ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Model Specific Suzuki Forum => Suzuki Grand Vitara, Vitara, Chevy Tracker (Gen. 2 Platform) 1999-2005 => Topic started by: ToK on June 22, 2007, 07:46:41 AM
-
I've been wanting to lift my tracker a little, and from what I've read it sounds like coil spacers are the cheapest and easiest way. Can anybody out there confirm which spacers would fit a 2 door tracker?
Also, can anyone tell me what additional parts I will need to gather to properly complete the lift?
I haven't done very much automotive work yet, so if you could keep the replies dumbed down to my level, it would be appreciated :)
Thanks,
Travis
-
coils spacers, 1.5 inch front and 2 inch rear, crown vic rear shocks from any year and bds strut extensions for the front. parts total is less than $250CDN. back is very easy to do, front not so easy and will want an alignment after that involves slotting the strut holes, most guys have done the top hole, i did the bottom on mine. you can fit 30x9.5 after this on stock rims with no trimming. i never extended my bumpstops either! good luck.
-
I wouldn't need to slot the front struts if I buy camber bolts, correct?
Are the coil spacers the same as the 89-98 trackers, or do I need to re-drill them?
I'm working on a 03 ZR2 soft-top, so if it worked for you, it should work for me (provided I don't make mistakes).
Thanks for the info.
-
coils spacers, 1.5 inch front and 2 inch rear, ... involves slotting the strut holes.
Whoa, wait, what? Seriously? I had plenty of adjustment left after my 1" spacers and was about to upgrade. The 1.5s really need slotting in '99s and up???
-
mine did when i 1st installed the 1inch spacer, i had to slot the struts a little, did the bottom hole. the springs were sagging noticeably since when i did the 1st lift it was pretty close to new and didn't see much off road by that point. with the 1.5inch spacer it needed to be realigned again but didn't need to slot the holes anymore then that. as for the camber bolt question i am not sure because i didn't buy them.
-
I definitely needed to slot my strut holes (top ones). The camber was way out without it.
-
I definitely needed to slot my strut holes (top ones). The camber was way out without it.
With only 1.5" spacers?
-
I have a write up of installing a set of 2" spacers on our former '03 GV. All the same suspension stuff so it would be the same for you.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2175091/2
GO BUY COIL SPRING COMPRESSORS NOW!
I'll use coil springs if we lift the XL7...not doing the spacers again, too much work.
The camber bolts work nice but our problem was that 2.5" of front lift was just too much for them to correctly fix.
-
so, the OME suspension would be easier to install? My truck is on the pavement 90% of the time, so would it ride much better?
is RR the only place to order from, or does anyone know of a Canadian source for the suspension?
Thanks again for the help.
-
new springs or spacers involve the same work, you might need a spring compressor for the front, i didn't use one but we had a hoist, 2 people and a long pry bar and a guy with a really sore thumb afterwards... try national4wd, they can get OME stuff, it's expensive though and i really cannot see it being that much better, it may ride nicer but it's still a tracker! coils spacers are gonna run around $100, the OME springs more like $500. for the difference you can get your new rear shocks, strut extensions and an alignement! others may completely disagree. i should mention though that if you're springs are sagging now, replacing them will be a better option.
-
I make and sell a combo kit of 2-1.5" and 2-2" coil spacers that I know fit the 98 and under Trackers. I'm not sure if they will work on a 98+, or in your case the 03. If someone knows if they will work or not please let me know. My spacers cost as follows:
4-1.5"- $75
2-1.5" and 2-2"-$80
4-2"- $90
All prices include shipping to US, for Canada add $5 to all prices. e-mail: hoepkers|removethispart|@charter.net if you are interested. I take paypal, money order, or good ole CASH!!
-
..... OME stuff, it's expensive though and i really cannot see it being that much better, it may ride nicer but it's still a tracker!
You really need to experience an OME suspension. It's quite surprising that they can achieve better off-road characteristics AND a better on-road ride. Just adding spacers will give the lift, but make the ride worse. You get what you pay for with OME.
-
well, i thought i would have bought OME by now but didn't feel it was worth the money to go all OME for me, that's my opinion, more than likely as my struts crap out and front springs die out i'll switch over to OME parts.
-
I am running the ome lift kiy on my 1991 sidekick,and it rides much better than stock,and handles much better,both on and off road.The lift kit is well worth the money,and not too bad to install.
-
I just emailed Jeff about the spacers, so now I just need to find out where to get the strut extensions from. I tried searching the BDS page for part# BDSFSE3, and had no luck. Did I get the number wrong, or is there a better source to get the extensions from?
