A modification to the rear suspension of the Moke that raises not just the ride height but alsothe suspension travel and reduces the risk of snapped trailing arm pins. The modification using Jacking Rings appears to have come originally come from Robin Booth, a life memebr of the Moke Owners Association. This article originally appeared on The Moke Forum posted by Smoken.
If you are like me and have read most posts on the forum then you've probably heard the term, "jacking rings". Also if you are like me and like to go bush a bit and tend to overload your moke then this is an easy and recommended modification to do. Firstly I have to thank Terry for telling me how to do it. He probably learned that the hard way and we get the benefit of it. When we went on our power line run he was mortified at what I carried with me and also informed me that the Ratster was resting on the rear bump stops. Even though it was raised with hilo's. Rear bump stops i hear you ask? I thought the same thing there is no rubber bump stops back there but there is a bump stop and I'll show you.
First the rubber donut when its under load, it does more than just compress. It tries to turn itself inside out and to stop this, there is a raised bump in the subframe that doesn't allow the donut to do it therefore it bottoms out or rests on the bump stop.
Here's a pic of the bump stop. the inside of the concave part of the donut hits that mound.
The next thing you have to do is to remove most of that mound. A 4" angle grinder is the only way and its not the neatest but its not seen.
Now you have to make a jacking ring. These fit around the base of the donut and give cleareace for the donut to compress further with out bottoming out. I made mine out of a strip of steel 25mm wide was cut from a gas bottle as it was sort of heading in the right direction.( roundish) The gas bottle was empty by the way. Heres how i made them.
(the use of a LPG cylinder for th source of metal is not encouraged by Mokewerx, use at your own risk.)
The strips were then folded around an old hub to get the shape
They were then welded and cleaned up. The finished product
This is what they look like fitted to the donut
Then the donut and hilo assembly was refitted.
What this does is raise the rear suspension a bit and adjusted to the required height via the hilos. But most important is with weight or rough terrain (or both) the donuts are able to do their job, even nearly turn inside out if they had to with out bottoming on the bump stop. Giving a less rigid ride.
Smoken,
with thanks to Terry
For more discussion and comments on this particular modification visit this thread on The Moke Forum.