hello my name is Danny Hopkins and I'm
here at Britpart in Shropshire with managing director Paul
Myers.
Hello. we've got four items on the
desk in front of us
take us through the springs first what
are they for what vehicles. These fit
defender discovery one range rover classic.
next one why would you want to
fit them. These are both up rated
springs so they'll offer an increasing
ride height and also if the vehicles be
modified with bumper for a winch or a
roof tent they'll handle the weight
better excellent okay what have we got
in front of those the shock absorbers to
take us through those yeah we on the
Left we've got the Old Man Emu shock
absorber from Australia if features
improved valving and oil so it actually
increases the damping capacity of a shock
absorber. This is a standard
replacement as with the factory fit
perfect replacement for the shock
absorbers already on a car. Perfect okay
so to see how to fit all these items
let's go and have a word with Martin in
the workshop. Suspension is one of the most
important elements of your Land Rover
and it's really important that you make
the right choice for your vehicle and
what you use it for if it's still got
the standard Springs on it that have
been on it for years and years
chances are the ride will be crashy it
might lean over to one side and it will
generally be tired so if when you're
shopping for replacements there's a few
things to consider first of all its how
much weight you carry in your Land Rover
if you've got things like a winch and a
winch bumper and you go camping a lot
you might have a roof tent things like
that a standard height heavy-duty
upgrade can be a really good idea these
will also reduce body roll on the road
because there are an uprated stiffer
spring than the standard items and
they're really good for towing as well
these Britpart dampers are a brilliant
like for like replacement for the
standard units but if you're fitting a
heavier duty spring it's wise to upgrade
the dampers as well and that's where the
Britpart Super Gaz damp has come in
this is one of a range of dampers that
Britpart offer
and there will be more than up to the
job of looking after your suspension
when you've got heavier duty spring
fitted keeping the vehicle under control
improving handling and
so giving you a better ride when you
have got extra weight on board such as a
roof tent a winch things like that
so if you want slightly more ground
clearance for off-roading these upgraded
Old Man Emu Springs from Britpart or a
fantastic idea these come as you can see
with a slight height increase over the
original standard height heavy-duty
Springs and these are available with
dedicated Old Man Emu nitro recharge
dampers so as you'll notice everything
here each spring has a damper to match
it and that's really important because
if you fit heavier duty Springs with a
damper that doesn't quite have the
correct valving rebound and compression
to match it
the handling won't be as it should be
and you could notice the vehicle is
bouncy to drive and doesn't handle well
with load in it so take that into
consideration
so with that in mind we're now going to
head over to a Discovery one and fit a
new set of Springs and dampers okay it's
a really simple job to replace the front
springs and dampers there's just four
nuts holding the turret to the top of
the chassis
you need to undo those they're 13
millimeter nuts you've then got a single
nut on the bottom of the damper which is
a 17 millimeter undo that and then
you'll be able to lift the whole
suspension damper with the turret out
through the engine bay once that's out
support the vehicle under the chassis
and you'll be able to withdraw the
original spring in between the chassis
and the axle it's a possibility that you
might need to compress the new spring if
you are fitting lift Springs but it
won't be very much and it will be
there's plenty of room to work again
really important to make sure the
chassis is supported correctly and also
that you've got central right a bottle
jack or an axle stand under the axle
itself to stop the axle dropping when
you've undone the shock absorber nut
once that nuts undone carefully lower
the axle slightly to disengage the
damper from the spring plate so these
four studs that hold the turret to the
chassis are attached to a turret ring
and you can either access these through
the wheel arch or from inside the engine
bay so there's four nuts to undo that
hold the turret to the top of the
chassis
it's worth buying new turret rings as
well because if they're old and rusty
sometimes snap the stubs off all those
have come undone so now the turret and
the damper can be lifted out as one unit
through the engine bay there it is all
you need to do to swap the damper over
to the turret is undo this topknot
reassemble with the
bushings and the little washers in the
right order replace the spring and then
it's ready to go back together so we've
got the old damper removed from the
turret so we can now fit the new damper
that comes with this little metal frame
that holds in position during transport
so I need to remove that first just
compress it unhook it place it aside and the
bushes on these you have the first plate
goes on top followed by one of the
bushes and then the locator sits on top
of that you then feed that up into the
turret and do exactly the same on the
top so locator then the bush then the
plate washer and finally the nut and you
can just tighten that up on the bench so
once you've got the nut and the hole
assemblies in place you've got an impact
gun you can just use that to tighten
the nut up
like so just need it so the no lock
portion started to engage in the thread
and then we can set this aside while we
change the spring so because the old
Springs are standard height we aren't
going to need to compress them to get
them out they should just fall out under
their own pressure okay so with the
axel drooping down with a bit pressure
from a bar just to get the spring over
the spring plate bolts you can then
remove the spring from the vehicle we
might have to compress the new one
because it is longer than this one just
to get it in place it's also a good idea
as you can see the turret ring has now
come out if you feed that back up
through the chassis and secure it with a
single nut that will stop it dropping
down and getting in the way when you're
trying to fit the new spring it's always
worth noting when you fit new Springs to
see if they're handed because some OE
spec Springs they have one for the
driver side and one for the passenger
side so you need to make sure you get
that the right way around these have the
same part number so if you've got two
that have the same part number but are
slightly different in height fit the
slightly taller one on the driver's side
just to compensate for the extra weight
because they're a slightly heavier duty
spring but they're free lengths isn't
much longer than the standard ones we
were able to just slot them straight in
without compressing them if you're
fitting something like a two inch lift
spring you might have to put spring
compresses on the coils pull them so
they slightly shorter to fit into place
so the nut can be removed from the
turret ring again now that that's now
