hi, i have received my jeff hoepker 2" lift for my vitara yesterday. i have installed the rear this morning and went very well, i can see the diference already!!! i had to remove the handbrake bolt on the bracket so it more free on the driver side, other than that everything is all good,

my only issue at the moment is to remove the front coil spring. do i really need a coil spring compressor? i dont have any on hand. wonder if the a arm could go down lower enough so i can slide out the coil spring ,and drop in the spacer by removing the lower ball joint. that is one way i see it to get it in or, i leave the ball joint on and remove the 2 bolts holding the a arm on the frame with a jack under the a arm and lower it?

i found this a few min ago, wonder if i can do this?

http://www.suzuki-4wd.nl/villager/v6-lift/front/

May work for some but when I tried that the spring was still caught on the lip of the perch on the a arm so i needed a spring compressor anyways.  I decided against removing the bolts and lowering the whole arm because I felt it was too precarious and might send a spring flying at me (I know someone who almost got killed form this before).  So I went to Partsource and borrowed once for free (buy it on credit card then they refund it when you return the compressor). 

Good luck!

If you loosen the two bolts that hold the A-arm to the frame a few turns it will let the arm swing down nice and low so you won't need a spring compressor.  Much easier and safer in my opinion.  You'll need a breaker bar though because those bolts are tight.  Just remember to do the final tightening and torque them again once the tires are on and the vehicle is back on the ground.

Agree with both of the above.  The farther down you get the A-arm the more treacherous of an angle it is to seat the spring.  The problem I encountered with coil spring compressors is ONE of the coil spring compressors is always too long for the minimal clearance you have working on these trucklets (to get them positioned across from each other).  

I went to Harbor Freight and bought a pair of their "inexpensive" coil spring compressors ($20?) and cut a few inches of length off of the threaded bar on one of them so it would fit "more better" on the front of the spring (don't try that with the rental coil compressors).  If you do go the route of using a spring compressor, be sure to coat the threads of the coil spring compressor with some anti-seize compound to prevent the threads from tearing up once you begin putting pressure on the compressor.  Another note, I only compressed the coils about 1 to 2 inches and found it was enough that I could "screw" the pigtail bottom end into the seat of the arm where it needs to rest.  

For the record, I personally would not feel comfortable trying to compress the coil springs down 5 or 6 inches with those chinese made compressors.  Crushing them down 2 or 3 inches... I was comfortable with that.  But even with only an inch of compression on those springs... you would be amazed at how far and hard they can bounce out of that spring pocket suddenly and you DON'T want to be in the way, so be cautious and treat the compressed spring with alot of respect and proper body positioning. Your hands, arms and face will appreciate it.

Yeah, get ahold of some spring compressors.  If you're not going over 1.5" spacers, a pry bar and hammer will do the job, but the compressors make it tons easier.
 
It also helps a whole lot to remove the 4 bolts to drop the steering rack.  Takes 5 minutes; just let it hang.

i have the 1.5 spacers, if i get the tie rod out i dont need to mess around with the rack, wen i have changed my old pan last weekend i had the passenger side spindle off so i could remove the diff easier, the coil was almost out of the seat at that time, but my concern is i know its gona be tight with the spacer on, my dad is a 30 year mechanic and last year had a bad luck with a spring compressor, he took his time and all but the "wall mount" spring compressor have failed and cut his finger open badly, he told me to bring it to a shop that deals with this often, its more money but safer. since i have to get it on the aligment machine might as well install the front coil spacers there. i should have a little discount as my dad work there anyways lol. i just gona install the strut mount myself then drive it to the shop next week.

i also need the longer shock as well (loosing travel alot) i had one tiny issue with the driver side rear spacer witch the spacer dint want to go all in against the spring seat, i tryed to flex into place (the reason of the flexing picture lol) but no luck, i had the redo the job and instead of removing the rubber bump stop i smashed it in with a hammer and then it has slided all in to place. its just the hexagon shape that was stopping it.no biggy

here is a few pic of what i have so far, by the way i have camouflaged the roof rack, what you think about it?

