Short drop boxes

[GUte]

Attempted installing drop boxes that came with my 4 inch lift today and out of the three cross member bolts I tried to remove, I snapped all 3 2 on the passenger side, 1 on the drivers, they are heavily rusted.

A family member used to work at coastal 4x4 as a fitter/mechanic and he had only ever installed drop boxes that were only fixed to the chassis using the original control arm mount.
Has anyone ever seen these before? Im contemplating cutting the back end off and mounting them this way for the time being as I really dont want to drive around in a 4" lifted vehicle with out any castor correction.

It took 1 hour to drill out one of the snapped bolts to 9.5mm so I will need to set aside a whole weekend to remove the rest of the xmember bolts and weld the back end of the drop box on.
So whats better, fitting a shortened drop box and have correct castor with the aim to fix the main issue in a couple of weeks ? Or driving with out any castor correction and fitting the drop boxes as they were designed in a couple of weeks?

Bloody pi55ed off it didnt go to plan

[YNOT]

I've haven't heard of the short drop boxes that only attach at one point but I would never use them, the amount of force that is applied to them is far too much for only one attachment point per side.
The safest way to be able to keep driving your car is going to be putting the shorter springs and shocks back in, a real pain in the butt but what price safety?
Maybe you should have got drop arms instead.

Tony

[Bigrig]

Either way, just be bloody careful mate! I drove for 1 single day without my caster correction after the lift as I needed the car the following day for work and they hadn't finished it the first day, and I was all over the shop like a dog on a marble floor - very floaty in general, and wandered all over the shop at speed driving straight.

Hope you get it sorted mate, but definitely put safety first - it's just not worth the risk, especially for weeks at a time let alone a few days.

[GUte]

Yeh I needed to put it back together for work today, will see how it goes and if its too bad I can always put the standard springs back in today.
I dont really want to cut them down so Ill just sort out the broken bolts asap, didnt realise there was much force going through the drop arms

[Bigrig]

Yeh I needed to put it back together for work today, will see how it goes and if its too bad I can always put the standard springs back in today.
I dont really want to cut them down so Ill just sort out the broken bolts asap, didnt realise there was much force going through the drop arms

Not a lot of force on the road as such (until you go over speed bumps and pot holes), but a fair amount once you get off the black stuff ... I have to put drop boxes in mine, as the arms aren't overly parallel to the ground, so any solid force against them is basically hammering straight up the arm and on the rubbers (and into the whole frame), rather than simply going up and down as they should ...

Good luck with it mate. You'll get it sorted no doubt.

[GUte]

Cheers mate

[Finly Owner]

Bugger!
Tim

[MudRunnerTD]

I've haven't heard of the short drop boxes that only attach at one point but I would never use them, the amount of force that is applied to them is far too much for only one attachment point per side.
The safest way to be able to keep driving your car is going to be putting the shorter springs and shocks back in, a real pain in the butt but what price safety?
Maybe you should have got drop arms instead.

Tony

X 1000 ^^^^^ What he said! Not Negotiable

[MudRunnerTD]

On another note, I was expecting to have the same problem when i fitted mine to the GQ to the point that all the ones on the passenger side had taken a very big hit and where bent and i expected to sheer them straight off or have to go the grinder.

I used one of those Cheap arse 12v rattle guns (Legend status piece of equipment - will crack anything....When my very expensive pneumatic rattle gun wont crack it i always go back to this bit of kit) and i cracked every bolt without sheering a single one. I had bought a full set of over sized ones expecting to drill and tap all of them.


http://www.kcimports.com.au/item.php?i=31#gallery

Mate ^^^^That bit of kit WILL get you out of trouble with the rest. 100%
Give that a crack! Good luck.

[ZORDO]

Take the trouble to drill out the broken bolts & do the job properly as the whole front end hangs off the drop box.
Cheers