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Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:15 am

Vanapplebomb wrote: Whats wrong with Torsion bars?

They're in the way. I wanna cut 'em out so I can fit in a 5 speed.

Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:45 am

dirtkeeper wrote: pHenrichsen wrote: alright guys, i'm quite new to baja bugs, about to buy my first one.

it has a 1776 motor (so its got a little more umph) and a 3 inch body lift, fiberglassed fenders and all that, but it has stock suspension...

the main purpose of this car is to be a daily driver, but be good enough to drive out to glamis and rip around for a weekend and drive it home, and ive been told stock suspension just won't cut it if I wanna be going crazy in the sand. Rule #1 for offroad fun is never drive the car you intend to play in to its destination of demise. Tow bill from Glamis to HB would be more than a trailer.

now, I'm 20 years old and I bag/check groceries at my local market with no real fab skills so a whole new kit is kinda out of the picture, so i'm wondering what is out there that I can 1. afford and 2. install and put together in my grandpa's garage down the street.

is there a company out there making something that simple or will there be custom fab work involved no matter what route I go? and how crazy do I have to go with the setup? is it just shocks? or is it a whole kit I want to be looking for?

tl;dr version, im buying a daily driver Baja bug but want to upgrade suspension to be able to have fun on the weekends, but im young with no fab skills and a tight budget, what do you suggest?

You might want to post these questions in the main forum and get better response. The basic suspension is pretty good and is fine for daily driving and a few trips into the woods and sand. You said to daily drive and rip around at glamis...then you mentioned "going crazy in the sand" Well the sand will beat your car whether its tricked out or not. For serious sand driving you need bigger tires...which need a bigger engine too push em...which may need a better tranny to hold up if you are abusive..If you plan to do a lot of jumping then you may need to do some extensive suspension work AND you still may not be able to drive it home when your done. going crazy in the sand or dirt opens you up to ...damage There really aren't any basic kits but several things you can do to beef up what you have or get some additional clearance. A few days reading through the stickies and some builds may give you some ideas. Good shocks are nice place to start but you need much more than that if you really want to hit jumps regularly or go crazy in the sand. Good luck and welcome

Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:09 am

It's a go for me, I am there now have a shock angle question now and not sure where to post it

Tue Apr 14, 2015 10:55 am

I am building a sand rail here in Texas. Not many rails here or kicking off road places to hang out at like like a small ma & pop store. So I am building this thing stumping my toes alot. Working my problems out via the Internet or phone. I really wished someone lived close to Keller, TX that could come over and check out my rear suspension and shock set up ai have. These shocks I am using are so expensive I don't want to damage them first time out. I am going with 930 CV Joints, custom made upper/lower shock mounts, Fox 14" 2.0 coil over shocks 7/8" shaft, behind that shock a 16"Fox 2.5 3-tube bypass shock 7/8" shaft.
When I call a couple of the bigger & better known buggy shops out west they start talking buggy termology that looses me like a choir boy in a lead chorious. I am very intelligent I feel I am but this shock thing is kicking my a...s. I saved this for last thinking I would throw in the cheap chrome EMPI coil oversshocks and back it up with a nice imulsion shock that would get me through but that was a quick wake up call especially to my wallet. I know someone out there has the knowledge and advise ai am needing. if there is someone out there with the time and would like to really here a fellow out you can text me or email me. I am really trying to understand this whole shock concept and it could be I am making it harder than it is. Thank you for looking. I am trying to post a couple pics so if I acvidently post this w/o a pic I appoligize before hand I didn't mean to thanks

Tue Apr 21, 2015 4:52 am

Is EMPI coilovers worth it on a stock Baja?

Tue Apr 21, 2015 1:16 pm

La5ome wrote: Is EMPI coilovers worth it on a stock Baja?

No
never had em' but everything i read says NO.

I was happy with KYB gas adjust for many years.......until i bought some bilstein very nice but expensive.

Mon May 04, 2015 6:41 pm

Ok im sick of reading so I will just ask.
My buddy has a pair of Billstein shocks. Off the car I can compress them about 3" fairly easy but then it stops, hard. They arent visually bent or dammaged. Is there some valving or something that changes as the shocks compress? If it were one I would figure it to be broke but they both do the same. It appears they are atleast 8" travel.

Any ideas?

Mon May 04, 2015 6:45 pm

So it should have 8" but you can only get 3"? Valves are present but what does a hammer have to say about it?

Mon May 04, 2015 6:50 pm

Just about to that point. He was tossing them so I grabbed them. Dont want to hurt them til I know.

Mon May 04, 2015 6:52 pm

Every shock Ive tested new can fully compress. So I dunno man. If it is stuck then one solid bump will free it up

Mon May 04, 2015 6:54 pm

I'm gonna thump it tomorrow.

Sun May 24, 2015 5:34 am

That's usually a good sign that all is not well inside :lol:

Tue May 26, 2015 5:53 pm

The body got a lil squeeze. I got them moving freely and they were free so I may run them once and see.

Wed May 27, 2015 3:58 am

You might find they go back oval once they warm up.

Wed May 27, 2015 6:11 pm

Worth a try. They gotta be better than whats on there now. When I push the rear down theres no shock resistance for a pump or two. Then I hear the oil.

Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:44 am

Came accross my reciepts for the shocks on my baja so I thought I'd post up the part numbers for reference. My car is cut & turn about 5/16" and re-indexed in the rear about 2.5" or so. They are just long enough that they don't over-extend or over-compress on my car. stock suspension parts.

This is the summit racing part number. They are KYB Gas- a-just.
KYB-KG5408 rear
KYB-KG5456 front

Sat Sep 05, 2015 5:40 am

sloboatnova wrote: Came accross my reciepts for the shocks on my baja so I thought I'd post up the part numbers for reference. My car is cut & turn about 5/16" and re-indexed in the rear about 2.5" or so. They are just long enough that they don't over-extend or over-compress on my car. stock suspension parts.

This is the summit racing part number. They are KYB Gas- a-just.
KYB-KG5408 rear
KYB-KG5456 front

That's too funny! This is the info I was searching for and it was the last post on the last page. :lol:

Sun Jan 31, 2016 12:11 pm

About to order the conversion front axle beam from bugzylla that is +6 wider, 10 inch shock towers, should I get it with or without adjusters? If I get it with adjusters, will it be weaker?

Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:33 pm

BryceSegatto wrote: If I get it with adjusters, will it be weaker?

Not if you use the Sway A Way (SAW) adjusters. The Avis adjusters have fine teeth and a locking plate that sits on top of it. They reportedly don't seem to hold up to off road abuse as well as the SAW adjusters. IIRC the Bugzyla beam had the SAW adjusters on it in the pic in the classifieds, but it would be a good idea to check it (along with the tower type) when ordering your beam. FWIW, I plan on running the SAW adjusters on my rail so I can fine tune the ride height.

Mon Jul 04, 2016 7:23 pm

I bought some Bilstein B46-0493VW front shocks for my 1969 Baja with a Thing front beam. One shock came with a dust boot and one didn't.

I contacted the vendor I bought them from, and they said, according to Bilstein, boots aren't used on that particular shock. I wonder why one was in the box then.

So, has anybody else bought the B46-0493VW shocks ? Did they come with boots ? If they don't come with boots, does anybody know where I can find some that fit these shocks ?