Faux door

[JR4X]

It doesnt look as tall as I thought it would. Good to know it was money well spent!

Same. I think the 4 1/2” claim is a bit skewed. AE might be fudging their numbers because of moving the front tires forward allowing for bigger tires with the same amount of lift. Calmini claims 2 1/2”. The front diff can’t be dropped any further than it is without cutting the cross member. Hard to compare old pics to new pics but my first post after installing the calmini lift I said it was 4 actual inches, not 2 1/2. Then I proceeded to murder those coil springs.

 

[JR4X]

Best pics I have showing how squished down the ol Calmini springs had become vs now

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Nice!

That Calmini upper a arm kit is really cool, too bad they suck so much cock. Altered ego should just reverse engineer it, fuck em

 

[JR4X]

Nice!

That Calmini upper a arm kit is really cool, too bad they suck so much cock. Altered ego should just reverse engineer it, fuck em

I don’t trust them but now that they are on the radar I wonder if they have to fill orders if they take money. I saw the owner in Moab weekend before last, didn’t talk to him. The uniballs were shot when we tore it apart. I didn’t understand uniball language so we tried to source them through calmini, that was a real quick dead end. Had to dig deep and learn how to identify them and once I did I found them at Kartec for $11 bucks a piece.

 

[FleshEater]

Have you driven this enough to really settle the suspension? If so how is it now?

Really thinking about splurging on this for my 4 door.

 

[JR4X]

Have you driven this enough to really settle the suspension? If so how is it now?

Really thinking about splurging on this for my 4 door.

What little I have driven it I’m a fan. It rides way better than the crapmini stuff.

I haven’t had time to correct a mistake yet though, put it together slightly incorrect. After you mentioned that it wasn’t as tall as you thought it would be I got to digging further into it because I agreed. It’s sitting lower in the front than in the rear. It’s because I put the lower ball joint on the wrong side of the A-arms. On the calmini suspension the BJ went on top. On the the altered ego the BJ’s are supposed to be on the bottom of the arm. Looks like about an inch difference if I flip the the right way, and I’m going to because I want that inch.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

What little I have driven it I’m a fan. It rides way better than the crapmini stuff.

I haven’t had time to correct a mistake yet though, put it together slightly incorrect. After you mentioned that it wasn’t as tall as you thought it would be I got to digging further into it because I agreed. It’s sitting lower in the front than in the rear. It’s because I put the lower ball joint on the wrong side of the A-arms. On the calmini suspension the BJ went on top. On the the altered ego the BJ’s are supposed to be on the bottom of the arm. Looks like about an inch difference if I flip the the right way, and I’m going to because I want that inch.

Thats what she said

 

[JR4X]

Back in love with this little thing. First trip out with the new springs and a-arms. Totally kicked ass. I went by myself to run my local mountain pass, I’m pretty confident the tracker and myself are the first and currently only ones over the mountain. Even running solo I hit the snow drifts that nobody had tried yet. Only got stuck in one drift but was easily able to winch my way out to keep going. Found a tree definitely nobody had been past yet. Made it to 10,400 ft

Ride is absolutely better than what I had been suffering through the last couple of years.

 

[Byro]

I really need to get mine in the shop and build some arms. Get all fancy with some uni balls and high clearance arms. The front of mine rides like shit, that coupled with no power steering, you learn quick to keep your thumbs out of the wheel.

 

[JR4X]

I really need to get mine in the shop and build some arms. Get all fancy with some uni balls and high clearance arms. The front of mine rides like shit, that coupled with no power steering, you learn quick to keep your thumbs out of the wheel.

I need to re-arrange my wheel spacers with the new wheels. I’ve now got to much scrub radius and it makes it able to rip the wheel out of my hands. Definitely thumbs out.

 

[Byro]

I need to re-arrange my wheel spacers with the new wheels. I’ve now got to much scrub radius and it makes it able to rip the wheel out of my hands. Definitely thumbs out.

Your running aftermarket wheels and spacers?

I’m on the factory wheels and 1.25” spacers, driving it like the big Jeep and just smashing stuff doesn’t help though.

 

[JR4X]

Your running aftermarket wheels and spacers?

I’m on the factory wheels and 1.25” spacers, driving it like the big Jeep and just smashing stuff doesn’t help though.

I ran stock wheels for the first set of UTV tires. Since those have giant side lugs the tires were hitting the upper a-arm. I had to run 2” spacers up front and 1 1/4” in the rear. Now I’ve got the black wagon wheels and they have less back space.

So I’m going to take the 2” spacers off the front. Put the 1 1/4”s from the rear on the front and run no spacers in the rear.

 

[FleshEater]

Man that thing looks good.

Is that an auto?

 

[JR4X]

Man that thing looks good.

Is that an auto?

No it’s a 5 speed manual, I’ve got the 4.24:1 t-case gears in it. Got my wheel spacers done and now it’s a lot easier to steer again.

