Sidekick Lift-is it possible to.....

[DameApril]

Hi Guys,
Well,I said I'd probably have many questions....and,thankfully,y'all offered to answer :D So,OK,here goes......don't laugh at me :huh:
Been doin' some reading and researching and found a sight that says discarded Wrangler springs are a Zookers treasure :roll: Is this true? Can I put Wrangler springs under the kicker to raise it up a bit? Remember,I don't wanna go too far up,don't wanna fool with extensions and stuff.I just wanna get the body up a bit for ground clearance.
If I can use the Wrangler springs,how much lift do you reckon I might get? Will that be easier on the axles than spacers? 'Course I don't wanna do a lot of 'rockin' and rollin' either :yike
I plan on runnin' pretty much stock,for now.Do want to add rear lockers (at least) later on and get some rock rails under it.
What kind of mods do you think I would be looking at if I try the Wrangler springs? Y'all please speak up,I need all the help I can get!!!! :bawl:
Anybody got any,or any other ideas?
Thanx-a-Bunch Guys, :urock:
April
89 kick

[Depot]

Adding bigger coils in the rear, not so bad... just adding bigger coils in the front will cause grief.. heres why...

Take a close look at the front suspension of ur truck.. see where the coils sits right now? between the top mount and the lower control arm. Putting bigger coils or spacers have the same effect. it will push ur lower control arm even lower. That will pull the bottom of the tires inwards. To pull the tops of the tires inwards to match u have to do an alighnment. unfortunatly, there isnt much adjustment on the strut where it connects to the spindle. U might have to grind out the mounting holes in the strut to allow it to angle more. This is not hard and there is fair bit of meat to grind off if u want.

keep in mind, u've just increased the angles ur cv's ride on. watch out for bindage.

also, ur strut only has a stroke of 6". If u push ur tires down too far, U'll find the strut is fully extended and holding ur tire up. makes for a rough ride and will eventually blow ur strut. In case ur thinking of putting in strut spacers too, i warn u now, u will bind ur cv's if u go down too far. i dont know what the limit is but I think 2" will bind.

Calmini's suspension lift kit gives u longer and way stiffer coils. strut spacers and new lower control arms. But the key thing they do is lower ur front differential to ease the cv's angles.

i for one hate calmini's lift kit for kicks, but then again Im not fond of calmini either. but if u see their kit and what theyve done and why, U'll understand y its not that easy to jsut slam bigger coils in there.

And just cause i havnt said it in a while... IFS SUCKS!!!!!! put a solid axel in there and raise it sky high! :D

gl

D

[Lucy]

I know a couple guys that have tried the wrangler or other various types of springs that they have aquired from wreckers to lift a kick and it works sort of, you wouldn't catch my doing it for most of the reasons Depot just stated. Your kick will end up rideing like I rock with close to 0 articulation. As for the Calmini 3" lift , I do agree it sucks,the only parts of the kit that do you any real good on the front end are the strut spacers ,the front differencial lowering brackets help but cause almost as many problems as they solve and the new control arms are the same size as stock ,they are just pretty and blue, but you can get it working well if your willing to do huge amounts of tweeking and modification , so unless your really devoted to your kick it's not for you.

if you only want a little bit of lift ,and you want to keep it easy and simple I would recomend going with a body lift for now. The other option you might look into if you really want to mod the suspension that badly is the Old Man Emu suspension kit, it has longer struts , shocks and springs that give you a 1.5" lift, you can also get coil spacers to add to it which will bring you to a total of 2" of lift. You will lose some articulation but the kick will still ride like a kick and not like a rock.

just my 2 cent


and oh yeah....


And just cause i havnt said it in a while... IFS SUCKS!!!!!! put a solid axel in there and raise it sky high! :D

D

Blah blah blah :roll:

:D
Lucy

[Depot]

was waiting for that :D :D figured that would pull u outta hiding :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban:

D

[Lucy]

was waiting for that :D :D figured that would pull u outta hiding :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban:

D

Yeah baby , you know how to push my buttons, happy now??? :roll:

Smart ass!

lol
Lucy

[KAC]

Play nice you two.

