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installing trooper springs into 2nd gen rodeo writeup

88K views 75 replies 38 participants last post by  99isuzorodeo 
#1 ·
EDIT: same thread just changed the title to one that makes more sense :D

Just got them in on friday! :twisted: but heres a little write up for those who were clueless as i was ..well until i actually took a look under the zoo.

Tools & equip:
at least 2 jack stands
1 jack
various size wrenches and sockets
breaker bar (optional but helps)
98+ trooper coils
rodeo manual for reference (i used the .pdf version)

first jack up the rodeo. does not have to be too high my tires were about an inch off the ground.


after taking off the tires support the diff with a jack. and unclamp the brake hose and unscrew the brake connector from the rear axle.

left side:




middle:


right side:



also there is a wrapped wire that is ziptied to the upper link so just pinch the bottom and the wire will let loose. (the pic is it already detached though)


next remove upper link bolt on LEFT side ONLY. it may look like the spring is in the way but try to jack up or down the diff to give the best clearance. you may want to use wd40 on the nut because i needed a breaker bar just to loosen it up. after you take the nut off use a screw driver and hammer to push the bolt out and it will just slide over the spring with ease.




next remove the bolts for the stabilizer link. its 2 bolts on each side.
(its already unbolted but you can see where it is located.)


then remove shock absorbers. you can easily take them off by unbolting the tops and lowering the diff so you can slide the bottom off the stud then it will come right out.

then lower the diff slowly until the springs are loose like this.. (be careful and watch the brake lines and all wires so they don't extend too far)



here is the springs side by side (trooper left - rodeo right) my springs came off of a 2002 trooper.



then switch the springs and start reversing the steps.

NOTE: with the trooper coils the upper link bolt hole was not blocked anymore by the spring. this was the hardest part for me though because the holes did not line up perfectly and the bolt wouldnt go through the other side because of it unaligning when you put one side on (hope that dosent sound confusing). you may want to have a thrid hand around because i had to wedge and pull while a thrid hand tapped the bolt through.




and keep reversing the steps and BAM! a nice two inch lift. my rears went from 33 1/4" to 35 1/4 " (top of fender wells) off the ground.

before:



after:



the lift looks higher in person. i just need to crank the t-bars in the front to match and hopefully sometime soon buy the zoo new rims and tires and im good! 8) the job really wasn't that hard and took me 3 hours to complete (and i was taking my time) hopefully this encourages some of you to DIY instead of bringing it to the shop and save some kee$$$hh, thats always good right?!
 
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#27 ·
Fairchild said:
Just a quick note. Should have mentioned, this is for a 99 Isuzu Rodeo 2 wheel drive 6cylinder 3.2.

Was considering this for a 2" lift before I broke a spring. Or is their a better more ideal way of doing this? All suggestions are greatly appreciated.
OME912 will give you 1.5" or 2" lift for your Rodeo.

OME913 would give you around 0.5" - 1" lift.

This is comparing to a vehicle with the new stock coils. If you compare it to a vehicle with some old sagged stock coils, you will see higher lift.
 
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#28 ·
OME912 will give you 1.5" or 2" lift for your Rodeo.

This is comparing to a vehicle with the new stock coils. If you compare it to a vehicle with some old sagged stock coils, you will see higher lift.

This is the magical answer to my question - You are Da Man much appreciated sir!
 
#29 ·
Actually OME 913's will give you a 2" lift, and OME 912's will give you a 3" lift. I have put 913's on my Rodeo that only had 50k miles and wasn't sagging at all, and got a full 2" of lift. Others have measured their 912's and got right at 3" of lift.
 
#30 ·
clipper 03 rodeo said:
Actually OME 913's will give you a 2" lift, and OME 912's will give you a 3" lift. I have put 913's on my Rodeo that only had 50k miles and wasn't sagging at all, and got a full 2" of lift. Others have measured their 912's and got right at 3" of lift.
This is not what I observed on my 2002 Rodeo. On the new Rodeo, 913s gave me almost no lift. 912s, together with 2" spacers, gave me 4" of lift (4-2=2).