 

[JR4X]

Took the father in law and two chainsaw’s up and cut the tree into pieces to get the trail cleared. Around here the SXS homos will make illegal bypasses and that gets trails shut down. So as soon as we find them we cut the tree and put the pieces on the illegal bypass. The trail crews won’t get up there till late June and the SXS guys will ruin it for everyone by then. That was a huge tree, the smallest cross cut we made a 24” bar wouldn’t get all the way through in one pass.

 

[JR4X]

Finally had a couple hours to myself so I flipped the ball joints to the bottom of the a-arm. Apparently I’m bad at math because it raised the front two inches. Looks a lot better and is now level. Now it’s got a running issue, dropping a cylinder at low rpm and not picking it back up till between 2000 and 3000 rpm. Check engine light flashing. Gonna have to do some diagnosis like compression test. Pic doesn’t look much different but in person at least the placebo effect makes it look drastically taller up front, when you compare these two pics I think I can see it.

 

[Alex]

What do you have on there for air filtration? I'd be willing to bet the valves are tight.

 

[JR4X]

What do you have on there for air filtration? I'd be willing to bet the valves are tight.

Stock filter, never adjusted the valves. I pulled the spark plugs and found them in bad need of replacement. .077/.080/.078/.082 was the plug gaps I found. Didn’t have new ones so I gapped them to .035 and put them back in. It definitely ran better but still not right. Needs plugs and wires, valves adjusted, etc. the neglectomatic tracker isn’t going to let me neglect it no more.

 

[Alex]

Have you done the timing belt and water pump on it yet? Might be time to do that with the rest of it. Rockauto to the rescue! 😂

 

[JR4X]

Have you done the timing belt and water pump on it yet? Might be time to do that with the rest of it. Rockauto to the rescue! 😂

After finding the plugs in that bad of shape I realized I haven’t done anything to this one. Thought I had memory of doing the general maintenance stuff on it but this isn’t my first white four door. Must have attributed it to a previous rig. This one has champion spark plugs and I’d never put champions in it on purpose.

 

[Byro]

Check the dizzy gear. One of my buddies 16v’s was a dog on the bottom, ended up being some broke teeth on the drive gear.

 

[2big bronco]

Now that you spent all the money's have you seen this stuff? The 3" kit seems like a decent deal for 1000euros

Suzuki Vitara | 4xFourART

4x4 Suzuki Specialized off-road parts and kits production with precise engineering for Suzuki Vitara

www.4xfourart.com

 

[JR4X]

Now that you spent all the money's have you seen this stuff? The 3" kit seems like a decent deal for 1000euros

Suzuki Vitara | 4xFourART

4x4 Suzuki Specialized off-road parts and kits production with precise engineering for Suzuki Vitara

www.4xfourart.com

I have seen that, but the import tax on that shit is a deal breaker. Have you looked into it? I tried to get the 5.85 gears and it was gonna be an extra 1000 bald eagles on top of the list price to get it here. I would like to give one a shot.

 

[2big bronco]

I have seen that, but the import tax on that shit is a deal breaker. Have you looked into it? I tried to get the 5.85 gears and it was gonna be an extra 1000 bald eagles on top of the list price to get it here. I would like to give one a shot.

I havnt looked into it at all, actually just saw it on a fb group for the first time.

 

[Byro]

I have seen that, but the import tax on that shit is a deal breaker. Have you looked into it? I tried to get the 5.85 gears and it was gonna be an extra 1000 bald eagles on top of the list price to get it here. I would like to give one a shot.

What’s the conversion from bald eagles to crumpets or whatever currency they’re using?

The kit looks pretty sweet, I like the high clearance rear arms. And man some 5.85 gears would be legit.

 

[JR4X]

So I did the bad thing. Ran the original timing belt till it jumped time. Got lucky and It didn’t clack pistons into valves. But it for sure jumped time.

I’ve changed the water pump and timing belt on a 16V on the engine stand before sticking it into a samurai but not done one in the car. Will it take a special puller to get the balancer off? Gotta pull the radiator obviously?

 

[Byro]

You don’t need a special puller if you break all the plastic on the lower timing cover and slip the belt over the crank pulley.

 

[FleshEater]

So I did the bad thing. Ran the original timing belt till it jumped time. Got lucky and It didn’t clack pistons into valves. But it for sure jumped time.

I’ve changed the water pump and timing belt on a 16V on the engine stand before sticking it into a samurai but not done one in the car. Will it take a special puller to get the balancer off? Gotta pull the radiator obviously?

You could do it without pulling the radiator. 5 bolts and the crank pulley/balancer falls off.

 

[Bebop]

You don’t need a special puller if you break all the plastic on the lower timing cover and slip the belt over the crank pulley.

What in the actual fuck ?
The crank pulley is held by bolts...

JR4X remove the fan and shroud and there is room to do it without removing anything else.

 

[JR4X]

What in the actual fuck ?
The crank pulley is held by bolts...

JR4X remove the fan and shroud and there is room to do it without removing anything else.

Gracias. I think I did the front main seal while I had the whole front off of one way back. Is it supposed to take something a little special to get the other crank cog pulley off to do that? Something in my ol memory files remembers having to rent a pos puller from a parts house. And I have a big selection of generic pullers.