When I was playing with adding the coil spacers on the -7, I was able to collapse the front strut by hand rather easily. In comparison, the rear has gas shocks as they expanded on their own.
Am I to assume the front struts to be bad since I was able to collapse them and they stayed that way?

Are they gas charged?

Anyway, just do the bounce test.  Get the fron end bouncing, then stop and count how many times it keeps bouncing.

2-3 -- their ok.

3-4 --  Maby

4 or more replace them.

Lastly, how does it drive?  Do you hit a bund and the front end keeps bobing up and down?  Or does it cycle once and stop?

I say someone drivng a motorcycle with bad rear shocks the other day.

I don't know how he stayed on the bike?  He would hit a bump (60mph) and the bike would bounce for the next 1/2 mile?

Nothing like that at all. It does lean quite a bit in turns as I have the sway bar removed. Hand bouncing is limited so it passes there. There is some stretch of road near work where the rear tends to oscillate but I think it's the speed and the waves in the road.
As for gas charged, stock XL-7, don't know.

Bad struts usually have oil leaking
from the top, and the gas has leaked
out, no bounce and no oil leak, probably
a non gas charged strut.

Wild

My struts will not stay extended when thay go bad. New ones are shiped with a bracket holding the partially colapsed. If they are good they should automatically extend to full length if just sitting on the workbench. My blown ones would sink to full or partial colapse if sitting upright on the bench.

Zig

The stock struts on mine were only damped one way. The aftermarket replacements had those little brackets and were damped both ways. If you can't feel any resistance in either direction then they're shot.

Hey Jag, I just went back back to my stock struts on a Calmini lift because the struts from Calmini were so damn noisy. Creaked and groaned all the time. OK but anyway, the stockers are only damped one way, if you pull them out to extend them you'll notice they slide right back in, but if you try to push them fast the resistance is great. I had questions myself about them and the Suz tech I spoke with called them passive. So I guess they are not active until acted upon or something like that.

By the way if you have any questions about getting those spacers on I may be able to help ya out. I have had the front springs of quite a few times and have some tips if you like.

The stock struts were more difficult to pull up into position, than to push down to get out of the way. I removed the upper bracket cup, secured the strut to this, then raised this into position, secured it in place, then added the strut brace. That wasn't too bad. This is how I saw that I could adapt the Trackick upper bracket with some flat plate to the Vitara's upper bracket and still keep the strut brace.

When you say Track/Kick bracket, You mean to make it kinda like a strut spacer? For when you get the spacers in it will have more travel?

On the strut, that is the way these OEM struts work. I was told everything was fine with mine so I guess it is right. When I am doing stuff with front end I took and marked my struts and bracket (I have the EZcam bolts still in) and find it easier to remove the bracket bolts than to remove the strut cup. I noticed in your pics as well that when dropping the A arms you didn't remove the axle. On the passenger side you will for sure want to at least get the circlip off so when you drop the A arm it doesn't pull your CV joint ring out. I had that happen to me. Had to pull the boot and reposition the balls in the CV housing. PAIN IN THE ARSE . . .

Anyway, I have the FSM for our truck if you need any torque settings or the like. I would be happy to copy and fax pages to you if you need them as well to get those front spacers on.

When you say Track/Kick bracket, You mean to make it kinda like a strut spacer? For when you get the spacers in it will have more travel?

No, the smaller Trackick strut bracket will fit into the cup of the Vitara strut bracket. The mounting studs are off enough clearing the use of a flat plate. Using a thick plate on top of the Trackick strut bracket, bolting the strut to it, then bolting this to the bottom of the Vitara strut bracket, I'll be able to use the Vitara strut bracket in the stock location as well as the strut tower brace.
IIRC, the compressed length of the -7 strut was 14" from bottom of threads to top bolt in bracket.

On the strut, that is the way these OEM struts work. I was told everything was fine with mine so I guess it is right. When I am doing stuff with front end I took and marked my struts and bracket (I have the EZcam bolts still in) and find it easier to remove the bracket bolts than to remove the strut cup. I noticed in your pics as well that when dropping the A arms you didn't remove the axle. On the passenger side you will for sure want to at least get the circlip off so when you drop the A arm it doesn't pull your CV joint ring out. I had that happen to me. Had to pull the boot and reposition the balls in the CV housing. PAIN IN THE ARSE . . .

I didn't get that far to even consider the passenger side, thus I'm looking for the bearing nut socket (Suzuki wants $165!!!). My driver's side axle was disconnected at the coupling at the axle housing to help with the droop. I'm an edumicated angenier and should figure this out.

Anyway, I have the FSM for our truck if you need any torque settings or the like. I would be happy to copy and fax pages to you if you need them as well to get those front spacers on.

Thanks. I have the FSM for the 03 Vitara. It's funny on how the book calls for taking the shafts out of the diff and then pulling it out of the back of the knuckle for the passenger side. Same thing on driver's side with disconnecting it. I'm guessing the cv is bigger than the opening in the knuckle.

When I do the passenger side I just take the circlip and trust washer off and release the strut from the bracket, tie rod, and sway bar and it will drop clean away. The way I got spring back in with the spacer was to use pry bar as kindof a ramp. I laid back on the garage floor, put the pry bar resting under the spring and on top of spring seat. Then kicked it in with my foot, rotated it to the correct position and jacked the a arm up with my floor jack. The drivers side was actually harder to get seated than the passenger side. The spring would have such bend in it when I kicked it up, it kept wanting to pop off the seat, I got my son to come out and while held it in with leg he started jacking to take some of bow out of the spring. I tried spring compressors as well at the start, they didn't work very well at all. So I went to pulling everything apart. I found it was much easier in the end when I told myself that was what had to be done, rather than messing around all day with the compressors, however . . . once the spring is out you could line up the compressor much better and get a straight pull out of it. The only problem with it was, it was then hard to remove them without unseating the spring in the lower seat. Damned if do . . .

Anyway, just some tidbits for ya. You seem to have everything you need though, so I'll leave ya to it. Good luck, take some pics . . .

almost forgot, I also remove the brake calipers and hang those up by the top hose line.