The same figures I got on the Axiom, so this is a consistent situation. Now I am using 929s (much stiffer and larger coils than 912s), and those are giving me just 3" of lift without spacers. No way 912s can give the same amount of lift as 929s.
 
#31 ·
I'm curious if their would be a difference between 2wheel and 4wheel drives. I know the chassis are the same but the weight distribution and shock ( aftermarket or stock ) make a difference maybe?

Haven't decided on exactly what to buy yet. Still considering some used shocks. absolute height is not critical. I was hoping to get at least 2" but no more than 4". I'd be happy with under 3" just so I dont have to change the shocks and extend the brake line to be honest.
 
#32 ·
That's strange Holger. I'm not saying your wrong or anything, but many people here have gotten a 2" lift with 913's (like myself) and a 3" lift with 912's. Gizmo has put 912's on 3 different Rodeos and got a 3" lift out of all of them.
 
#33 ·
Fairchild said:
I'm curious if their would be a difference between 2wheel and 4wheel drives. I know the chassis are the same but the weight distribution and shock ( aftermarket or stock ) make a difference maybe?

Haven't decided on exactly what to buy yet. Still considering some used shocks. absolute height is not critical. I was hoping to get at least 2" but no more than 4". I'd be happy with under 3" just so I dont have to change the shocks and extend the brake line to be honest.
I don't think it really makes a difference with how much coils will lift the rear rather its 4x2 or 4x4. Yeah if you're not wanting to deal with the shocks and such right now just get the 913's for the 2" lift. Like me you can just add spacers later on if you want some more lift.
 
#34 ·
clipper 03 rodeo said:
That's strange Holger. I'm not saying your wrong or anything, but many people here have gotten a 2" lift with 913's (like myself) and a 3" lift with 912's. Gizmo has put 912's on 3 different Rodeos and got a 3" lift out of all of them.
I do not know what to say. Did you take into account the new larger tires ? Did you measure the lift immediately after the lifting, or did you give it time to settle (a month may be) ?

After few months the OME settle back at least 1". All OMEs that I personally tried on 2 vehicles (913, 912, 919, 929) did just that. So, to get a permanent lift of 1.5" - 2" you need the initial lift of 3". This is 912s.

OME lists in their catalog that 913s provide just .75" of lift for the Rodeo. You can check it on their site. And this is consistent with my results on 2 different vehicles. To say that OME is so way off about their own products... provided I double-checked it myself, independently... it would be a bit of stretch.
 
#35 ·
Actually I installed the 913 coils with the stock rims/tires the measured and it was right at 2". Then I installed 30" tires after that and it gave me about another 1/2". I also measured them about a month later (since I waited a bit to get an alignment, and I wanted to make sure the t-bars were cranked about an inch under the height of the rear to give it some rake) and they settled maybe 1/8th of inch. I also re-measured about 3 months after that before installing my spacers and 32" tires and they were still at the exact same height.

I completely see where your coming from, but the fact is multiple (not just a couple) people have gotten the same results of 2" with 913's and 3" with 912's. Not much else can be said about it.
 
#36 ·
Fairchild said:
I'm curious if their would be a difference between 2wheel and 4wheel drives. I know the chassis are the same but the weight distribution and shock ( aftermarket or stock ) make a difference maybe?
It does not matter, they will work the same way.

Fairchild said:
Haven't decided on exactly what to buy yet. Still considering some used shocks. absolute height is not critical. I was hoping to get at least 2" but no more than 4". I'd be happy with under 3" just so I dont have to change the shocks and extend the brake line to be honest.
If money is not an issue, and you do not need really long shocks for off-road, then take OME shocks application for Rodeo. They are a little bit longer than "stock height" shocks (OME shocks extend more than other shocks with the same length) and they are good through the whole suspension travel on a lightly lifted vehicle.

If money is the issue, then just take some Monroe or KYB, both are cheap.

Used shocks are not a good idea.
 
