I purchased a calmini 3-inch suspension setup for my 4-door sidekick a few years ago and now my front struts are due for replacement. I'm interested in purchasing the Old Man EMU front struts which I understand has longer travel than stock struts / calmini struts.

I hope you guys don't mind answering these questions:

1. If I install the OME struts with the calmini 3-inch setup of mine, do I need to remove the calmini strut spacer because this might cause too much down travel and stress my CV joints if both are used at the same time?

2. If the calmini strut spacers should not be used, do I install the OME struts with the strut mounts in their regular position or should they be flipped?

Thanks!

With a 3" drop, I believe you need to run a shorter spacer. 3" spacer will for-sure be too much, and I don't know if there's enough additional travel in the OME to go 3" all the way back up to the stock location. I would suspect a 1.5" spacer would be ideal. I know people have run hybrid Calmini & OME kits before, so hopefully someone with practical (instead of theoretical) experience will chime in.

Here's some measurements in case they help you...

When I checked mine I found that I could only run the OME strut with a strut spacer of around 1" max. This is because the Calmini kit relocates the front wheel and diff resulting in the driveshafts being further extended than stock. Others have run the OME struts with the Calmini spacer, you would have to check your set up. There may be differences between driveshafts on some models, mine is a late (2000 model) first gen with 26 spline shafts. I believe that the GV shafts are slightly longer which would help.

So would an OME strut + flipped strut mounts do the trick?

You can run the OME struts and the Calmini Drop brackets however you will not have front wheel drive as soon as the struts extend all the way. The CV's are too short and there is to much angle at that degree of wheel travel. The inner CV will just pull apart.

You can run the OME's with the strut cap flip This pulls the CV's to the ragged edge but they stay together.

Just an update..

I decided to install the OME front struts with the calmini strut spacers because I had a 1.5inch spacer on top of the calmini coils.  So far so good.  I'll try to post pictures.  By the way, the OME runs great!  Far cry from my previous Bilstein front struts.  I should have made the switch a long time ago.

OME is THE GOODS. Totally better ride.

As promised, pictures of my setup:

Kiddo:


Front setup.  Hybrid OME strut with Calmini 3-inch suspension.  1.5 inch aluminum spacer with recessed grooves for springs.  Brandnew balljoint, tie rod, centerlink, front rubber strut support:


From behind.  Customized rear bumper with hitch provisions:


Rear suspension setup.  Using Bilsteins 5125 offroad shocks.  Great dampening.  Note the inverted shock setup to eliminate shockbody-axle contact:



Fabricated an upper-shock mount adaptor.  Opens the setup to a new set of shock models to choose from and no longer limited to the original upper mount configuration:


Thanks for looking!

That's the nicest 4door I've ever seen  Loving that rear bumper 

Very nice. I love the bumpers and the colors. The only problem is you should have used my coil and strut spacers!! 

We need some poser shots 

Here is a link to someone that had less strut length that what you decide to go with.  He broke three CV axles.  Like I said before you are probably going to have problems with your setup sooner or later. 

http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=24274.0

Thats a nice vitara, wiretap. Good job on it. It looks very nice. How much was the snorkle and that front aftermarket bumper?

Oh and, is there a difference between your year vitara and a sidekick of the same year?