Are the crown vic rear shocks the best option for the rear? I'm surprised that any year of shock will fit. Considering how many years the crown vic was made, I'd have thought they would have changed at some point.
Thanks again.
-
any year from the 90's crown vic will work i'm pretty sure. mine were from mid 90's but not sure which. some people are using ford f150 2wd rear shocks also. they are longer. hopefully somebody else can give more info on that.....
-
"I tried searching the BDS page for part# BDSFSE3"
Is this the actual part # for the extensions, the suppliers I've tried are not very helpful. Does anyone have a line on these as I seem to be hitting deadends ???
-
Here are the part numbers I use for my coil spacer sets. Gabriel Gas Ryder#733604, or AC Delco #520-219, or GM part #88946064. I hope this helps. Some guys have told me they could not find the Gabriel's but those are the ones I bought and used.
-
dont know how much of a deal he could do you guys but can highly recommend his gear its top notch,,
http://www.k9rdj.co.uk/
(http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p197/pops1970/DSCF27411200x900.jpg)
used his kit to do the work to me own truck and can highly recommend, as you will see on his site he has used his own GV as a test platform
-
I definitely needed to slot my strut holes (top ones). The camber was way out without it.
With only 1.5" spacers?
I needed camber bolts by merely swapping the lame-ass OEM struts for KYB's. The positive camber was obvious.
-
I was just wondering why the preference for the crown vic shocks if the lower mount has to be modified to properly fit the tracker. I looked at the monroe spec sheets and grabbed the specs for the 03 tracker (part# 37070) and compared the mounts to see what was close, and came up with the shocks for a early 90's mustang (part# 5845). It looks to me like it should match up good with a 2" coil spacer. The mustang is also close to the same curb weight as the tracker.
Is there any reason that nobody is using it?
part# upper_mount lower_mount comp_length ext._length travel
37070 S4 LS26 12.125 18.250 6.125
5845 S4 LS26 12.250 20.125 7.875
-
I didn't have to modify my Crown Vic shocks to fit. ???
-
I was reading an earlier thread about rear shocks http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=14134.msg129359#msg129359 (http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=14134.msg129359#msg129359)
and they were saying that the sleeve is slightly larger and they had to make custom sleeves.
-
Mine were just right, maybe they changed in certain years.
-
Read that thread again, it wasn't the Crown Vic shocks that were giving ngrover trouble, it was the Toyota and Econoline shocks that were.
That said I used FJ60 Land Cruiser front shocks on our '03 GV's 2" lift and they worked fine. Didn't bother to sleeve them as the difference was so small.
-
I was just wondering why the preference for the crown vic shocks if the lower mount has to be modified to properly fit the tracker.
This is what I was replying too
-
It was Bzzr2 and R3ccoS talking about the sleeves not fitting. But now that I've re-read it I see the problem was that they couldn't reuse the original sleeves, and the ones that came with the shocks didn't quite fit
-
correct, the stock bolt on the rig is too small in diameter for use without adding a sleeve inside the bushing on the shock itself. that is all. i got mine from home depot, plumbing part.. never had a problem since. you could possibly take the sleeve out of the stock shock and re-use it but when i tried with little to no tools it was more work than it was worth.
i will say though that the crown vic shock, in my opinion now is not long enough. i will go and compare it the the fj60 landcruiser shock for length, i want another inch but no more. my brake lines, particularly the parking brake are maxed out and i will require some adjusting there, should be minimal.
it seems that when my rig is on a hoist the front wheels travel down further than the rears now with the bds extensions up front, not good as i want the rear to work harder than the front.
-
maybe i will look at the mustang shocks also, the length looks pretty good, roughly 1.5in longer than the crown vics.. good to know!
-
The additional concern I have with the mustang shocks is this phrase from the spec sheet: "Bumper Stop Unit. Dimension shown at Bumper Contact". This is listed for both the tracker shocks and the crown vic shocks for the extended length, but not for the mustang shocks.
can anyone tell me what difference, if any, it will make? This is the first time I've ever attempted suspension work, and I'd rather not make unnecessary mistakes.
-
i will say though that the crown vic shock, in my opinion now is not long enough. i will go and compare it the the fj60 landcruiser shock for length, i want another inch but no more. my brake lines, particularly the parking brake are maxed out and i will require some adjusting there, should be minimal.
Check out the rear shocks for a 98 Ford F150 2wd. They're about perfect for a 3" lifted Tracker and the bottom sleeve was the correct diameter for my Tracker's bolts. Surprisingly to me they were also both shorter and longer than Calmini's 3" lift shocks.
