Is it possible to put shocks instead of struts in the front of a 00+ Tracker? :-/

As you all may be aware of, I am the odd-ball   and am lowering my 4x4. But the place that sells "drop shocks"  I don't think sells struts. (They haven't emailed back yet)

If not I guess I'll just stick with the stock front struts till they start giving up and then get some stock size new ones.

get a strut book and look at the spec's you should be able to find a shorter one, I found shorter and longer shock's for my samurai!

With shocks that works, more or less find
the shock with the ends and the length you
need and your set. Struts on the other hand
are more application specific, take the SideKick
or Tracker, our current topic vehicle, and it has
a two bolt clamp wrapped around the base of
the strut, now this is not a standard mount,
or is it and if it is a standard mount, what
other cars (as mostly only cars use struts) have
the same lower mount, and which ones have
the upper stud in the same size and design?

This would become a nightmare investigation
to determine what, if any struts might be worth
getting.

My personal oppinion, other that lifting the vehicle
is to fabricate a set of drop upper strut mounts, or
a reverse tower design of what we build to move the
strut farther down, just move it up, I have no idea
what you plan on doing to the springs, but they were
not in question, now you should be able to move the
strut 2 or 3 inches and get the lowering your heart
desires. I can't believe I just wrote and encouraged
this abnormal behaviour  ........  

      it's a sad day when a 4X4 gets dropped.

:-/

OK I'm getting a set of 2.75" lowering springs. (One of my friends got them and he measured them at 3 1/4" in front and 3" in rear though.)

I want to replace the shocks and struts with shorter ones. Shocks don't seem to be a problem, but struts do.

Wildgoody... It's not a sad day. Just different! I'm using the 4x4 more like AWD in the snow, not for rock climbing. No place to do that here. And it costs too much for the equipment and body repairs.  Thanks for the advise too. I'll see what happens.

I know, I just got to raz the only guy here that's
doing it different, hey look at the flip side,
someday, I hope many years from now, your truck
might be one of the few left to have an intact
aluminum front axle houseing  

Darrin

Hey how would I go about making the reverse things you were talking about?

Do you mean something like move the mounting bolts on the strut or the car?

Hmmm didn't know they had aluminum housings. I'd still like to get a locker for the rear and maybe a 2low kit too.

Question
" Do you mean something like move the mounting bolts on the strut or the car? "

Answer
Yes

You will need to have access to, or a buddy with a welder, and know how to use it.
You need to remove the upper strut mount and make a pattern on paper
of the 3 bolt area and size, now move the pattern to the strut tower
on the trucklet, line up the drawn bolt locations to the holes in the tower,
now draw in the round opening, you will need 4 peices of these cut out of
1/4" or 3/16" plate steel. You should leave about 1/4" extra around the
drawing of the plate on the mount, this will give you some adjustment to
get the camber about right for your lowered condition.

You will have to pound out the studs in the rubber upper mount bushing,
all of these will be replaced with grade 8 nuts and bolts......Only Graded
hardware for your safety.

The lift, or drop as in this case    LOL , is adjustable, depending how long
the steel straps are cut, you need 6 of these, I would say if you want 3"
drop combine the total of the steel base and top plates, lets say you use
1/4"  plate this would be 1/2" and the straps need to be 2-1/2" to get 3"
total drop, BTW these strut mount spacers work equally well as lift or drop
spacers.  now weld the strap steel peices onto the upper and lower plates,
use 1-1/4" x 3/16" steel bar stock for the straps, hot rolled is fine.

get your graded bolts 1/2"Long x 5/16" Coarse thread, 12 of them,
3 top, 3 bottom, for both sides and lock washers, nuts, use blue thread
locker also on assembly, trust me, you don't want these comeing off.

sorry I don't have a pic of this spacer, the one I do have is of the old
design, and is solid pipe instead, which does work, just not as nicely.

Don't lowered it, LIFT IT!!!!!

Lowered 4x4 suck so much.

But is just my opinion, and i think that you are a very good guy too.

Fredo

I'm not sure why you need to replace the struts or shocks, they won't have any effect on the lift. As I see it the only issue could be the springs falling out when the suspension is on full travel. You would have to check to see if are loose at full drop when you fit them. In which case I think you would have to go with Wildgoody's suggestion at the front, you will at any rate have to find some method of correcting the camber. At the rear you could just tack weld or clamp the springs in place at one end

Well I don't NEED to change the shocks and struts but I thought that it might be a good idea.

The way some people were talking, it sounded like the shocks in the rear were too strong and making the rear bounce off the ground when they hit a bump.   They might be exagerating though.

Maybe I'll just get new shorter shocks and leave the front alone.

Have you asked Calmini about it? They use to sell lowering kits for the Kicks (maybe still do :-/) If you keep running a stock length strut in the front you could easily add a limiting strap to keep the suspension from droping to far with the shorter spring.
Zig

The kits that Calmini sells includes A-Arms so I think the stuts stayed the same. And they were only for the 89-98 Tracker/Sidekick not for the 99+