held in by the spring now we can fit the
turret back in place with the new damper
and sometimes when you're fitting the
dampers you'll notice there's some small
metal brackets holding wiring harnesses
something like anything like that slot
over the top of the studs so make sure
you get them back in the right position
just help feed that back into place as
you've got it sat in position but not
tight you then need to assemble the
lower Bush and that's the same order as
the top so you've got a spring Bush
plate followed by the bush itself then
the retainer and then the pin will pass
through the axle once you've got that in
you then repeat the process for the
lower Bush so retainer Bush plate then
the nut and washer at this point we're
just raising the axle back up to make it
easier to fit the Bush onto the bottom
of the shock absorbers pin can be a bit
fiddly to hold the retainer in the bush
in place while you start the nut but if
you Jack the axe up a little bit just
brings everything closer together and
makes it an easier job once you've got
the nut started you can lower the axle
down and then fit the nuts fit and
tighten the nuts for the turret plate
once you've got all four turret nuts
started on the threads you can then
tighten them down
you don't need to over-tighten them
because it's a fairly small thread in
there's four of them so the last thing
to do before we move to the other side
just finished tightening up the shock
absorber lug nut it's important not to
grip the damp up with any sort of water
pump pliers or stillson's or anything
like that because if you scratch the
paint it can chip off and corrosion can
start in the damper body once that nuts
tight just need to go to the other side
of the vehicle do exactly the same thing
bolt the anti-roll bar back up if you
have one and you can move on to the rear
so just raising the axle up a little bit
now to make sure the springs located
properly top and bottom that's all fine
so now we can move over did the other
side before moving on to the back okay
so with the front end done we can move
on to the rear and even easier job again
when we fit the springs will note that
one of the springs in the kit is
slightly taller than the other and we're
gonna fit that the taller one on the
driver's side so the first job we need
to do is release the damper from the top
chassis bracket and nut from the lower
pin so you can get that out of the way
if you're planning to reuse the dampers
at any point it's important not to grip
them with anything metal while you're
undoing the nut otherwise they could be
damaged or the tube could be crushed if
they're old and worn out you can grip
them with some big pliers and
undo the nut can get a bit of corrosion
on the threads so treat them with
penetrating oil beforehand and clean up
the threads with the wire brush and they
obviously do rust there's a lot of mud
get chucked gets chucked about in the
wheel arch so it can be a little bit
tricky to remove sometimes as we
explained before on the bench this
vehicle does have the Bush cups fitted
to the axle so because we're only
replacing them with standard length
dampers we're just going to arrange the
bushes on here like so with the
washers pointing outwards and without
using the right the retainer plates on
the insides of the bushes that will mean
that the shock pin isn't overloaded and
there's a much smaller chance of
anything happening to it
as far as heavy off-road use it'll allow
more movement in the bushes but again if
you're fitting longer dampers it's
important to remove those spring the
bush cups from the axle the damper is
now released it's got to remove the old
bushes from the top pin and the lower
axle bracket and now we can move on to
the spring the springs held in place on
the axle with a single pipe that's
bolted down with two bolts goes through
the top of the Spring Cup onto a bracket
on the axle tube so we need to release
those bolts first again as the only
thing that's been in the wheel arts of a
Land Rover will have had a pretty hard
life so treat everything with
penetrating oil first clean it all up
and hopefully they'll come undone
obviously working through the coils as
well you're having to position the
ratchet and socket through the holes if
you like in the coil spring so you have
to experiment a little bit with
extensions and socket lengths to get a
good a good drive on the bolts
ratchet spanner can also be helpful here
these are a 17 millimeter bolt and nut
on the axle bracket okay it's the second
bolt out we can withdraw the nut and
then the retainer plate can come out as
well with them at the way we can lower
the axle down carefully we using a bottle
jack and because these are standard
height springs they should pop out
without much aggravation
there we go that's released from the top
so
easier to release it from the base first
because there's less material for it to
come past and that's the old spring out
of the way so the springs are fitted
sometimes from the factory with these
anti squeak coverings that just go over
one of the coils and then this rubber
ring goes in the top and that insulates
it from the shattered bracket just to
stop any noises so you can transfer that
over to the new spring took slightly
more effort to fit the new one because
slightly heavier duty and obviously a
little bit longer than the original but
as long as the vehicles securely
supported and you've got something under
the axle to catch it it's not a problem
now we just need to line up the holes in
the spring plate with the holes on the
axle fit the spring retainer put those
bolts back in and then we can move on to
the damper there's two little washers
that fit through the spring plate and
the retainer that just space it off the
lower coil so once everything's lined up
and push the bolts all the way through
start the nuts by hand and then tighten
everything up might be necessary to give
the spring a little turn like that just
to make sure the retainer plate sits
flat across the base of the coil
once those bolts are tight we can move on to
the damper and all we've had to do to
prepare the damper to be fitted is push
in the top bush which is included in the
kit very easy to do you can use a vise
you don't need to use a hydraulic press
or anything to get that in place just
remove the transit loop and then can
position it on the top pin so once the
damper is in place we can jack the axle
back up to meet it
before we fit the other lower bush and
then the washer and then up you don't
want to go crazy over tightening the
bottom pin because it doesn't need some
movement in it when the vehicles going
over rough terrain with the damper
attached to the top mount we can fit the
washers and the nut and again as with
the lower pin don't want to over tighten
that top nut otherwise limit the ability
of the damper to pivot on the pin which
is no good when the vehicles going over
rough terrain there needs to be some
movement there so just nipping that up
so with everything in place we can refit
the road wheel and talk up the wheel
nuts so head to the britpart (britpart.com) website to
check out the whole range of suspension
packages that you can get for your Land
Rover and also check out the rest of the
videos in the Britpart workshop series
