custom lift

[Huli]

Gotcha! Yes please on pics. I may have found a strut extender. It bolts to the stock strut tower and moves the strut connection lower. Need to look a bit more. If it works, 1-2 inch longer strut!!

[Movin]

Don't forget that the driver cv shaft is half the length of the passenger side. When you reach maximum extension with all stock parts camber bolts will not correct camber any more, they work well for a 2 to 3 inch lift. The short cv shaft will not be able to bend far enough Unless you are not going for ground clearance then what TominMO said could be used. If you are going for ground clearance then the engine -transmission assembly has to be rotated some to equalize the inner cv angles, this enables more over all lift. Porshe 930 cv's are looking tempting!!

The Block thing I tried but I could not fit the tire I wanted with the stock strut. The coil overs give more room.

The block was about 5 inches long, I could have gone longer but that would have been more lift than I could get out of the rear without building a new beam. As is it had to be spaced to the rear.

[Micro Mudder]

movin could you get pics for the frount right lift on your car cuz my lift is a bit to big to do the lift on that side and i do way better with pictures and im still thinking about puting rear struts on the frount with the frount springs to get good clarance between the strut and wheel

[Micro Mudder]

here is the rear lift

lift 1.jpglift 2.jpg

its basically a 2" square stock with 1/4" plates to bolt on the lower struts

[Bert]

Why is it I'm thinking: If I really wanted a tricked-out Jeep I shoulda just done gone out and bought one instead of spending days and nights and $ on tinkering with my Festy in tryin to make it do the same. Off road stuff generally has ladder frames, for a good reason, whereas Festys don't and never have.
This is great project potential, don't get me wrong, but what exactly are we tryin to achieve here?
Your tranny (or clutch) is gonna burst from trying to turn oversize mudder tires and you'll never have 'bull low' which is 'handier than a pocket in a shirt' for most offroaders.

[Movin]

We leave big off roader dudes choking on festiva dust! Crawlers go slow and look for boulders. We travel closer to the speed of side by sides or ATV's. Typical desert road has up to 6 inch rocks for the surface of the road. We fly right through the stuff. We have more under side clearance than my chevy with the 37 inch swampers. Big rocks and stuff I would have to dodge or put a tire on I just go through or over!! Washboards that would blow the doors and hood open on a pick up or suv we float over...light weight sprung weight and low pressure tires are like magic!! In conditions like this the only possibility of fun is 4x4 subaru's..Heh !! When every thing holds up good to this then I like to head to the desert for camping or hunting. Days can go by without seeing another rig because it is rough out there and many miles from any services.

Lifted soft ride festies rule!!!

[Movin]

For lighter weight I would cut the rear bilstein type rod and sleeve it longer for what you are doing. I put a few pics above of what I was doing. As that one pic shows the tire likes to get close to the spring perch. Lift and small diameter are your friends!

[Micro Mudder]

So instead of buying mkII struts and the 14inch springs couldn't I just get the 14inch springs on my stock struts and my block lift with the extended control arms and the left aspire cv shaft that should work its basically the same minus the adjustable coil overs

And when I'm done I got to prove to the jeep dude its way cheaper and better to lift festivas cuz I'm only at 50$ on my build and that's only for tires every thang else is free for now!

[Micro Mudder]

So instead of buying mkII struts and the 14inch springs couldn't I just get the 14inch springs on my stock struts and my block lift with the extended control arms and the left aspire cv shaft that should work its basically the same minus the adjustable coil overs

And when I'm done I got to prove to the jeep dude its way cheaper and better to lift festivas cuz I'm only at 50$ on my build and that's only for tires every thang else is free for now!

[Advancedynamix]

Why is it I'm thinking: If I really wanted a tricked-out Jeep I shoulda just done gone out and bought one instead of spending days and nights and $ on tinkering with my Festy in tryin to make it do the same. Off road stuff generally has ladder frames, for a good reason, whereas Festys don't and never have.
This is great project potential, don't get me wrong, but what exactly are we tryin to achieve here?
Your tranny (or clutch) is gonna burst from trying to turn oversize mudder tires and you'll never have 'bull low' which is 'handier than a pocket in a shirt' for most offroaders.

You don't need big heavy mudders on an ultra light FWD car. Heck, I used to go to all the 4wd hangouts in my 89 Golf with snow tires when I was in high school, passed Jeeps and Chevy's left and right the whole way up (never a toyota though, lol). This was in Maine, so the terrain was not for the weak of heart. I figure that a B3 hooked to a G-series would equal an almost indestructible trail rig. And if that doesn't do it then a sportage engine hooked to a probe turbo box surely would tug a festy through hell and back with some serious rubber. ITP has us handled, with plenty of lightweight but aggressive offroad tires that can be purchased for a fraction on the price of any size swamper tsl. Bang for buck, the Festy even has the offroad world under control.

[zoom zoom]

So instead of buying mkII struts and the 14inch springs couldn't I just get the 14inch springs on my stock struts and my block lift with the extended control arms and the left aspire cv shaft that should work its basically the same minus the adjustable coil overs

And when I'm done I got to prove to the jeep dude its way cheaper and better to lift festivas cuz I'm only at 50$ on my build and that's only for tires every thang else is free for now!

I was looking into putting coilovers on stock front and rear shocks. I know the rear is doable, the front is what bothers me. I measured the OD of a Rio strut and it came up 48mm, one of these days ill call the guy at southwestspeed.com and find out if his Monroe, universal sleeve will work on a stock strut but I want to have the strut in hand to get the right measurement first.

http://southwestspeed.com/?sec=view_menu&cat=Suspension&sub=Coilover%20Kits%20and%20Eliminators&ssub=Coilover%20Kits-Individual%20Parts&sssub=Threaded%20Sleeves%20Only

For the mk2/3 struts the top mount needs fabbed and it just seems like a hassle, looking for the easiest/cheapest/best/quickest fix and I think it will be stock or Rio struts lol..

Movin, thanks for the pic of the Festy vs aspire inner cv cups. Its almost a full inch(like 7/8"?) I had those out side by side on Napas counter awhile back but I couldn't get a pic. The axle itself is the same length isn't it?

[Movin]

Chris, your stock springs will work fine, just extend the mounts and then deal with the results until every thing fits, like we talked about.

Advance you are dead on about ITP. That is the secret that makes the whole thing work. Maxxis has some good ones but my next ones will be STI as they are DOT as well. The STI tread is in my sig!

Zoom, the shafts compressed are not exactly the same but so close it does not matter. The extended length is about 7/8 , I think I came up with 15/16 but that extra travel is what makes long travel suspension and short lower control arms possible. Well, almost possible, my lowers are an inch longer than an aspire.

Here is a pic that led me to lifting my festy

[sketchman]

^That looks like tons of fun. I used to follow ATVs into the mountain at the end of my road on old gas well roads with my stock Festy. It was a blast. I went far enough to get cell service once. Couldn't have been far from the top. Never stuck it once. Good times.

[Micro Mudder]

so i was puting my lift on the other day in the frount and i ran into a snag.. i couldent put it on cuz with the struts extended i couldnt get the the bottom part of the blocks bolted on cuz the spindle wouldent go down any more so would detaching the sway bar temporary work to get it low enough to put on the blocks?

[Movin]

Make sure the cv is not compressed causing the stoppage. The sway does bind some, in fact I for got to mention the sway bar was messaged in the press a little