Correcting LR90 bad road manners

My 1985 LR90 was lifted 3" by the previous owner and since I got it I have found that it's really quite a handful to drive - requiring constant concentration because it's so skittish on the road.

I'm not quite sure how to describe the experience other than "loose". It also seems very much affected by any adverse camber or changes in the road surface.

I replaced the two rear shocks with PROCOMP ES9000 and new bushes and that has helped a bit.

Reading LRO, I see a lot of suspension parts on offer that I was wondering may help with the problem and here I am soliciting advice from the good people of Landyzone!

My thoughts:
1. New front cranked radius arms - to correct my front steering manners - have been looking at QT arms but they only seem to come in 3 degrees for 2 inch lift or 6 degrees for 4 inch lift. Since my vehicle has 3 inch lift what is the right number of degrees of camber correction?
2. Full set of poly bushes - any particular brand or type that I should go for to maintain off road performance (I don't do more than 6 road miles a day on average).
3. Cranked rear trailing arms with new joints - I have been looking at X-eng High Performance Off-Road Engineering is anyone familiar with these - they seem more expensive than most of the rear trailing arms and joints but are they worth the extra? They are £300 for 2 arms and joints. Also, the same company offers an "X-Flex complete kit" that comes with some special springs that go within your rear springs and have a telescopic cone to keep your wheels on the ground at high degrees of articulation and it also comes with a new a frame joint that also allows more articulation. Is it worth going for the full kit at £450?

Am I thinking about the right sort of mods to resolve the problem?

Also, I did have a bit of a feel with some spanners to see how tight the radius arm bolts to the front axle were and I couldn't move them... what tools should I be using?

Is there a tutorial or another thread somewhere that will help me to replace any of these suspension parts? I have 2 axle stands, a trolley jack, high lift jack and a bottle jack so I'm hoping that I'll be able to do the job myself and learn a bit in the process...

Cheers,
Gid

Check your steering drop arm ball joint - if this is even a bit loose it will handle like a Lidl trolley. Change it and you'll have a good old M&S one!

I'm new to Land Rovers, are you? For my first 100 miles I had a tendency to try and correct for everything. Now I don't. The very high sidewall tyres 'wind up' when the car is veering as a result of road camber etc.. and ignoring the course deviation (very much like a sailing boat) I found that by relaxing this tendency, all became as it should be.

On the other hand - if you're a Landy die hard, then yes, something's worn out.

Fairly new... I've had the 90 since February but still can't believe that the road manners and the brakes are so terrible...

My regular car is a brand new Disco 3 so maybe it's a bit of an unfair comparison between the loose old 1985 200,000 mile LR90 and the disco.

I feel like I need a bigger brake servo and maybe vented discs, having already installed kevlar pads to try to improve things a bit.

I still have the feeling that the 90 hasn't quite been modified right - the springs and shocks might be longer to form the lift but it seems little else has been done and I get the impression that there are a load of suspension mods you should do to make the lift right.

Someone said to me "Land Rover brakes and Land Rover brakes" and I suppose that tells me there are a few things I'm just going to have to accept (or cost myself a fortune in new parts)!

Gid

Odenne,
I had the steering arm ball joint replaced about 100 miles ago. Like the new shocks on the rear, it has helped a bit but I still feel there must be more that can be done. The eternal optimist...?

Hmm..in that case, there are lots of little bits and pieces which can be done (and are all probably a bit worn) which will all make a bit of a difference - the main bits for road manners are the steering (check for play) and the suspension, so new bushes might help a bit. Also the track rod arms can gove some looseness in the steering.

It is never going to be a great road car, but check all the likely areas which might help a bit. 3" lift will make a reasonable difference to the balance and reduce its manners on the road, but it will enable it to go pretty much anywhere slowly!

Quick afterthought - poor wheel alignment can make cornering a bit haory, might be worth facing both front wheels forwards and see if they point in the same direction!

I had the wheel alignment done, although I was told that with the 35 inch tires the usual alignment rig wouldn't fit and so it had to be done by eye...

Last thing I had done was tubing the tires as I heard this was a good thing to do for off roading (simex extreme centipede 35x10.5x16) and although the wheels were supposed to have been balanced (new weights were attached), the vehicle has started to vibrate quite a bit over 40 mph.

It sounds like the polybush set might be a good start point but I am thinking that if I remove enough parts to fit the polybush set then I might as well have bought and fitted the radius / trailing arms and do a complete job.

I think that no matter what you change, the fact your running 3" lift with Simex tyres, its ALWAYS going to handle like a sack of spuds. As a test, I suggest you get hold of a full set of wheels 265/75s should do, switch all the wheels around and go for a drive... any different? It should be, then you will have eliminated the main cause, if not, then as you suggest, start looking at other things. If your not doing competitions or constant pay and play days i think you should ditch the simex and get somrthing else anyway. The simex will prob only last 6000 miles due to their soft compound. Also if your not needing the 3" then reduce to 2" and save yourself alot of hassle.

Alot of people run 2" lift without any further mods. go higher and your looking at the 4 arms mentioned, decardon props and other bits.

flog the lift and wheels on ebay, they will fetch a fortune then spend the money on a good 2" lift and a set of 33" or 265/75 BFG MT's. cant beat it.

G

The short wheelbase contributes to being twitchy, but the amount of lift will greatly affect straight line stability, as will toe angle , if bushes are in good condition as if they are not doing other things will not be effective anyway. You then need castor correction at front, for ease of driving , esp if power steering too much is better than not enough. Correct wheel alignment (toe) needs to have good condition steering ball joints, then make sure its parrallel to slight toe in, as toe out will cause wander. The angle on rear axle wont affect but worn susp rubber bushes will. HTSH

Any chance that you get a drive of another, known good, one?

My 110 is 1989, and whilst there is a certain vagueness to the steering, I've mastered it. But I wouldn't say the brakes were bad. I've got ornery discs and drums at the back, and they're pretty good. Sounds like you might have a problem, but wouldn't have thought you should need to uprate them, just get them working properly.

When I first took my 1988 2.5td 90 csw up the road for it's first drive I was thinking it was going to go off the road and that something was seriously wrong with it. I have had it for a few months now and it feels perfectly normal. I have done nothing to alter the ride, just settled my mind to the fact that it's an old wagon and won't handle like my modern van or car. I let my non landy mate have a go in it last week and could see he was having a good old white knuckle experience, his hands did not leave the wheel once and his face said it all to me. So maybe you just need to get used to an old Landy. good luck anyway.