#37 ·
clipper 03 rodeo said:
Actually I installed the 913 coils with the stock rims/tires the measured and it was right at 2". Then I installed 30" tires after that and it gave me about another 1/2".
did you check the height after a month or two ?
 
#38 ·
holger said:
clipper 03 rodeo said:
Actually I installed the 913 coils with the stock rims/tires the measured and it was right at 2". Then I installed 30" tires after that and it gave me about another 1/2".
did you check the height after a month or two ?
Edited my post above with the answer to this question.
 
#39 ·
clipper 03 rodeo said:
I also measured them about a month later (since I waited a bit to get an alignment, and I wanted to make sure the t-bars were cranked about an inch under the height of the rear to give it some rake) and they settled maybe 1/8th of inch. I also re-measured about 3 months after that before installing my spacers and 32" tires and they were still at the exact same height.
This is strange and not typical. Many people complained here about too much settle in OME. And I observed this set back myself. But... "your results may vary".
 
#40 ·
clipper 03 rodeo said:
I have put 913's on my Rodeo that only had 50k miles and wasn't sagging at all, and got a full 2" of lift.
By the way, 50K miles is still a mileage. And there were several years of permanent pressure on the coils by the vehicle weight. You cannot say that "it wasn't sagging at all". You just did not see that it was sagging - a little, an 1", for example.

I observed how my former OME 919s sagged (initially) 1" after 1 (just one) trip of about 1000 miles (including some 'wheeling). Before the trip, I could not fit my vehicle in the garage; after the trip, it was fitting perfectly with some extra clearance.

The 913s and the stock coils are much smaller than 919s.
 
#41 ·
I do agree that all springs sag. All i'm saying is that if I could get a full 2" with lift with 913's after measuring against some VERY good condition low mileage stock springs, there isn't any reason someone with high mileage beat-on springs shouldnt get 2" of lift with the 913's.
 
#42 ·
clipper 03 rodeo said:
there isn't any reason someone with high mileage beat-on springs shouldnt get 2" of lift with the 913's.
that's true.

I am used to relatively low-mileage vehicles. My Rodeo was totaled when it was just 60+K miles. My current Axiom has only 40K miles. I use them extensively, and I put lots of mods in them, but I drive them only for recreation (camping trips and the trail riding). This is why they may see lots of new coils/shocks/etc in their lives but not many miles. I am always comparing to the "new" vehicle height.
 
#44 ·
Good info. Thanks!!
 
#45 ·
Finally got around to doing this today. Good write up too. I too spent about 30 minutes messing with the upper link bolt trying to get both side in, but then I gave up and went inside to get a drink. As I was surveying the situation while having said drink, I had an epiphany. This is what I came up with:

C-Clamp baby!


If you can get the upper link close enough in the bracket, just slap on the c-clamp and tighten, it should line up pretty well. I had one side in already, so it lined up smooth like butter. If you choose to do this, make sure you use the curved part of the clamp on the back of the bracket to hold the upper link in place, otherwise it will keep slipping out when you tighten the clamp.

Sort of like this:


notice how the upper link is being held by the curved part and not the actual clamp part. I hope this saves someone the trouble I went through (if you look in the pic you can see all the scratches I put in/around the bracket).

On a side note: oddly the driver's side only added a 1&1/4" where the passenger's side went up 2". I checked the front and both sat level, so I'm sort of wondering what's up with that?
 
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#46 ·
What year Trooper springs will work for this? My Assumption was 98-2005 but no one ever clearly stated this fact. I tried to use my auto zone app in the salvage yard Saturday and remembered they don't sell our suspension so I couldn't verify if they were the same part #. Waiting on a possible deal with BlackBeauty's lift and didn't want to spend cash on a new lift If I'm buying his. Also wife needs a 2" lift to fit her new tires and bf was looking for a cheap 2" lift to gain necessary clearance.
 
#47 ·
98-02 Trooper springs will work, the Trooper was discontinued in 2002.
 
#51 ·
yes, an older trooper would probably have more sag because age and wear.
 
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