Yeah I have wheeled the poop out it and nothings broke yet. But I have stock gearing and open frint and rear. I'm surprised myself actually.
I was also wondering / do you think?....
that 1 its harder to turn the front wheels with that kind of cv angle?
Is it harder to engage the front?
what on the freeway one of though cvs decide to give? Byebye rig and driver?
I would like to lower the diff obviously
But I still need the diff drop brackets dimensions so I can fab up some or have somebody do it

do you have manual hubs? looks like it since your boots aren't all shiny from rubbing themselves up like mine do because of my drive flanges. with manual hubs unlocked you probably don't really have to worry but I'm not 100% sure, it's when they are locked that you have to worry.

Nope I got automatic hubs. So far they have worked great, no rubbing either

well, since they disengage unlike my stupid drive flanges you are probably disengaged quite often so it's probably saving your CV's.. but the wheeling they have withstood just makes them seem like tough little bastards.

boondox makes a lift kit for kicks that has axle drop brackets. If you contact them you may be able to get just the axle drop brackets and take care of those CV angles

I think the site is: www.boondoxmotorsports.com

Thanks, I sent them an e-mail and they said within a couple weeks they will have them for-sale on their site in a couple of weeks. There is a site in Japan I belive that sells track/kick parts; but they want 130 $ with shipping just for the 2 drop brackets!!!!!!!! I went whelling the other night and my c.v.s. are still fine. Weird. I am probally pushing my luck though.

Hi magicat,

Finally getting back to you. The brackets I fitted are modified Calmini drop brackets. You can make your own if you wish. Just unbolt the two front brackets at the diff end and let the diff "hang" ( you may need to pull it down a bit ). Get your CV angles to a point you are happy with. Then get some cardboard and make some templates that match the whole lot up. Get some 6mm steel plate and cut and drill to your template. Then bolt it all together. You can use the original drop brackets and adapt it all to bolt up.
Just use your imagination. I made my own this way years ago - way before Calmini days. I think my home made ones dropped the front diff about 1 3/4" - 2".

I suggest you do this sooner than later. Those CV angles are not good at all.

Good luck.

ZeusZuki.

Thanks, I think I will try that. It doesn't seem that bad; I guess!

that really makes me want to make my own diff drop brackets when I lift my zuk someday. It's going to be a while because of collgege but someday I'll ift it.

It might be a stretch but I was thinking about making my own control arms that are even more of an upgrade than calmini.. longer, shaped different, I don'tknow, I'd have to figure out what works best. Maybe someday even make it dual control arm.. that wouldn't be for a long long while though

Yeah, I really don't know where to go next with the kick. I don't have the fab skills to do all the trick stuff. I just tool a 60 mile trip on the freeway and I hated how it drove. It's scary in the hihgway. I stayed at 55 the whole time. It seems to almost have bump steer or something? It always drifts and wanders. I was thinking of flipping the tie-rods; but heard this is not good for on-road driving. Why? The tie-rods would be almost parallel instead of being slanted; right? I'm definitely not a mechanic or suspension expert.

on really rutted roads my GV grabs everything and just goes everywhere, it's really hard to drive on rutted roads and it's stock, I think it's just a track/kick/escudo/vitara thing. Unless you were doing that on a smooth road, I can freaking haul on a smooth road and it's tracks great, it's the ruts that get scary. I know it's alighned because if I let go of the wheel on a smooth road it goes stright so.. guess ruts are just complete crap for use 1st and 2nd gen kick owners

This is jus tyour normal interstate. Pretty flat!
Overall it feels very unstabe at speeds above 40 - 50 mph? Maby I need to drive a sammy with a spoa to get a real comparasion.

Maroon - I agree, the GV's are S :-XT compared to the earlier Vits. I suspect it all comes down to a mismatch between the arc the "A" arms follow and the arc the "drag links" follow causing the wheels to toe in and out as the suspension cycles . Oh well - I do enjoy the 2.5 V6 power though . Probably helps being a manual too.

Magiccat - Check your steering geometry. Especially your toe setting. I set this at about 2-4mm toe in if you are running around 31 inch tyres. This is about all you can adjust easily - the rest requires some fiddling around with mounts etc ( a PITA if you do not know what you are doing - in fact if you do not understand how everything interelates then start reading BEFORE you adjust anything ). My experience is a properly lifted Kick / Vit drives as good as stock if not better.

My old Kick / Vit that was built about five or six years ago - sat on 33 inch Wranglers.
ZeusZuki.

your old kick is awesome. The only thing I like less about a 2nd gen vit compared to a 1st gen other than some of the styling is the 5 link on a 2nd gen is reatarted since they already had a nice 3 link that rode just as nice and didn't have the panhard bar complications.. makes no sense to me but I do really like my 2.5, it gets up and goes for what it is. I've kept up with a lead footed ram 2500 cummins driver that had stacks.. th ink he could have wasted me if he would have given it everything but I was still very proud because he was on it pretty good.

don't the 1st gen vits have the exact same suspension up front with a different control arm? I would think they'd ride about the same. Maybe when I lift it someday it will drive nicer, everyone seems to say they ride much better lifted