Today was spent installing a set of 2" polyurethane TJ spacers in the rear of the -7. Started off by drilling out to a 2.5" center hole the spacers to be the same as the other actual Vitara spacers. Didn't measure, but this may not be necessary.
Began on right side, opposite of track arm axle mount, figuring that would be the easiest side. Well, from a learning standpoint, it took a while.
Disconnecting the shock took some time. Why did someone use locktite on these? Once it was broken loose from the axle, it exanded to a full length of ~18-1/4". (I should have measured complete compression.) I was able to lower the axle another 1-1/2" (shock mount measured) beyond that but that still wasn't enough to remove the coil. Come to find the parking brake cable held it up. So I started to remove the frame brackets that held the cable. There are 3 all together. What a PITA that was. Fitting my hand between the floor pan and the head of the bolt was very awkward and hard to do. Axle still didn't drop enough, and found the brake line to be tight. I removed the snap clip and let the steel line go through the hole. This gave enough to drop the axle to remove the coil.
A little trick I learned while owning a Cherokee for 9 years was to drill the lower coil mount to be able to place a rise spacer for the bump stop, which I did. I removed the bump stop to see about configuring a way to lower it as well as to provide a coil retention. It had a thread piece that is only 1/2" long thread (10x1.25mm). So that won't work.
When doing the driver's side, I zoomed through this in comparison. I had to loosen the ABS cables, and remove the only 2 cable brackets, other than that, it went well.
Some pics on in the webshots, XL7 Suspension. So in need of new longer travel shocks, I'll be looking at extending the brake line and relocating the parking brake cable run as well as the ABS cables. I tried to do a little today, but found that I had too much slack in the parking cable and it rubbed the tire.
Lastly, finally noticed that the rear ds of the -7 only has a u-joint up front. The carrier bearing and the sleeve is only a rubber isolatorithing bearing. Even the pinion is a rubber isolator-thing. Take a look in the pics. In time, like most other rubber isolators in a shear mode, it will rip apart......