When we installed my lift I ended up taking the rented spring compressor and put the one closest to the front of the vehicle with the threads up and the one closest to the door with the threads down.  This allowed me to compress the spring and then rotate it so it came out the back of the wheel opening.  It took me three tries at least before I realized that was what I needed to do.  I would also like to thank my coworker Mike Albright for helping me put my lift in even though he drives a Jeep.

Regardless of how you install your front coil spacers, I would suggest driving your truck a few miles to allow the springs to seat themselves comfortably before you spend the money aligning it.  Once your coil spacers are initially installed your front tires will have excessive camber and look something like this:  \  /   

Once you have driven it a few miles (carefully) the camber won't be as pronounced, your front springs will then be better 'seated' to where they want/like to ride and you will then get a 'more better' alignment on your truck.

If you loosen the two bolts that hold the A-arm to the frame a few turns it will let the arm swing down nice and low so you won't need a spring compressor.  Much easier and safer in my opinion.  You'll need a breaker bar though because those bolts are tight.  Just remember to do the final tightening and torque them again once the tires are on and the vehicle is back on the ground.

Ok makes sense, I never tried that and i see how that would help.  And as someone else mentioned I would not want to compress them too far, just used the comnpressor to get squeeze them that last little bit to get them out, maybe 2" tops.

well i have a buddy working at a shop here in st-ignace new-brunswick canada,called "Gallant custom cars inc" he specialize in lift kits and truck fabrication and aftermarket parts, he told me he did 6 of them so far (99-05 tracker and vitara) and never had to used a spring compressor to put in a 3" spacer, and mine is only a 1" and a half spacer. so now i know i trust this guy, so im going for it his way. the hardest part i would think would be removing the passenger side cv shaft.

he said i had to jack up the suv high enough so the a arm can drop alot, so he told me to do it this way... first remove the capliper and pads so i wont have to deal with the brake line,remove the cv axle/shaft clip retainer, then remove the lower strut bolts, then removing the tie-rod and then the lower ball joint (with a floor jack under the a arm) then lower the jack until the a arm is fully extended, then he said the spring should be removable by hand easely. then is just the matter of putting in the coil spacer then put in the spring, this is the hardest part he said of the job, he said put the top of the spring first against the new spacer, then put the lower part of the spring against the "spring seat" (the round lip were the spring will sit) then take a pry bar and pry it in until it jump into place,(pry bar under the spring to make it jump into place) he said the danger of a flying spring is not dangerous at this spot, after the spring is into place here is the dangerous part, start to jack the a arm back up so it can be placed back into the ball joint, this is the dangerous part as the spring will be compressed and could be flying,but as the spring is in the proper position it should not be flying. then the rest should be the reverse of the process, in my case i wont put the lower strut bolt right away since i still need to install my strut spacers in.

well i have a buddy working at a shop here in st-ignace new-brunswick canada,called "Gallant custom cars inc" he specialize in lift kits and truck fabrication and aftermarket parts, he told me he did 6 of them so far (99-05 tracker and vitara) and never had to used a spring compressor to put in a 3" spacer, and mine is only a 1" and a half spacer. so now i know i trust this guy, so im going for it his way. the hardest part i would think would be removing the passenger side cv shaft.

he said i had to jack up the suv high enough so the a arm can drop alot, so he told me to do it this way... first remove the capliper and pads so i wont have to deal with the brake line,remove the cv axle/shaft clip retainer, then remove the lower strut bolts, then removing the tie-rod and then the lower ball joint (with a floor jack under the a arm) then lower the jack until the a arm is fully extended, then he said the spring should be removable by hand easely. then is just the matter of putting in the coil spacer then put in the spring, this is the hardest part he said of the job, he said put the top of the spring first against the new spacer, then put the lower part of the spring against the "spring seat" (the round lip were the spring will sit) then take a pry bar and pry it in until it jump into place,(pry bar under the spring to make it jump into place) he said the danger of a flying spring is not dangerous at this spot, after the spring is into place here is the dangerous part, start to jack the a arm back up so it can be placed back into the ball joint, this is the dangerous part as the spring will be compressed and could be flying,but as the spring is in the proper position it should not be flying. then the rest should be the reverse of the process, in my case i wont put the lower strut bolt right away since i still need to install my strut spacers in.

