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Since I?ve just acquired another Suzuki but one that conveniently has a vitara engine as its heart. It is time to do rebuild and improve to my old soft top. Since I have nearly all the parts already, it hopefully shouldn?t take too long.
1985 NT soft top
1.6l EFI vitara
6.1 rockhopper
wt axles (this might change to lux axles yet)
front auto locker
rear cig
2? body lift
2? spring lift SPUA, RUF
rubber undecided but currently have 32? mongrels
this is going to be nsw registered.
Currently dismantling the two vehicles and filling the shed with parts
QUESTION?
I am yet to contact an engineer about my plans. Can anyone recommend an engineer that they have dealt with while building their zook? I would like to deal with an engineer who has experience with modified suzuki?s as I believe this would prove easier in the long run. Or am I better off talking to an engineer who is more local to me, (for inspections and such) I know of an engineer in wagga (1hr away) but haven?t had any dealings with him.
Any ideas?
Last edited by Barathrum on Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I thought only the newer hilux axels were SPOA.
Older hiluxes with solid axels front and rear were still SPUA.
I could be wrong though....been awhile since I've owned a lux.
very carefully measure everything up before you do any work re the Hilux axles and SPUA. I think this will be quite difficult, especially with NT spring spacing - and personally, I would be surpriseed if breakage is a problem with even 32's and sierra diffs, if you are a resonably sensative driver.
I don't believe you can engineer tyres over 31" on sierra axles though, although it seems that 7.50 16's are OK.
Otherwise sounds like a sound build. Good luck with the engineer, (he might also have a problem with the locker stuff, but that can go in after cert.)
[quote="greg"] some say he is a man without happy dreams, or that he sees silver linings on clouds and wonders why they are not platinum... all we know, is he's called the stevie.[/quote]
My suggestion would be to go the hilux axles stright off the bat. Unless you already have the WT zook diffs there should be bugger all difference in price (if any). There will be more fabrication involved but worth it to get the extra strength.
Damo wrote:My suggestion would be to go the hilux axles stright off the bat. Unless you already have the WT zook diffs there should be bugger all difference in price (if any). There will be more fabrication involved but worth it to get the extra strength.
Second that! I wouldn't bother with zook diffs if I had the choise, think about the extra track as well.
[quote="STD CONSUMER"]haha, i'm tellin you, my camp was hard to find on Saturday night!
then i shared my bed with 2 second tom... [/quote]
i already have the wt axles. but i figure that if i'm going to do a full rebuild, i may as well do everything i want at once.
I have both a wt and nt chassis, the mongrels are of my current zook but i defiantly want to run some larger rubber than that, possible 34'+, but thats offroad only.
so would i be better off using the wt chassis because of the out boarded spring mounts? i was wanting to use the nt axles because of the in boarded spring mounts thus more clearance for big rubber and more flex since there would be more leverage acting upon the springs as a result of the track width. Although by using the lux axles and maybe lux springs I’ll have to fab new spring mounts anyway so it doesn’t really matter what I start with.
I'm currently building a rig on a NT chassis with MQ patrol diffs. If i had started with a WT chassis i would have saved countless hours modifing it to WT width.
Make some measurements of your diffs vs chassis and work out which one is easier to use.
Wouldn't the tyre rub on the spring before the chassis?
[quote="Harb"]Well I'm guessing that they didn't think everyone would carry on like a big bunch of sooky girls over it like they have........[/quote]
I have run the 34" Swampers on both NT and WT diffs and haven't had issues with tyres rubbing springs as I had offset rims with the NT. By shifting the spring pads on the wt to suit the NT chassis you will get more wheel travel and less chance of spring rubbing as the springs are further inboard when mounted on the NT. Now depending on how you drive and the terrain you drive the stock axles can hold up to big tyres, low gears and lockers. i am fairly gentle on the go pedal and the Vic terrain is mostly muddy so there is not huge amounts of traction compared to just rock crawling with high traction surfaces
vitarajim wrote:Wouldn't the tyre rub on the spring before the chassis?
