Gang,
Its been hashed around lots here and I'm in the market for gears for the old Sidekick.  I am looking for some consolidated answers.

What are people's opinions on the 2 big transfer case gear vendors.  Calmini and Rockroad.

My main considerations, in order, currently are.

Reliability;  It's gotta work.  The differences between 'welded' or 'billet' don't really matter to me as long as it works and stays working with my 33s and 5.83s.  "I don't need no stinkin broken gears"
Has anybody anything good or bad to say about their transfer case gears.  Don't forget to mention who's ya got.

Ease of installation;  I feel relatively comfortable with the idea of installing them myself.  However, Rockyroad offers the rebuild job for a bit more.  Did you install them yourself?  How were the directions?  Any advice or tips for the install?  Or did you have somebody do it?


Noise;  I don't HATE gear noise, but it sometimes can mask other problems.  Quiet gears are nice, but not a necessity.  How is your gear noise?

Cost;  They all cost about the same, within ~$200 bucks so this is my last consideration, and not heavily weighted.  But I would like to know what helped you decide who to go with.

Don't be afraid to give your piece of mind here.  Any other advice or tips would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks,
~Nate

 I dont know of anyone running the Rocky Road gears so I cant say but, I know of many trackicks running the Calmini gears with no problems yet. I have one of the first sets they had made with countless "abusive"   4 wheeling trips on it. I wil say they have a wine to them though. I contacted Calmini about it Immediately after I installed it to be sure I did it right and was told its because its a hardened gear made from billet (or something like that, I cant remember exactly) I just disassembled the T case about a month ago to install a new 2 low kit from Rocky Road. I took a close look at the gears after years of abuse and they still look great.  BTW the 2 low from RRO is a must. Its so kick ass. If your doing a 4to1 your almost there anyways. The 2 low kit only takes a few extra minutes. There will be a full write up next month on Zukiworld.  

Mike

I have the Rocky Road 4.16 gear set in my Sammy and they have performed flawlessly.  I did the install myself, which wasn't difficult at all.  The directions were good and everything needed came with the deluxe gear kit (shims, bearings, gaskets, etc.).  The gears are very quiet.  In fact, they are quieter than my stock gears were, and the only difference I can tell is the ratio change.  I am quite pleased with them.  The thing to watch is removing the bolts from the xfer case.  Soak them really well with penetrant (PB Blaster) for a day before you do the install.  I ended up busting off one of my bolts because it had corroded so badly.  Not fun trying to drill a steel bolt out of an aluminum case.  It only took me a couple hours for the complete job. It took longer to remove and install the case than it did to do the gear swap.

The only problem I had was that one of the gears was chipped when it arrived.  Rocky Road promptly replaced it, no questions asked.  Make sure you ask for the deluxe kit with the shims, bearings, etc. because they do sell just the gears alone.

   First off I have a samurai , should be about the same though , Im not sure ... The directions werent great but if you dont get in a hurry, and look over something ,its pretty easy ... I put mine together with one gear backwards so I didnt have 2 hi or 4 high only 4 low , I thought it was the shifting , I took it apart again put it back together, and it still didnt work ... so I thought either I done something wrong or they forgot to send me something , anyway I tore it back apart and looked at every little thing I put on , and it was so obvious that the gear was upside down ... I felt like and idiot ...
  Anyway the most complicated part , I think was the shifting rods , they are held in by spings a a steel ball be careful , when removing the rods the balls could fly out . I went to the suzuki dealership to get the rear seal for the t-case and they guy there gave me a digram of all the parts inthe transfer case and it showed me where those steel balls went .. I was glad even though I had already figured it out .  it gave me peice of mind ... I did lose one of the balls flew across my car port and bounced a few times , took 2 Hrs. to find it ...            
    Mine is a Calmin it makes no noise and I have more power now than I did before I got the big tires. made a big differance ... I had a friend that got one of those T cases with the 2 low and we went out rockcrawling one day and he couldnt get it to go into 4 low and he tried for about 30 minutes . come to find out they have a diff shift pattern than the regular one , and he didnt know it was diff ... thats the only trouble he had , and it was all in the shift pattern .
   If you need anything let me know and Ill help as much as I can ..    

I've got the Calmini gears.  I installed them myself.  Instructions are complete and easy to follow.  I selected Calmini because they had parts on the shelf and ready to ship.  There is a little gear noise when in the low range.  If this is important to you, perhaps you could find somebody in your area with the gears installed, ride along, and give it a listen.

Calmini 5.8:1 in the sammi. Everything was in the kit (no shims) went real smooth, no problems.  They whine alot in 2 or 4 wd. I also called about the whining and got the same story about 'hardened billet something or other'.  Also went the way of Calmini cause parts were there and ready to ship.  Not alot of abuse yet, but so far no problems or concerns.  

Thanks for all of the great replies guys!  

Sounds like my decision didn't get any easier.  *grin*  

How about the other Sidekick/Tracker guys.  Anybody else put gears in their transfer cases?

~Nate

I was looking at the prices on these gear sets and MAN! I can't believe what they are getting on them!   I ended up deciding on the RingR toyota case setup from SOS. Of course I also decided to do an SFA and yota axles as well, so why not!  

I was looking at the prices on these gear sets and MAN! I can't believe what they are getting on them!   I ended up deciding on the RingR toyota case setup from SOS. Of course I also decided to do an SFA and yota axles as well, so why not!  

Does anybody have any contact information for Suzuki Only Supply?  I saw an article on the Off-Road dot Com website called 'Samyota' where they made an adapter like OTT industries to marry a toyota transmission and transfercase at the bell housing of the sidekick motor.  I'd like to know the cost for that adapter.

Does anybody have any contact information for Suzuki Only Supply?  I saw an article on the Off-Road dot Com website called 'Samyota' where they made an adapter like OTT industries to marry a toyota transmission and transfercase at the bell housing of the sidekick motor.  I'd like to know the cost for that adapter.

You can get a hold of Kerry at 16ltoy|removethispart|@msn.com or # 607-274-SLOW. I have an email from him with the sales info if you want me to forward it. I don't seem to be getting notifications here, so send me an email at ekronsprint|removethispart|@earthlink.net. I can forward it to ya. The adapter is around $399, and the adapter for a 1.3l zuki (called the lucky 13) is $49 more.

 

How about the other Sidekick/Tracker guys.  Anybody else put gears in their transfer cases?

~Nate

I have been running the GRP Automotive 'Rockhopper' 4:1 for a few years now, and they have not given me any trouble at all. The bad part is that I do not know who sells their stuff here in the States. I got mine directly from Australia.
Zig

put the names in a hat and draw one......

From what Ive read thats the easiest way to make this choice.  

Good luck with your decision Nate.

Later,
Bill