....

The bottom line....the VX is NEVER going to be anything near a smooth ride on dirt/gravel/rocky roads....NEVER..no matter what you do.
I live on a dirt/rocky/rough road....I have the 9 way adjustable Rancho shocks...even set on the "softest" setting, the ride on the dirt road, and particularly on WASHBOARD/ruts....is really rough.

The softer shocks "help" some, but my steering wheel still vibrates like heck, and my tailgate door vibrates SO MUCH I have to have my hatch popper thing re-aligned about every 3 months, as the strong rough vibrations actually jiggle it loose. Also, my empty passenger seat seatback vibrates so much I'm afraid it's going to possibly break something over time.

To clarify what "Ala5ka" said in post #4...some people call the rubber part a "bump stop" and some call it a "spring helper".....Isuzu actually uses both terms in the part listing. I've attached a few pics of them. Some of us have cut the bump stop in half, allowing for about 4" MORE travel room before the rear axle hits the bump stop. It "improves" the slamming/jolt effect that you hear and feel from the rear axle going over rough roads. It is a only a little improvement, but I think it's worth it. You can always buy replacements from a junk yard or aftermarket ones if you want to go back.
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ADDRESSES TERMINOLOGY "SPRING HELPER" VS. "BUMP STOPS", ALSO COIL COMPRESSION, ROLE OF SPRINGS, PARTS DIAGRAM:
http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...8&postcount=10


COMPLETE THREAD WHERE POST #10 CAME FROM:
http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...ump+stops+half


BUMP STOP QUESTION, GOOD TECHNICAL DETAILS:
http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...ight=bump+stop


THREAD ABOUT "STIFF RIDE"
http://vehicross.info/forums/showthr...ight=bumpstops


The rear bump stop is the black rubber thing immediately to the right of the spring. It's a side view, but it's like a figure "8", with the BEIGE color stuff (dirt) at the bottom of the "8" TOUCHING THE AXLE...So almost no room for the REAR axle to move w/o hitting the bump stop immediately....causing that really loud SLAMMING JOLT



Here's 2 pics of mine after cutting the lower half of the "8" off.....see how I gained about 4" of room.

[circmand]

To clarify what "Ala5ka" said in post #4...some people call the rubber part a "bump stop" and some call it a "spring helper".....Isuzu actually uses both terms in the part listing. I've attached a few pics of them. Some of us have cut the bump stop in half, allowing for about 4" MORE travel room before the rear axle hits the bump stop. It "improves" the slamming/jolt effect that you hear and feel from the rear axle going over rough roads. It is a only a little improvement, but I think it's worth it. You can always buy replacements from a junk yard or aftermarket ones if you want to go back.
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How do you get 4 more inches? Since the part is rubber abd it has open spaces in it I assume the stop doesn't really stop. I would think it slows by compressing and only stopping once the stop is compressed so that the open area dissappears. I would think cutting half off only gives you the extra equivilent to the size of the amount of rubber minus the open area.

[VX KAT]

How do you get 4 more inches? Since the part is rubber abd it has open spaces in it I assume the stop doesn't really stop. I would think it slows by compressing and only stopping once the stop is compressed so that the open area dissappears. I would think cutting half off only gives you the extra equivilent to the size of the amount of rubber minus the open area.

that's what he said......


The rubber stop is very hard rubber, and not meant to compress that much at all....just enough to protect metal on metal contact....thus the violent slamming jolt....not much compression.

So it may not be a full 4" but it's enough to drastically reduce the number of times that stop hits my axle in my driving conditions and environment.

It does NOT appear to me in the pics that they've had 10 years of flexing laterally i.e. squishing the empty space which would cause the sides of the 8 to move outward some and be compressed on themselves (the smooth inner lining of each "O" would touch each other at full compression). I would think the rubber would show significant deterioration and splitting on the sides of the 8 from all that compression over and over.

Again, from the pics, they don't look like they've ever touched at all. Mav and the other gang that have cut them and seen the old stops in person maybe could describe the condition better.