that's what i was more concerned about. hence trying to keep the springs as far in as i can possibly can. I will measure some lux diffs over the weekend.
grimbo wrote:Now depending on how you drive and the terrain you drive the stock axles can hold up to big tyres, low gears and lockers. i am fairly gentle on the go pedal and the Vic terrain is mostly muddy so there is not huge amounts of traction compared to just rock crawling with high traction surfaces
here in the snowys we've got both mud and a limited amount of rocks. i imagine that its fairly similar to vic but without quiet as much mud. even though i haven't had any problems with my current zook drivetrain, with gearing and lockers, i think i want the extra strenght of the lux diffs and it should make it easier for spares as a couple of my mates run luxs
like Grimbo just said !!
go with the NT chassis , & run with the standard spring mounting positions !! ( apart from the front , which will have an x-tension !!)
MissForbyNoob wrote:
and one day i'll just become a worthless housewife.
some photos of my progress.
I haven't really done much apart from start to strip down my donor car. so that i can use the engine, axles and a few other parts.
bigsteve wrote:If you go to lux axles you sellin those globe mags??
yes i would be.
but i'm gonna stay with the WT's untill i start breaking stuff regularly. or when its time to replace my mongrels for something bigger, and if the bigger rubber that i decide to run is bigger than 34".
I finally got a couple of days off work . time too start pulling the old soft top apart for it transformation. my donor wide track is now fully apart and most of it is out of my shed so i've finally got some room to pull the other apart.
No more wheeling for a while all the more reason to get it done.
Ok time for a little update.
Like all good project mine has taken some evolutionary steps, and is now going to end up nothing like what I started out to achieve in the beginning.
It will now be a TRAILER QUEEN.
New Specs:
1.6 16v EFI
6:1 Rock hoppers
Overkill Suz-Ana Front
Stock Vitara Rear
Hilux springs in the front
Probably Hilux IFS Rear springs in the rear(still to decide)
And sorry to the vic boy’s it will be SPOA.
lookin good, i did my chassis extension the same way but also braced the box section back to the factory tube cross member with some 3mm thick steel strap then sleeved the factory tube cross member with another tube inside.
If you're going lux springs you'll also need to move the hanger back along the chassis. One of the guys in the club has done this on his car.
He's parting it out at the moment, you could save some work and just buy his chassis and springs if you need them.
[quote="Harb"]Well I'm guessing that they didn't think everyone would carry on like a big bunch of sooky girls over it like they have........[/quote]
Barathrum wrote:Ok time for a little update. Like all good project mine has taken some evolutionary steps, and is now going to end up nothing like what I started out to achieve in the beginning.
It will now be a TRAILER QUEEN.
New Specs: 1.6 16v EFI 6:1 Rock hoppers Overkill Suz-Ana Front Stock Vitara Rear Hilux springs in the front Probably Hilux IFS Rear springs in the rear(still to decide) And sorry to the vic boy’s it will be SPOA.
cool what size tyre u plan to run?
what wb u aiming for?
Last edited by redzook on Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I've allready got some springs, also the mounts are made and ready to weld on. Also doing a shackle reversal on the front.
sierrajim did you what did you do with the rear? did you relocate the spring mount locations aswell. i will just have a tube back so i'm looking at stretching my wheelbase as much as i can, possible by extending the rear of the chassis aswell.
looking at getting the wheel base out to about 90" if i can. may take a bit of work with the rear.
tyre size will be around 37", still unsure on what brand of tyre.
u should get 90 easily i have mine at 86.5 can still go another 3 and thats with the stock fixed spring mounts
excellent i might even go a bit further. i will have the front mounted by this weekend, then it will be time to work out the rear and to see how far the wheel base will actually go.
sierrajim wrote:i moved the rear diff about 4 inches further back than factory by relocating the mounts.
I just used a second chassis, cut it up and used the bits that i needed.
i hadn't really considered cutting up my second chassis. i was going to keep it for some reason, i just was sure for what. but i'll start looking at it from a different angle now.
Better do that after engineering 
all the more reason to get it done.