-
thanks AJMBLAZER, i will do that, i'm assuming that you mean shorter when compressed and longer when extended in comparison to the calmini rears?
ToK - i have no idea what that means in regards to the mustang shocks, when i get off my arse and have a look i'll see if anything comes up relating to that statement .
-
Everything's installed except one shock. I drove it for a day with the spacers and the original shocks still in, what a rough ride. After a lot of swearing and hammering, I managed to get the sleeve out of the original shock, and put it in one of the crown vic shocks and got it installed. Tonight I'll try to get the other one done.
Anybody know where to get some good bumpstop extensions?
-
One more question: was I supposed to install the spacer between the rubber isolator cup and the spring, or should I have removed that rubber cup and placed it between the spacer and the spring?
-
You want the rubber isolator against the spring.
-
darn, i'd rather not have to remove the front spacers. they were a real pain to get in. I'd assumed that since the spacers had a lip on them, that the spring would go against the spacer.
jeff1997, I hope you don't mind me including the picture of your spacers off of your ebay page.
-
i think it will depend on the material used for the spacers. i have hard plastic spacers from JDMCRX, with these i needed to use the isolator. if you look at the boondox spacers for example you would not use them because of the shape of the spacer. i know have jeep spacers in the back and the isolator is not required with them because they are more like rubber than plastic and don't rattle or anything of the sort that i have heard of.
so you went crown vic shocks eh...? did you find anymore info regarding the mustang shocks?
-
None of the shops I talked to seemed to know anything about the shocks, so I decided to play it safe and use the crown vic shocks since they've been proven to work.
I managed to get the sleeve out of the original shock by using a long bolt and a large socket. The only reason I used a socket is that I could find one that was larger than the sleeve, but narrower than the shock. The head of the bolt was the same size as the sleeve, so I pushed it through the sleeve, then through the socket. since the sleeve was able to fit inside the socket, as I cranked the nut down on the bolt, it just pulled the sleeve through the shock.
If I'm too lazy to swap the spacer and isolator around, what problems will I see? I can change them easily on the rear, but I'd rather not take the front apart again.
-
I put the spacers in with the lip down on the spring and the isolater on top of the spacer. The plastic I use should not effect the ride that much. I've ran it like this for a year and a half with no problems. If you put them in the other way the locater lip does no good.
-
Thanks Jeff.
Everything went together nicely when I installed the spacers. Removing and replacing the front coils was definitely not a chore I'd like to do again. Even with coil compressors it took a lot of kicking and prying to try to get them out.
For those of you that still use the sway bar, did you just flip the bolts on the ends to the inside? I tried it and it seemed to work so far, but I've only driven it for 2 days on paved roads.
I'm now running 235/75r15s but they still rub on the fender liner when I back up with the wheel turned. I'm guessing the difference is that I'm using 15x8" rims with less backspacing.
-
SAW-ZALL!!!! ;D ;D ;D
-
Hey Tok, what year is your Tracker? I'm interested if it is a 98 or newer. If it is and my spacers fit good that is good news. I have not confirmed if they will fit on anything newer than a 98.
-
I have not confirmed if they will fit on anything newer than a 98.
I'd be willing to replace the crappy Rocky Road spacers on my '03.
What would knowing for sure, along with a bonus photodocumentary of the swap, be worth to ya?
(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t31/poky-dot/Frankentracker/PICT0467.jpg)
(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t31/poky-dot/Frankentracker/PICT0469.jpg)
-
NICE spacers?? I think they are supposed to be a little thicker and more round! I'll sell you a set of 4-1.5" for $50 or 4-2" for $60 total, shipping included. You are not far away and should get them in 2 days. What do you think? If they do not work send them back and tell me what to change.
-
My Tracker is a 2003 ZR2. The only minor problem I had was with the rear coils. The coil didn't want to fit nicely around the lip that's supposed to hold it in place. All that required though was for me to apply a little pressure with a screwdriver to the lip as a friend slowly jacked the axle back up forcing the coil on.
I'll try to get some pictures up soon.
-
all right. pictures!
I've got pics of the front spacer, rear spacer, my camber issues, and finally the whole tracker.
Hopefully I can get an alignment done real soon. the camber bolts were supposed to be shipped today.
-
Looks good. Glad to know the spacers will fit newer vehicles.
Hey beercheck, I know what I need to know now. Thanks for the offer though.
-
Yeah, that's how it goes.
-
I want a set for my 2002 Gv too!
-
I do not know if they will fit the GV or not. If it is the same as the Tracker/Sidekick then they will but I do not know for sure. If you want some let me know at: hoepkers|removethispart|@charter.net