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Calmini 3" Lift Questions

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Offline suzukiboyoz

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Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« on: April 07, 2005, 09:46:53 AM »
Has anyone got a close up pic of where you need to grind down the rear shock point to fit the larger shocks from the 3" kit on the Vitara?
I have a pic I can post of the unmodified mount if someone wants show me?

Also the lower front bracket that bolts the diff to the cross member, what is the order of reassemble.
The write up on IZOOK has a different order to the ZUKIWORLD write up.

ZUKIWORLD write up pic

IZOOK write up pic
« Last Edit: April 07, 2005, 12:36:51 PM by suzukiboyoz »
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Offline robert_h

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2005, 03:03:52 PM »
I am in the process of installing my Calmini 3" kit, so I called them up today. They say the blue Calmini bushing goes on top, with the bracket below it, and the factory bushing under that- so the Zukiworld picture is correct.
  - Rob
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Offline cj

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2005, 03:50:24 PM »
Quote
Has anyone got a close up pic of where you need to grind down the rear shock point to fit the larger shocks from the 3" kit on the Vitara?


I'd have to take the wheel off to get a shot but it's not very much. Just fit the top of the shock then try and fit the bottom see what you need to remove, move the bottom of the shock out of the way and grind a little then retry the shock. Keep going till it clears. Easy  ;)
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mudfkr

Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2005, 04:50:37 PM »
Quote
I am in the process of installing my Calmini 3" kit, so I called them up today. They say the blue Calmini bushing goes on top, with the bracket below it, and the factory bushing under that- so the Zukiworld picture is correct.
  - Rob


Well I've been running mine this way for a while and noticed the mount bending so I contacted Calmini and heres the reply I got

" On the center mount bushing, our new polyurethane bushing should be on the bottom with the factory rubber mount on top of our center diff drop.  Let me know if that answers your question.  If not, fire away!"

Make sense now that I've actually thought about it, with the Calmini poly bush on top there is no give in it hence why mines started to bend  ::).



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Offline HotRod

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2005, 04:52:49 PM »

Don't you ever wash under here? ;) ;D
BTW. I think your missing a bolt. Or is that the new stealth style? ;D
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mudfkr

Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2005, 05:53:35 PM »
Here's a pic of mine and how not to do it, you can see how much I've bent both the Calmini and factory mounts  :-[


As for where to grind out the rear shock mount,  try fit your new shocks up and it will be real obvious. Be over generous when grinding them as you don't want to dent the new shocks when it's articulating.
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Offline robert_h

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2005, 12:47:13 AM »
Mudfkr, thanks for your post and the picture! I think Calmini gave me some bum advice on the phone yesterday.  
On the shocks- it is pretty clear where to grind; just make sure to check things with the shocks at full extension.  
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mudfkr

Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2005, 09:32:27 AM »
No problem Robert,

Don't forget to post some pix once ya done, We love pix  ;D
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Offline robert_h

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2005, 09:48:11 AM »
Well, now I've gotten to this part of the installation, and I'm really confused. The trouble is that there is a steel sleeve which runs through the factory bushings; the bolt that holds this bushing sandwich together runs down the middle of the sleeve. The Calmini bushing has a hole the correct size for the steel sleeve. However, the Calmini bushing is thinner than the factory bushings.

Option A) Assemble the sandwich using the Calmini bushing, one factory bushing, and the  steel sleeve. The problem is that you can't compress the bushings because the sleeve is too long now that you're using the thin Calmini bushing.

Option B) Assemble the sandwich, leaving out the steel sleeve- but that's no good, because now there's a lot of slop in the whole assembly.

Option C) Shorten the steel sleeve. What a pain!

What to do? Guess I will call Calmini on Monday, but if anyone has suggestions, that'd be great!
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mudfkr

Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2005, 10:37:04 AM »
IIRC Calmini's instructions say to leave it out but I didn't like that idea so I cut mine down and used it. A few others had done the same when I asked about it too.  
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Offline Zukipilot

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2005, 01:55:50 PM »
Quote

Don't you ever wash under here? ;) ;D
BTW. I think your missing a bolt. Or is that the new stealth style? ;D

That's just what a well beaten trail rig looks like after 200K ;)

And No, it does not get washed under there much, just a pressure wash al the local car wash after each ride. I'll occasionally take a scraper to it when I do work under the ride.

As you'll can see the iZook article is mine. It has been a long tome since i did that install bt I am prety sure that I called to see how it should be done and that is how I installed the bushings. Right or wrong I had no bending or breaking of the bracket and NEVER broke a 3rd member housing with many years of use. I broke evertthing else possible in the front end, but never a bracket or housing.

Zig
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Zukipilot
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Offline suzukiboyoz

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #11 on: April 09, 2005, 02:41:26 PM »
Thanks for the replies.
Ok I think we agree the polyurethane bushing should be on the bottom.
And best way to work out clearance for shock mount is to fit them and see where it hits.
I will be taking heaps of pics when I finaly get time for the install.
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Offline robert_h

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #12 on: April 09, 2005, 04:09:33 PM »
Mudfker, Zukipilot- thanks for the info. Shortening the sleeve sounds like a good idea, so I will do that, in addition to putting the blue bushing on the bottom. Thanks again!

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Offline Zukipilot

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2005, 12:05:22 AM »
Your Welcome ;)
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Zukipilot
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Offline robert_h

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Re: Calmini 3" Lift Questions
« Reply #14 on: April 11, 2005, 04:19:41 PM »
Not to beat on a dead horse, but here goes. I talked to Steve (I think) at Calmini today. He confirmed what's been written in this thread: trim the bushing sleeve & put the Calmini bushing between the new bracket and the crossmember.

Steve also said that late model Sidekicks have a reinforcing rib on the bottom of the differential housing that needs to be ground away so that it won't interfere with the crossbar. The best way to do this is to remove the differential housing entirely and go at it with an angle grinder. (Geez, Calmini, thanks for mentioning this in the instructions.)

Anyway, I still had problems with the fit after I ground off the rib at the bottom of the housing. The holes in the bracket on the passenger side just wouldn't line up with those on the housing. It looked like if I removed a lot more material off the housing the holes would line up, but I was getting worried about doing more grinding. There's a reason Suzuki added a reinforcing rib to the housing- and why they later switched to steel! I wound up using a file to hog out the holes in the passenger-side bracket, and got things to fit that way. Hopefully this will work out.

I'm just about done installing the lift, and for me, these issues with the differential housing were by far the toughest part of the install.  
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