[MLC]

is it getting hot in here or is me .......any ways back to the problem at hand ...i wouldn.t go any more than 1 1/2 coil spacer i tried 2 '' but run to great probs with the axles binding and the steering going all crazy i had to drop my front housing losing ground clearance and modify my center link( drop it ..cut and weld :yike ) i have done 3 other kicks so far with 1 1/2 coil spacers with no pro
b so far and i did use a strut spacer also on all of them......



ps . good to see u on the board Lucy :beer:

[MuddMachine]

Uhhh..... people...... she said wrangler springs, those are leaf springs, no ? :huh:

[Depot]

now that would be kewl... throw some leafs under it... hmmm... i wonder how???

I dunno if wrangler is leaf, coil, or combo. But the essence of her q was answered in great detail for any coil.

D

[Twinkie]

now that would be kewl... throw some leafs under it... hmmm... i wonder how???

I dunno if wrangler is leaf, coil, or combo. But the essence of her q was answered in great detail for any coil.

D
Guess my new found Heep knowledge jumps in at this point. Wrangler refers to YJ's and TJ's (quite possibly CJ's too but I don't concern myself with them), generally if you hear that Wrangler springs are gold to Zook guys they are refering to YJ leafs to be used on Sami's. The YJ leafs are much softer and flex better then Sami's I think, although they are longer too I believe. Although I did see one web article where a guy used TJ coils on a 'Kick, wth extensive mods to make it work. Hope this clears it up.

[Flanders]

Here is a pic of one of the ones MLC did and works good

[MLC]

I did NOT make those bumpbers though i only did the lift .....nice rims by the way :)

[mudmagnet]

i have 4" suspension in the rear of my sidekick by using **** TJ FRONT coils from a 4.0L..... gives it exactly 4" of lift and flexes nice too.....
for the front i got slightly over 3" by adding 2 1/8" spacer ontop of the coil and holming out the 3 bolt holes on top of the strut under the hood and pulling the top of the strut inward about 1/2"..... and while you have the strut down take the big nut off the top of the strut and the plate with the 3 bolts will come off, flip that upside down and dril out the 3 bolts and put them in the other way, that will give you about 1" in your strut. i can turn 31"s on stock rims, or what i have on it now is 30" bf mud KM's on 8" steelies.
hope that helped.....o yeah then get your tie rods aligned......i fawked my front brand new nortic wintrac tires.....:(...
-Mike

[Flanders]

How a pic or two of this set up.

[MLC]

i have to agree with Depot on this one the solid axle is the way to go .if u'r going bigger than 31's ...my 02

[Depot]

i have to agree with Depot....


U just have to eh??? that must hurt! lol

:beer:

hey muddmagnet... with ur setup.. how much uptravel and downtravel do u have on ur front struts now? how much room u got b4 ur cv's bind? It sounds to me like ur struts are fully extended and preventing ur tires from dropping anymore, thereby preventing cv bindage... is that correct?

Im still having nightmares from helping Lucy with her IFS. I'd be really curious to see pics of what u did and find out what kinda flex u get and any other probs or benifits u found...

l8r

D

[MLC]

u liked that didn't u 4x4 God. :roll: .....lol

[Depot]

4X4 God!!!! now that an insult! LMFAO

see yah in a few weeks bud :beer:

D

[mudmagnet]

U just have to eh??? that must hurt! lol

:beer:

hey muddmagnet... with ur setup.. how much uptravel and downtravel do u have on ur front struts now? how much room u got b4 ur cv's bind? It sounds to me like ur struts are fully extended and preventing ur tires from dropping anymore, thereby preventing cv bindage... is that correct?




you are correct....... the cv's have about 2" more drop to take, but the struts won't let that happen..... i have about 1" strut drop i have about 3 1/4" lift actually...... and 4" in the rear......

[DameApril]

I just got around to reading all the posted replies to my question.I want to thank all of you who replied :) . I think y'all have told me enuff to let me know to forget the lift! Maybe coil spacers,later,itty bitty ones.
The kick has 225x15x5.5 on it now.Was planning to try to run 235s on it,but may just stick to 225s.It is doing a pretty good job,pure stock.I guess,if it ain't broke,don't try to fix it,huh?
Thanx-a-Bunch
April
PS Sure am glad there is another female on this board :D !

[jimmyr]

I was looking into this a while back before I found a samurai. Here is some info I found.....

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=102200&highlight=coil+spacers

http://bbs.off-road.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=offroadsuzuki&Number=1256561&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

http://www.truckworld.com/How-To-Tech/Suzuki-Sidekick-Lift/1htf5.html

http://www.ruscovehicleupgrades.com/