Front suspension help

Good day,

I am looking for some help with regards to my front axel not articulating..

Context:

I recently imported the 4" 4x4 art lift kit, comes complete with radial arms, coils, new coni shocks, extended breaks lines etc.

I have installed the kit as per instruction, and I am very very happy with the result. The improvement was massive. However after doing a few trails others keos noticing that one of my front wheels would often lift when it really shouldn't be. I didn't take much notice of this until someone mentioned it to me again last weekend. And when I watch videos of me on the real tricky stuff, I can see I'm struggling due to front traction.

So the other night I decided to play around abit and test the axel. I jacked up the car and put Teo tresseles under the axels. I then disconnected the shocks, swaybar and removed the coils. Now according to me nothing should be pushing / pulling or affecting the axel.

I then put a jack under the right hand side of the axel and jacked it up. But to my horror, as I jacked it the left side rose up as well. Once the axel had hit the bump stop, thd left was maybe 3cm lower.... This had me seriously puzzled, I was expecting the left to by Kyung on the floor and the right up in the sky, as I previously beleived it was the shocks that limit the travel..

I then thought aah maybe cause the coils are out, they are not pushing down on the axel, I tried by hand putting my weight on the left hand side axel. I could maybe get it to move 3cm further down. This is shocking. The axel cant even flex at 8 degrees.

What could be causing this? I could only think that I'd is radial arms binding.. But what I can't understand is that the back axel flexes like crazy a good 25 to 20 degrees, and it has the exact same radial arms with rose joins?

I am really keen to hear some of your thoughts. I am stuck and this is quite a bad issue I'm not sure how to resolve...


Images:
Back axel flex.
Front axel. Barely flexing..


Front axel jacked up on one side, barely flexing..


Wheel lifting while driving.

This kit that you have, do the radius arm bushes have their mounting holes centred in the bushes or offset from centre? If they are offset are they all correctly oriented? Seems odd though that it is binding that much with the weight of the car as shown in the picture on the rocks.

Your Anti Roll Bar is still attached, has this been "dropped" to suit the lift? The lift will have altered the mounting angle of the ARB and could well have added an unwanted preload if it is not lowered on the chassis side with blocks.

Repeat your articulation inspection with the ARB drop links removed. Hopefully, you'll get a lot more movement in the front axle.

You can fit an ARB disconnect which breaks the ARB in the centre with a weld on fitting that then allows free rotation when the bolts are removed.

Some just completely remove the ARB and drive the car accordingly (cornering gently due to body roll).

The 4x4Art kit does work well.

sniper

As I understand it, you have removed the shocks, coils and swaybar and then tried lifting one wheel. As you lift the one wheel, the other lifts almost the same amount.

I would suggest you try lifting both wheels together to the point that both sides of the axle are hard against the bumpstops. After that, drop both sides together and see how far the axle lowers. In my mind, with all that you have removed, the only thing left that could cause binding would be the bushings.

Just remove the anti roll bar/sway bar and try again
Never had one first thing i removed

Sniper and Jack:

I think he did: "I then disconnected the shocks, swaybar and removed the coils."

That's why I am a little confused. If he raises and tries lowering the entire axle, and there isn't much drop, I would think the radius arms likely have bad ball joints at the chassis mounts. If the entire axle moves up and down together reasonably well, I'm thinking maybe binding bushings (overly rigid) at the axle mounting for the radius arms.

What do you think? Make any sense?