well i got my front lift kit installed this weekend, i dint used the coil sping compressor, i dint need them for jeff's kit. its only a 1.5" spacer, i am pretty sure a 2" spacer can also be install without the coil spring compressor with the stock coil springs. i just put a jack under the a-arm, removed the 2 lower strut bolts,axle c clip,tie rod and ball joint nut. after all was removed i just lowered the jack and simply removed the coil spring with a finger lol. for instaling the spacer, i just slide in the spacer into place with grease inside it so it slides in all the way in (and will help with the truck weight on it to get all the way in i guess), the i put the top of the coil spring first then slide the bottom into place with the help of a small bar to pry it in (can be done by hand even) then i took off the strut off to install the strut spacers, in my case only one of the top strut bolt came off nice, as the rest of the 6 (both sides) the strut has striped and was turning in the mount. so we took the rest off with the welder, drill bits and a cutting disk lol. after the strut spacer was in, i simply jacked the a arm again t'ill it jacked up the jeep off the jack stand then instaled the knukcle and tie rod and as well as the ball joint nut.

maybe on a grand vitara it be different as they have v6 engine and the coil spring are stiffer or maybe longer, but on a 4cyl vitara you dont need them, but you have to be very carefull, keep in mind that spring can fly off wen jacking it back up the a arm, but with the spring seat so high i cant see it flying.

heres a few picture of it, i still need to get it ligned up and i have installed used 225/75/16 goodyears dura trac tires, i love them alot, they have kinda like waves inside the lugs to help to clear mud and snow of not to stick so much

I like those tires as well. Looks awesome!!!

final thoughts and tips--->

wile doing this job, its a great time to check your front end and brake parts for wear and tear, will be a great time to replace a few parts as most will be taken apart for the lift, put all your bolts in a cup, in my case i have used the hub center caps. the cleaner is the area, make it easier to find tools,less things to walk into and makes the work faster and easier, organizing the tools is great to do too as you wont be spending a 5 min to search for a 17mm socket or a extension...

for me the biggest issue i had installing them was the strut tower bolts, the stud has stripped and was a bitch to remove. i needed a welder to weld in the studs and even so it dint work well, the dremel rotary tool and a grinding tip have done the job well after grinding the stud heads off. 

wen you remove these 3 bolts for the strut tower to allow the new supplied ones, note that there is a tab to remove also, make sure this tab goes back were it goes,they are there to locate the top holes for the strut bar, i forgot about it and wen i dropped the jeep down and pooped the hood to install the strut bar, the tower holes dint match up lol. so i had to remove the 3 bolts again and rotated it t'ill it ligned up,lucky enough i dint need to remove the tires for this fix

for the strut spacers i have put in sum grease inside of it and on the lower part of it, so that it would help for future removal.

wen installing the rear spacers, check for handbrake cable and brake line play, in my case i had to remove a handbrake bracket on the passenger side to give it sum slack wen it was flexing downward, just one bolt to remove to fix it.

wen bolting in the lower bolts for the struts after installing the lift... make sure to push the top of the spindle as far you can towards the motor, it will greatly help the front wheels of not looking like this \--/ it will still be off a bit but at least it will wear off your tires less driving to the shop. cleaning the top of the spindle and the lower part of the strut (were is the 2 mounting holes) of rust and dirt will allow you less work to push it far and make it easy to slide it back in.

finally, after driving a few miles, just take a rachet and tight up the strut tower bolts again, just in case, mine did came loose a bit after it has settle down (just a hair) and make sure to check your lug nuts too with a torque wrench at the same time.

I like those tires as well. Looks awesome!!!

the tires works awsome, a local shop suggest me these, they clean out amazingly well, can see the mud flying wen im not even stepping on the throttle.i will sure buy a new set in the future if i don't get a set of interco tires first for cheap lol