I am sorry I know Calmini have some involvement with this site but their attitude to customers sucks.

I live in Australia and after discussion with the so called sales department more like antisales department my local 4x4 shop ordered a RockCrawler for my 2004 Automatic Transmission V6 XL7 through an Austalian importer and guess what when it arrived it did not fit, a call to sales from the local dealer and guess what he was told "sort it out yourselves!!!"

This follows a most unsuccessful suspension kit purchased by a friend here who has had to have it modified locally with strut spacers to achieve  anything like the 2.5 inch lift promised.

The arrogance  of Calmini is unbelievable 'fix it yourselves!"  additionally the only people that will speak to the public are from sales and they don't understand technical issues.

Why do folks put up with an organisation like this?

Has anyone actually fitted a Calmini Rock Crawler to an XL7, right now we are stuck with $1700 worth of junk (one piece of billot steel though).

Grrr! Calmini #|removethispart|@%#!!!!!!!!!  

I am sorry I know Calmini have some involvement with this site but their attitude to customers sucks.

I live in Australia and after discussion with the so called sales department more like antisales department my local 4x4 shop ordered a RockCrawler for my 2004 Automatic Transmission V6 XL7 through an Austalian importer and guess what when it arrived it did not fit, a call to sales from the local dealer and guess what he was told "sort it out yourselves!!!"

This follows a most unsuccessful suspension kit purchased by a friend here who has had to have it modified locally with strut spacers to achieve  anything like the 2.5 inch lift promised.

The arrogance  of Calmini is unbelievable 'fix it yourselves!"  additionally the only people that will speak to the public are from sales and they don't understand technical issues.

Why do folks put up with an organisation like this?

Has anyone actually fitted a Calmini Rock Crawler to an XL7, right now we are stuck with $1700 worth of junk (one piece of billot steel though).

Grrr! Calmini #|removethispart|@%#!!!!!!!!!  

Yeah, the Rock Crawler t-case gears won't fit the xl-7 auto transmission... That's what I found out awhile back while doing my v6 swap. Your option, if you wish to have rockcrawlin' gears is to get a grand vitara auto transmission of the same year. They bolt up / plug in and have the smaller output shaft that you need. This is how my sidekick is put together. 2.7 XL-7 engine, 2.5 GV transmission, 1.6 Sidekick t-case.

-Eric

Hey thanks Eric your input clarified a few things and answered some questions we had been pondering.

More info than Calmeani supplied in 3 or 4 emails when I asked if they had a rockcrawler for a 2004 5 speed automatic XL7. Thanks again Eric.

As it happens we have sourced the gears in Australia and shortly I will have a V6 5 speed auto with low low gears, no thanks to the sales team at Calmeani!

Folks check every word Calmeani sales utter; those guys have not helped us one bit.

I was prepared to pay for quality but if it don't fit no mattter how well it's made its junk!!!

Why didn't they just say we don't make Rockcrawlers for XL7s in the first place instead of ripping us off and leaving us high and dry..

Not even the decency to reply to my emails .. grrr

I pondered the idea to go with the crawling gears from TT. These gears come directly from Japan. TT questioned and stated they have had no experience with their gears fitting and working in a XL7 (02 US model). I do have to see if my XL7 is Canadian manu'd or Japan manu'd. Maybe that will have something to do with it also.
To add, Whitfield did a little right up about adding TT crawler gears into his Sidekick. Nice set of pics along with it.

jagular7,

Wait a week or so and I will post an update on the result and some techie stuff. I think the gear manufacturer we are dealing with here in Oz did prototypes for a Japanese machine shop.

More later, cheers

some of the people at calmini are a-holes.  ive had bad experiences and ive heard of others who have.  

jagular7,

Wait a week or so and I will post an update on the result and some techie stuff. I think the gear manufacturer we are dealing with here in Oz did prototypes for a Japanese machine shop.

More later, cheers

Well

we have the gears made but need to machine an input shaft slightly to make it all a reality and right know we are having trouble getting a new input shaft from Suzuki in Oz. More when we solve the spares issue.

Yeah, the Rock Crawler t-case gears won't fit the xl-7 auto transmission... That's what I found out awhile back while doing my v6 swap. Your option, if you wish to have rockcrawlin' gears is to get a grand vitara auto transmission of the same year. They bolt up / plug in and have the smaller output shaft that you need. This is how my sidekick is put together. 2.7 XL-7 engine, 2.5 GV transmission, 1.6 Sidekick t-case.

-Eric

This maybe bringing up the dead....

But DANG Eric!

How'd you figure that one out?

~Nate

This maybe bringing up the dead....

But DANG Eric!

How'd you figure that one out?

~Nate

Do you really want to know?    

Many phone conversations, researching in the FSMs, and some rolling the dice. That's why it's called the bleadin' edge. Some stuff you just have to try and see if it works - Similar to when I bolted the 1.8 Sidekick Sport engine to a 1.6 8-valve 2WD transmission in my SJ410 project about 6 or 7 years ago. That worked. But when I tried to put the whole XL7 drivetrain into my Sidekick, the transmission output of the auto was a different spline count than my Calmini rock crawler t-case.   Then I remembered the Rainbow Warrior GVs that Calmini had made for ASMC back in 99 or 00. The auto had the crawler case and the 5 speed didn't. So, therefore, I knew that the GV V6 tranny would bolt to the Calmini rock cralwer gears and the 2.7 v6 is very close to the 2.5 in all dimensions.... Tried it... it worked... Very happy....

whew....

-Eric

We've got somebody here in town that has a lot of different Zuk parts laying around and he thought that that he could bolt up his kicker 3 case right up to the back of a 2.5 tranny, which I thought to be a great idea, but never knew that anybody pulled it off.

Thanks for the great info!

~Nate

(I knew that I should spend more time on the XL7 board.)